المعنى الاصطلاحي

Taking a female slave as a concubine by her master.

الشرح المختصر

"Tasarri" (concubinage) is that the master copulates with a female slave whom he owns under certain conditions that preserve her rights and dignity. To name some of these conditions: 1. Forbiddance of enslaving non-Muslim women except when taken as captives in the course of a legitimate war. 2. Forbiddance of seeking pleasure with the female captive except after the ruler grants a man ownership of her. 3. Forbiddance of having sexual intercourse with her except after her waiting period ends to ascertain that she is not pregnant. 4. Preserving and protecting her rights, such as supporting her financially, housing, protection, medical care, etc. From the purposes of "tasarri": 1. Protecting the female slaves from committing unlawful sexual intercourse. 2. Solving the problem of marriage for those who cannot afford it. 3. Protecting the society from plummeting into immorality. 4. It is a means by which slaves are manumitted and freed. Islam legislated that when a female slave bears the child of her master, the child is born free, and she becomes free after the death of her master, and she is not to be sold to anyone when her master is alive. The difference between "tasarri" and marriage is that "tasarri" is having sexual relation based on ownership (of a slave girl), while marriage is having sexual relation based on marriage contract.

التعريف اللغوي المختصر

"Tasarri": taking a "surriyyah", i.e. a female slave whose master takes to have sexual intercourse with. Derived from "sirr", which means sexual intercourse; also said to be derived from "suroor", which means joy and happiness, because this makes the man happy and because he puts her in a better situation than the rest of the female slaves.