"It is difficult to come by slave-girls in the present times, for the conditions required for lawful slave-girls are difficult to obtain now, and hence one cannot have and keep a slave-girl. If the custom of slave-girls obtains anywhere, it is not reliable without legal inquiry and to cohabit with them without marriage is not permissible. ‘Allamah Shami writes: ‘In our times the slave women secured as booty are not lawful slave women and copulation with them is not permissible because it is certain that the division of the booty is not done as it ought to be done, and hence the rightful claimants’ (the recipients of the 1/5 share—khums—and the rest of the warriors’) rights are ignored (and thus de jure possession is not proved for any slave woman)’ (Shami, vol. ii, p. 396). Lawful slave women are those who, having been captured in war and crusade (jihad), may have been included in the booty, and the amir, that is the Caliph of the Muslims or his vicegerent, after having brought them from the territory of war (daru’l-harb) to the land of Islam (daru’l-Islam), may have distributed them according to the law of the Shariah. Prior to her being brought to the land of Islam and distribution by the amir, the slave woman is not lawful for anyone, although the imam or the commander-in-chief may have announced that the captor of a slave woman will be her master, yet she shall not be lawful for the captor and victor before bringing her to the land of Islam. Where do these laws obtain anywhere in the period? According to the Islamic law of holy war the rule is that 1/5 part of wealth captured as booty from the enemy should be set aside to be given to the needy and the indigent like orphans and widows and the remaining four parts should be divided among the victorious soldiers; as long as the booty is not brought to the country, that is, the land of Islam, its division is not valid, and so long as it is not divided, it is joint property on which all have a claim; however, after the amir has divided it, the share of each will be lawful for the recipient. Even as a girl becomes lawful for the man with whom her guardian marries her and not before marriage, the amir is the slave woman’s guardian and whomever he makes her master for him she becomes lawful with certain conditions. If the master then sells her or gifts her away to anyone, she becomes lawful for the buyer or the recipient of the gift, as the case may be. Similarly, if a slave woman has continued being transferred from one inheritor to another she is even now a legal slave woman and the owner can keep her. But where is found such a slave woman today? Apparently such slave woman does not exist in the present times at least."