Art 4

I the LORD am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. (Exodus 20:2)

He abstains from the taking of life, merciful, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings. He lives not by stealth but by means of a self that has become pure. He speaks words worth treasuring, seasonable, reasonable, circumscribed. He abstains from damaging seed and plant life, abstains from accepting male and female slaves, and from goats and sheep. He abstains from mutilating, executing, imprisoning, highway robbery and plunder. (DN 11, Excerpts] (Instruction of Buddha in Kevatta Sutta)

And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith
the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman Hebrew Bible in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing today.
(Deuteronomy 15:12-15)

How couldst thou reduce human beings to servitude, knowing that they were born free on leaving their mother’s womb? (Omar ibn al-KhattHb to Amr ibn al-As: The Caliph writes to the Governor of Egypt (seventh century))

Whereas from the beginning nature created all men freely or free, and afterward the law of nations (jud gentium) subjected some of them to the yoke of servitude, we therefore judge that it would be a pious act and one to be deservedly rewarded by God to restore some of England those, whose deserts require it, to their pristine liberty. (Robert Mascall, Bishop of Hereford from 1404 to 1416)

لَّيۡسَ ٱلۡبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّواْ وُجُوهَكُمۡ قِبَلَ ٱلۡمَشۡرِقِ وَٱلۡمَغۡرِبِ وَلَٰكِنَّ ٱلۡبِرَّ مَنۡ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلۡيَوۡمِ ٱلۡأٓخِرِ وَٱلۡمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ وَٱلۡكِتَٰبِ وَٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ وَءَاتَى ٱلۡمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِۦ ذَوِي ٱلۡقُرۡبَىٰ وَٱلۡيَتَٰمَىٰ وَٱلۡمَسَٰكِينَ وَٱبۡنَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ وَٱلسَّآئِلِينَ وَفِي ٱلرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتَى ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَٱلۡمُوفُونَ بِعَهۡدِهِمۡ إِذَا عَٰهَدُواْۖ وَٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ فِي ٱلۡبَأۡسَآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ وَحِينَ ٱلۡبَأۡسِۗ أُوْلَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ صَدَقُواْۖ وَأُوْلَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلۡمُتَّقُونَ

Righteousness is not turning your faces towards the east or the west. Righteous are those who believe in God, the Last Day, the angels, the scripture, and the prophets; and they give the money, cheerfully, to the relatives, the orphans, the needy, the traveling alien, the beggars, and to free the slaves. (Quran 2:177)

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves: (Leviticus 25:39).

O, God do not give slavery, if you keep me in the slavery, take soul from my body. (Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.1380)

Business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison. These are the five types of business that a lay follower should not engage in. (Aṅguttara Nikāya. A.iii.208)