Who’s the Slave?
It’s been said:¹
العَبْدُ حُرٌّ مَا قَنِع وَالحُرُّ عَبْدٌ مَا طَمِع
A slave is a freeman, as long as he’s content,and a freeman’s a slave, as long as he’s intent.²
¹As quoted by Ibn Taimiyyah in Risālah Al-ʿUbudiyyah; similar lines have been attributed to Imām Al-Shāfiʿī (tr.)
²i.e., desirous, covetous, hoping to get something (tr.)