Human Rights in Islam - I

Human Rights in Islam

December 10 is celebrated as Human Rights Day and in many ways, the importance and necessity of human rights is stressed. Here the human rights given by Islam are sumarised.

Status of human beings in Islam:

Allah Ta'ala has made human beings the best of all creation (Ashraful Makhluqat) and has honored them with superiority over other creation. Allah Ta'ala says:

We have honored the sons of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favours, above a great part of Our Creation. Surah Bani Israil (17:70)

It is in the nature of human beings that they don’t like to live their lives under anyone’s thumb or control, because human beings are born free in this world and not as slaves to somebody. Allah Ta'ala has created them free.

The earth is the floor for them and the sky is the roof. The days are for earning one’s living and the nights for resting. They are given power over animals etc. Allah Ta'ala Himself has taken the responsibility of providing sustenance (Rizq) to everybody. For all these reasons, human beings want to lead free lives away from aggression and oppression.

Islam gives 6 basic rights to human beings:

1. Right of life.

2. Right of honor and dignity.

3. Right of wealth.

4. Right of children.

5. Right of earning a living.

Right of religion.

These are those basic rights through which a human being can lead a peaceful life in a society.

If these rights are explained in detail, then they will branch off in many more rights.

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) declared all human beings as equal. Thus, as a human being, no human being has any superiority over others. There is no discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, politics, wealth etc.

In an international Islamic system, all people at the local and international level, will have the right of life, right to education, right to vote, right to engage in business, right of ownership, right of marriage, right of expressing opinion, right to justice, right to demand rights and all other personal, social and economic rights.

The sermon in Hajjatul Wada’a starting point of human rights

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) has revoked all those customs and practices of the days of ignorance (Pre-Islamic days) which were based on aggression, barbarity, terrorism and all such inhuman practices and has declared them as untrustworthy.

He (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) freed humanity from the unjust systems of the days of ignorance and granted humanity the Islamic system, whose very basis is justice and peace, whose very objective is providing justice to the wronged, to attend to the pleas of the weak and the downtrodden and give their rights to people. In this eternal draft , the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) declared and granted those basic rights to human beings, which, let alone being given, had not even entered the thoughts of men. The great sermon of the Last Haj was the starting point for the Law of Human Rights. He (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) not only declared human rights, but also declared their implementation. In Madina and the whole Muslim state, this law was implemented.

After the II World War, when the wise realized the state of humankind, then for the first time, the idea of deciding human rights and according them was raised. Then based on this Islamic system of human rights, the declaration of international human rights was made. The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) had declared human rights more than 1300 years before the II World War.

Even after the acceptance of the declaration of human rights, superpowers still had many weak nations under their thumb and use the declaration to serve their own needs and make life difficult for those nations. In this way, the law which, as claimed by the intellectuals, was to accord human rights to others has itself become an instrument supporting barbarity and terrorism.

If the universal rights given in the Sermon of the Last Hajj are given legal status in the world, implemented and its violations are prosecuted, then aggression, oppression, etc, will vanish from this world and there will be such peace that it will be felt in each and every aspect of human life.

Watch this space for Part II in which the rights of each group and section of the society are explained