CONCEPT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ISLAM.

 
About honouring the sons of Adam, it was said that man was honoured by reason, speech,
discernment, writing, foodly form, upright statures management of the affairs of this life and
the hereafter, and, also by controlling whatever is in the Earth and subjecting if to his food.  It
was also said that all creatures pick up their food by mouth except man.
Honouring human beings with reason and discernment came coupled with and explained by
Qur’anic verse:
“We have honoured the sons of Adam, provided them with transport on land and sea, given
them for sustenance things food and pure, and conferred on them special favours, above a
great part of our creation.” (17, al-Isra, 70).
Honouring of man (takrim-al-insan) covers his preference to other created things.  There are
other cretu4res like the angels, the jinn, the plants and the animals.  An argument about which
was highest in status before God: human beings or angels? God’s preference of Man over the
Angels, especially the verse that relates how the angels feel prostrate before Adam and about
their ignorance of the names taught to Adam by God.
 
The verse means that God created Adam and a ‘maltitude’ of other creatures besides him and
preferred him over all that multitude of other creatures.  Man alone, among all other creatures
mentioned in the Qur’an has a civilization dimension.  Man is the maker of civilization.  This
dimension in the human being is vital in this context, as it is the dimension which establishes
the concept of human rights.  Behold! We said to the Angels, “fall prostrate before Adam.”
(91-Isra).

The Right to Life and its enjoyment:

In talking about human rights, we have to note that the word ‘haqq’ in modern Arabic
discourse is a translation of French word ‘droit’ and the English word ‘right’.  And the
definite term al-haqq is used to mean God.  Among the most important considerations is that
inter-connection in meaning between ‘alhaqq’ (right) and ‘al-wajib (duty), Arabic haq
meaning right, is interconnected in its meaning with wajib / duty.  We find the concepts of
right and duty overlapping in Arabic language.  What is right for a person is a duty due to
him.  The ‘rights of God’ for instance, are the duties due to Him in the way of worship and
obedience, etc. Similarly, the ‘rights of man’ are the duties due to him in the forms of
‘honouring’.  It can be said that the rights of man in Islam are all material and moral duties
due to him, in accordance with God’s honouring and favouring him overall his creation.
There are two types of rights.  These are general rights, which are for all human beings, and
special rights, which are for certain categories of people, like the rights of the weak and
oppressed, the rights of women, the rights of non-muslims in Muslim Society etc.
The Rights of Man in General
The Right to Life:
From the Islamic perspective, life is a gift from God to man, so it is his right: ‘It is He who
gave you life, will cause you to die, and will again give you life’ (22, al-Hajj, 66).  God
honoured man by breathing into him some of His spirit and gave him the faculty of hearing,
sight and feelings:
He Who has made everything which He has created most comely.  He began the creation of
man with [nothing more than] clay, and made his progeny from a quintessence of despised
fluid; then he fashioned him in due proportion, and breathed into him of His spirit (ruh).  And
He gave you [the faculties of] hearing and sight and feeling [understanding] (32, al-Dajda, 7-
9).
Therefore, man’s life is his own right, which he has to protect physically and psychologically.
No one gas the right to harm man in body or soul.  It is for that reason that God prohibited
suicide, irrespective of circumstances: ‘Do not kill yourselves, for Allah has been most
merciful to you.  If any do that in rancour and injustice, soon We shall cast them into
fire’(4,al-Nisa, 29-30.  God also prohibited the killing of any human soul except for a just
cause: ‘Do not take a life, which Allah made sacred, except by right (illa bi-l-haqq).  And if
anyone is slain wrongfully, we have given his heir authority to demand retribution, but let
him not exceed in the matter of taking life’ (17, al-Isra, 33).  The killing of prisoners of war
and the mutilation of dead bodies was also prohibited.  In pre-Islamic Arabia some people
killed their children if they could not provide for them: ‘Do not kill your children for fear of
hunger.  We shall provide for them: ‘Do not kill your children for fear of hunger.  We shall
provide sustenance for them as well as for you.  Truly, killing them is a great sin’ (17, al-Isra
31).  God also prohibited female infanticide, which some pre-Islamic Arabs did for fear of
shame: ‘When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned, for what crime was she killed?
(81, Al-Tawkir, 8-9).  In addition, He prohibited putting an end to the life of the foetus
(abortion).  Islamic shari’ah considers abortion as premeditated murder, deserving the death
penalty.  God also prohibited execution of the death sentence on a pregnant woman until she
delivers her baby, because the foetus’s right to life should be considered first.  As a general
rule:
If anyone slays a persons, unless it be for murder or for spreading corruption in the land, it is
as though he has slain all who people.  And if anyone saves a life, it is as though he has saved
the lives of all people (5, al-Maidah, 32).
The punishment which specifies the execution of the criminal was greatly alleviated by Islam
to a degree of suspending the punishment when there is doubt around the case. The Hadith
says, ‘Avoid the hudud penalties in doubtful cases.’

The Right to Enjoy Life:

God granted life to the human being to live and to enjoy.  He subjugated to the human being
whatever is in it for his enjoyment and the fulfillment of his needs, except what may harm
him, or cause harm to other creatures, animate or inanimate.  The Qur’an terms what people
are allowed to enjoy as ‘the good things’, an expression which recurs often in various verses.
This covers all the permitted things, which are not prohibited by God.  They are the opposite
of ‘the impure’, which are prohibited.  Here are some of the many verses which deal with this
subject: ‘They ask you what [food] is lawful to them.  Say, lawful to you are [all] things good
and pure’ (5, al-Maidah, 4); ‘O you who believe! Do not make unlawful the good things
which Allah has made lawful for you’ (5, al-Maidah, 87); ‘Say, who has forbidden the beauty
of Allah which, He has produced for His worshipers, and the things clean and pure [which he
has provided] for sustenance? (7, Al A’raf, 32); ‘O you who believe! Give of the good things
which you have [honourably] earned, and of the fruits of the earth which We have produced
for you’ (2, al-Baqarah, 267); ‘And [He] made for you out of [your mates and companions]
sons and daughters and grandchildren, and provided for you sustenance of the best’ (16, al-
Nahl, 72).
Enjoying spouses, children and grandchildren, which is family life, is, like enjoying the
‘things good and pure’, a right of man, exactly like enjoying his good form and all that adds
to its glamour: ‘And He has given you shape and made your shapes beautiful, and has
provided for you sustenance of things pure and good’ (40, Ghafir, 64).  Also, ‘We gave them
for sustenance things good and pure’ (45, al-Jathiyah, 16).