Varieties of Approaches to Human Rights in Islamic Thoughts

Abstract

This study is to present survey and analyze the variety of the approaches to Human Rights in Islamic thoughts. They are inherent, unchallengeable and indivisible rights, thus every human is entitled by virtue of being a human-being. It has become a sophisticated field of inquiry in perspective of various religions and cultures and became a part of global ethics due to contemporary emphases on its importance. The discussion starts with the modern concept of the Human rights. Various theories related to this concept such as legal rights, moral rights, claim, entitlement, liberty, power, and immunity have been elaborated in this part. It is followed by an analysis of the development of Human Rights in Western thoughts. This part elaborates that the concept is rooted in historical events such as Magna Carta, French revolution, English Bill of Rights of 1688 and US Constitution in 1779. It also explains that the horrific events of the World War II forced the then world powers to include language of human rights in the 1948 Charter of United Nations from which international human rights regime emerged as Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. After that the discussion about evaluation of this concept and its classification in Islamic Jurisprudence is included. It also elaborates that Islamic concept of human rights (Haqq), the meaning of legal obligations emerged during the golden period of Islamic Law in early centuries of Islam on the bases of texts of the Holy Qur’ān; early Prophetic legislation and the rulings of the classical Muslim jurists. The milestone of development of this Islamic notion are Mīthāq-e Madīna and the Farewell Sermon of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). In contemporary period due the influence of UN Charter various Islamic Charters have also been crafted. The study is focused on the variety of the approaches that have been applied to measure the compatibility between Islamic provisions and Modern International Human Rights legislations. The study classified this debate into three main approaches: (1) Islamic human rights schemes superior than secular orientations of Human Rights; (2) The Islamic and secular concepts of human rights are similar with minor differences; and (3) A need of new articulations of Islamic standers suitable for all the Muslim societies. Finally, a short concluding section is attempted to suggest reconciliatory approach for articulation of human rights standards for Muslims societies driven from their own socio-cultural and historical experience.