Human Rights In Islam And The Religion Of Islam

The religion of Islam dates back almost 1400 years. With nearly 1.3 billion followers worldwide, it is one of the top three religions next to Judaism and Christianity. Islam is a vibrant religion which emphasizes on unity, discipline, and world peace. Teaching its followers qualities such as patience, integrity, and forgiveness, Islam has transformed human beings across the planet. However, Islam has always come under fire with claims of dehumanizing its followers and creating harsh gender differences. Some have even claimed Islam is a “life sentence” and has no form of human rights incorporated in its traditions.

Western scholars seem to argue that human rights tend to be characteristics of modern liberalism and social democracies. In general, human beings have human rights simply because they are human. These rights are irrespective of any cultural, socioeconomic, or political conditions one may live in. On the other hand, Muslim scholars state that human rights and laws are wholly owned by God. The followers of Islam can enjoy these rights in accordance with God. Basically, their conceptual basis is teleological and their ethical foundation is theological. What seems to set the western view of human rights apart from the Islamic is the integral unity the former secures between rights, duties, and pervasiveness of Shari’a. A major difference that sets the two apart is the state does not play the role of the legislator, it is the Fuqaha (Islamic jurisprudents).

In 1948, the UN General Assembly passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These are a set of basic human rights which all human beings across the globe fall under. From freedom of speech to freedom to religious practices, this doctrine was agreed amongst all m...

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...ights every human being should have. It violates Article 4 and 5 of the UDHR which state, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

If the Muslim world reforms its laws where appropriate and unify the divided institutions, it can join the Western world and all the other nations who agree on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first step would be to strive for balance in order to form a unified collection of human rights. Overall, universality would fail unless it is, as Na’im stated, integrated with cultural legitimacy. It may be a fragile solution to the problem, but it nonetheless it creates a foundation that could provide the basis for dealing with a larger issue in the future.