Is Human Rights A Western concept???

    • Is Human Rights A Western concept???


      Human rights are those rights which are inherent in our human
      nature and without which we cannot live as ordinary humanbeings.
      It includes a variety of rights such as the right to life,liberty,dignity
      and equality and large number of other rights that makes a man's
      exitence more than a mere animal exitence.

      Although our great religion,Islam,had laid down the guidlines and
      the basis of all human rights hundreds of years ago and prior to the
      Bill Of Rights, Universal Declarations of human rights,The United
      Nations Principles and Guidlines and the International Conventions,
      yet we find amongst us people who think of the term"Human Rights"
      as a western phenomena and an idea that is the outcome of the
      western community!!

      Today as it becomes clear to all of that we are the ones who know
      about human rights in its true real sense as we had it all in our religion
      teachings as pronounced by Prophet Mohammed (SAW) in the "Hadith"
      and "Sunna " as well as the conduct of his companions and followers,
      blessings of Allah be upon them all, don't you agree with me that we
      have committed a big mistake by not sharing our great heritage of
      knowledge with entire world,and that time has come to educate them
      what "Human Rights" means and what it does not mean and
      include??

    • First of all, i would like to apologize for making amendments on the way you presented your topic, dear sister. I really thought that its a lot easier to follow this way. Secondly, i want to deeply thank you for bringing about this very important topic for discussion

      To be honest, never before have I ever put any thought what so ever into this matter. So, when i first read this topic, i went and did an extensive search about it and i actually came up with some very interesting things

      Since God is the absolute and the sole master of men and the universe, He is the sovereign Lord, the Sustainer and Nourisher, the Merciful, Whose mercy enshrines all beings; and since He has given each man human dignity and honor, and breathed into him of His own spirit, it follows that, united in Him and through Him, and apart from their other human attributes, men are substantially the same and no tangible and actual distinction can be made among them, on account of their accidental differences such as nationality, color or race. Every human being is thereby related to all others and all become one community of brotherhood in their honorable and pleasant servitude to the most compassionate Lord of the Universe. In such a heavenly atmosphere the Islamic confession of the oneness of God stands dominant and central, and necessarily entails the concept of the oneness of humanity and the brotherhood of mankind

    • Now here is one of the pieces i read that give a very interesting prospecitve about this matter. I know its quite long, but its worth while reading


      'Allamah Abu al-'A'la Mawdudi
      al Tawhid Journal, vol. IV No. 3 Rajab-Ramadhan 1407


      HUMAN RIGHTS, THE WEST AND ISLAM

      Before I discuss the human rights in Islam I would like to explain
      a few points about two major approaches to the question of
      human rights: the Western and Islamic. This will enable us to
      study the issue in its proper perspective and avoid some of the confusion which normally befogs such a discussion

      The Western Approach

      The people in the West have the habit of attributing every good thing to themselves and try to prove that it is because of them that the world got this blessing, otherwise the world was steeped in ignorance and completely unaware of all these benefits. Now let us look at the question of human rights. It is very loudly and vociferously claimed that the world got the concept of basic human rights from the Magna Carta of Britain; though the Magna Carta itself came into existence six hundred years after the advent of Islam. But the truth of the matter is
      that until the seventeenth century no one even knew that the Magna Carta contained the principles of Trial by Jury; Habeas Corpus, and the Control of Parliament on the Right of Taxation. If the people who had drafted the Magna Carta were living today they would have been greatly surprised if they were told that their document also contained all these ideals and principles. They had no such intention, nor were they conscious of all these concepts which are now being attributed to them


      As far as my knowledge goes the Westerners had no concept of human rights and civic rights before the seventeenth century. Even after the seventeenth century the philosophers and the thinkers on jurisprudence though presented these ideas, the practical proof and demonstration of these concepts can only be found at the end of the eighteenth century in the proclamations and constitutions of America and France. After this there appeared a reference to the basic human rights in the constitutions of different countries. But more often the rights which were given on paper were not actually given to the people
      in real life

      In the middle of the present century, the United Nations,
      which can now be more aptly and truly described as the Divided
      Nations, made a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and passed a resolution against genocide and framed regulations to check it. But as you all know there is not a single resolution or regulation of the United Nations which can be enforced. They are just an expression of a pious hope. They have no sanctions behind them, no force, physical or moral to enforce them. Despite all the high-sounding ambitious resolutions of the United Nations, human rights have been violated and trampled upon at different places, and the United Nations has been a helpless spectator. She is not in a position to exercise an effective check on the violation of human rights. Even the heinous crime of genocide is being perpetrated despite all proclamations of the United Nations. Right in the neighbouring country of Pakistan, genocide of the Muslims has been taking place for the last twenty- eight years, but the United Nations does not have the power and
      strength to take any steps against India. No action has even been taken against any country guilty of this most serious and revolting crime


      The Islamic Approach

      The second point which I would like to clarify at the very outset
      is that when we speak of human rights in Islam we really mean that these rights have been granted by God; they have not been granted by any king or by any legislative assembly. The rights granted by the kings or the legislative assemblies, can also be withdrawn in the same manner in which they are conferred. The same is the case with the rights accepted and recognized by the dictators. They can confer them when they please and withdraw them when they wish; and they can openly violate them when they like. But since in Islam human rights have been conferred by God, no legislative assembly in the world, or any government on earth has the right or authority to make any amendment or change in the rights conferred by God. No one has the
      right to abrogate them or withdraw them. Nor are they the basic
      human rights which are conferred on paper for the sake of show and exhibition and denied in actual life when the show is over. Nor are they like philosophical concepts which have no sanctions behind them

      The charter and the proclamations and the resolutions of the
      United Nations cannot be compared with the rights sanctioned by
      God; because the former is not applicable to anybody while the latter is applicable to every believer. They are a part and parcel of the Islamic Faith. Every Muslim or administrators who claim themselves to be Muslims will have to accept, recognize and enforce them. If they fail to enforce them, and start denying the rights that have been guaranteed by God or make amendments and changes in them, or practically violate them while paying lip-service to them, the verdict of the Holy Quran for such governments is clear and unequivocal

      "Those who do not judge by what God has sent down are the disbelievers."
      (Kafirun). 5:44

      The following verse also proclaims: "They are the wrong-doers (zalimun)" (5:45),

      while a third verse in the same chapter says: "They are the evil-livers (fasiqun)" (5:47).

      In other words this means that if the temporal authorities regard their own words and decisions to be right and those given by God as wrong they are disbelievers. If on the other hand they regard God's commands as right but wittingly reject them and enforce their own decisions against God's, then they are the mischief-makers and the wrong-doers. Fasiq, the law-breaker,is the one who disregards the bond of allegiance, and zalim is he who works against the truth. Thus all those temporal authorities who claim to be Muslims and yet violate the rights sanctioned by God belong to one of these two categories, either they are the disbelievers or are the wrong-doers and mischief-makers. The rights which have been sanctioned by God are permanent,
      perpetual and eternal. They are not subject to any alterations or modifications, and there is no scope for any change or abrogation