Does Islam provide for human rights?

By Shah Abdul Hannan

It is alleged sometimes by some quarters that Islam does not guarantee adequate level of human or fundamental rights. This misgiving has become quite widespread in the absence of enough clarification and publicity of Islamic viewpoint. This misgiving has been strengthened by some extreme manifestations of Islamists such as some of the activists of the Taliban movement and administration in Kabul.

However, this perception is not true. It is mostly because of misunderstanding and lack of knowledge of the works of mainstream Islamists. In support of the view that Islam has provided for all necessary human rights for all irrespective of gender or religion, I will present 3 (three) proofs from current works.

In the constitution of Pakistan of 1956 and 1973, a list of fundamental rights have been enumerated which will be available to all citizens, whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims, men or women. This constitution was in part prepared and fully supported by the Ulama of all groups in Pakistan.

In the constitution of Iran, which was prepared by the Ulama of Iran, a similar list of fundamental and human rights have been provided for and this constitution was adopted by a referendum with 98% majority. The lists of rights in the aforesaid 2 (two) constitutions include almost all rights as may be seen in any other constitution. These rights include right to life, property; right of association, movement; freedom from torture and unjust detention; equality of opportunity, freedom of religion and all other necessary rights.

These constitutions were prepared after long debate in the light of the texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah and all other relevant issues by leading Ulama of these countries and we can not accept individual opinion of a few people against such broad majority.

Again many writers have written on human rights and upheld that Islam does give all necessary rights for all persons. In this connection of the many books written on the subjects, I refer to two books by Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi (Human Rights in Islam) and Muhammad Salahuddin (Fundamental Rights in Islam in Urdu).

It is therefore clear from the above that Islam does give all basic human rights to all though there are some violations in some places and some groups have misunderstanding. It is the duty of the mainstream Islamists to clarify the issue in details to all.