Specific “Human Rights” in Islam
In this section, some important rights granted by Islam, which are often termed “human rights” today, will be discussed. Obviously, as can be seen in the documents in the Appendix, Islam grants a number of important rights that span the entire spectrum of human activity. However, here only a few examples will be given. These examples were not chosen at random. Instead, there is a particular reason for including each one of the topics discussed below. Thus, the first couple of examples highlight aspects that many seem to think are “modern inventions” and part of the entire European wave of bring rights to humans. The reality, though, is that they were established as part of the Islamic system centuries before modern European thought “discovered” them. The fourth example demonstrates how different priorities may be involved when it comes to rights. In particular, it highlights one of the greatest deficiencies of the contemporary human rights movement—the other systems that the human rights movement is tied into. Lastly, there will be a discussion of equality versus equity, wherein it will be recognized that Islam has granted many rights but those rights are not based simply on “equality” but on “equity,” given the overall Islamic social framework.


Some human rights:
All Equal Before the Law: Article 7 of the UDHR states, “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.” This principle is a well-established principle in Islam. Islam starts with removing any form of racial prejudice or class distinctions.  Among the many texts of Islam related to this issue, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “O people, truly your Lord is one and your [original] father was one. There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab or of a non-Arab over an Arab or a white over a black or a black over a white except in the matter of God-consciousness.”  With respect to the law in particular, the following hadith is relevant: One time some Muslims tried to convince a fellow Muslim who was very dear to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to intercede with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) concerning a judicial case. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rejected the concept of such an intercession in the law and stated quite frankly, “The peoples before you were destroyed because if a noble committed theft among them, they would let him go while if a weak person committed theft among them, they would apply the prescribed punishment to him. I swear by God, if Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, were to commit theft, I would have her hand amputated.” This equality before the law was applied to non-Muslims, slaves and females.  Umar ibn al-Khattaab was the second caliph of Islam, a close Companion of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and one whose model is emulated by Muslims. He was well-known for his justice and equal treatment of all. Once, for example, he had the son of his governor in Egypt beaten by a non-Muslim citizen of Egypt, due to that son’s earlier mistreatment of him.  When Ali  was the caliph, he found his stolen shield in the hands of a Christian. He brought the Christian to court and the Judge, Shuraih, asked Ali for the proof that it was his shield. When he was not able to produce any evidence, Shuraih decided the case in favor of the Christian, who later admitted his lie.  As for women bringing forth legal cases, a woman came directly to the highest authority in Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), to register a legal complaint about her husband. This event has been preserved by Allah in the Quran, starting with the words, “Certainly has Allah heard the speech of the one who argues with you, [O Muhammad], concerning her husband and directs her complaint to Allah” (al-Mujaadilah 1).


Innocent Until Proven Guilty:
Article 11 of the UHDR states, “Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty…” This is also a well-established principle in Islamic Law. In fact, Islam recognizes that individuals may or probably will make false claims against others. Thus, the burden of proof will lie upon the plaintiff and the defendant will be considered innocent unless proven otherwise. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) clearly stated, “Were people to be given according to their claims, men would claim the wealth and blood of the people. But the burden of proof is upon the plaintiff and the taking of an oath is upon the one who denies [the allegation].”  Ibn al-Qayyim, who died in the 14th Century A.D., stated that there are three types of accused. One is an individual who has never been accused of any crime and is well-known for his righteousness. This type of person is to be released under his own recognizance until the matter is decided. The second is one who has been found guilty of crimes before or who has been clearly implicated in a crime. This person will be held until the proceedings concluded. The third is an unknown person, who also needs to be held until the proceedings are finished. It is to protect the innocent that the laws of testimony and witnessing is quite stringent in Islam.  Furthermore, it is also an established principle that if a case is not proven beyond doubt, the prescribed punishment is not to be meted out. Thus, Umar, the second caliph of Islam, said, “I much prefer not to implement the prescribed punishment over meting it out when there is some doubt.”

The rights of the poor and unfortunate—Strangely enough, in recent times, human rights has been packaged with capitalism (liberalism) and democracy. Each of these have their own great weaknesses. In the one, it is claimed by many that the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.  In the latter, it has also been claimed that it has become, instead of “one person, one vote,” “one dollar, one vote.” However, these structural issues, it could be argued, cause more harm to humans than any laws related to freedom or the like are rarely discussed by human rights activists.But, in the words of Freeman, “The discourse of human rights has, for example, not taken capitalism seriously.” 


Later he elaborates further,
Since the end of the cold war, Western policy-makers have presented human rights, democracy and market economies as a package. The relations between markets and human rights are, however, complex, problematic and not well understood… In many recent cases, this [deterioration of human rights] has beenso because elected governments have pursued market-based economic policies that have not only worsened the protection of economic and social rights for the most vulnerable sections of society (especially women), but also provoked increases in crime that have led to restrictions on civil and political rights… Worse, the fashion for neo-liberal economic policies has reduced the protection of these rights for millions of people around the world who enjoy them least.

Thus, it can be argued, when it comes to the rights of the poor, Islam takes those rights much more seriously than do the contemporary human rights movement, at least in its present form. Indeed, the focus has been so much on political rights and freedoms (and more recently on sexual rights) that alleviating poverty is not considered an aspect of “human rights.” Griffin expresses a common view when he says, “This implies that welfare rights are, at most, ethical rights that one has as a citizen—civil rights, not human rights.”  Perhaps this is not too surprising given that the contemporary human rights movement grew out of the European Enlightenment. In fact, many Western views of poverty are not kind to those who find themselves facing difficult circumstances in life.

The situation in Islam is very different because Islam is not a set of laws but a complete social system that is geared to the welfare of humans. One of the institutional laws of Islam, for example, that does not receive the credit it deserves in fending off economic exploitation is the prohibition of interest. Although while the author is writing these words, interest-based banking and profit motive has caused a great deal of suffering to many in the United States and elsewhere, capitalist economists would probably consider it blasphemous to even speak of the removal of interest. However, the harm of interest is well-documented especially on the world’s poor today.  Indeed, it can be argued that it has literally caused the death of many indigent persons.The debt servicing of lesser developed countries today is so great that they must sacrifice essential health and nutritional needs. It is dumbfounding to think that untold numbers of children are dying daily in lesser-developed countries due to the “tool” of modern capitalism: interest. Some African governments are forced to spend more on debt servicing than they spend on health or education.

In this context, the UNDP (1998) predicted that if the external debt of the 20 poorest countries of the world was written off, it could save the lives of 20 million people before the year 2000. In other words, it means that uncancelled debt was responsible for the deaths of 130,000 children a week up until the year 2000.

Ken Livingston, Mayor of London, claimed that global capitalism kills more people each year then were killed by Adolf Hitler. He blamed the IMF and World Bank for deaths of millions due to their refusal to ease the debt burden. Susan George stated that every year since 1981 between 15 and 20 million people died unnecessarily due to debt burden “because Third World governments have had to cut back on clean water and health programmes to meet their repayments.”

Poverty can have a devastating effect on individuals and families. Worse yet, there is no question that there is today a circle of poverty wherein poverty virtually breeds poverty. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) actually instructed Muslims to seek refuge in God from poverty due to the debilitating effects in can have.

At the same time, though, poverty is not considered a curse nor is it necessarily the individual’s own fault. In fact, if one to honestly ponder one’s own situation, one would recognize that most of an individual’s money making ability is due to circumstances completely beyond his control: what parents he was born to, what society he was born in, what era he was born in, what mental and physical disabilities he was free of and so forth. Instead, being poor is a trial from God, as is being wealthy. (In fact, the trials of the wealthy are greater because they have more means and opportunities to misuse the bounties that they receive from God.) In Islam, one’s value and worth is not determined by how much wealth one has. Instead, it is determined by one’s piety, regardless of how poor one may be. Thus, God says, “Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you” (al-Hujuraat 13). Thus, the poor are full members of society, deserving of respect and good treatment. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) even stated that the majority of the inhabitants of Paradise will be the poor and that they will enter Paradise forty years before the others. In fact, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said about the poor and the weak in the society, “Seek your weak for me for you are given sustenance and victory due to the weak among you.”

Thus, the Muslim believer realizes that it is his responsibility to aid those less fortunate than himself. Allah describes the believer as, “Those within whose wealth is a known right, for the petitioner and the deprived” (al-Maarij 24-25). A story in the Quran  describes how a people’s attempt to prevent the poor from sharing in their wealth led to their destruction. Furthermore, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “One is not a believer if he goes to bed with his stomach full and his neighbor is hungry.”  Additionally he said, “One is working on behalf of widows and the poor is equivalent to one who is striving for the sake of Allah or one who spends the entire night fasting and daytime praying.”

Islam therefore sets up institutional apparatus to help the poor (such as the zakat or alms-giving, which is one of the pillars of Islam, the establishment of endowments to assist the poor, other forms of wealth distributed to the poor via the public treasury, additional taxes on the rich to meet the needs of the poor and so on). In addition, voluntary assistance to the poor is greatly encouraged throughout the Quran and Hadith. According to the majority of the Muslim jurists throughout the history of Islam, the poor can be defined as, “one who has no property or no lawful and suitable earnings to meet his normal requirements such as food, clothing, accommodation and other necessities, for himself and his dependents, in a way which is neither prodigal nor niggardly.”  It is this minimum level that would be considered one’s “human right” from an Islamic perspective. Although this is very important for human dignity, it is not accomplished in a vacuum. In other words, it is not simply a matter of providing material means but providing material means in the overall Islamic society, which encourages all to better themselves spiritually, morally and financially.