The Most Important Human Right
It was mentioned earlier that the Shareeah has been revealed for the benefit and betterment of humankind. It must be realized, though, that this benefit and betterment is not only for this worldly life. In other words, it is for the benefit of humankind in both this life and in the Hereafter. This brings up a rather tricky question that no pure secularist or humanist can attempt to grapple with: What are the ramifications of the human rights paradigm, the Islamic paradigm or any other paradigm in not only this world but in the Hereafter? This question leads to the greatest right of humans—a right that cannot and could not be known by simple human pondering, experimentation or investigation. If this right is a reality—and obviously Muslims believe it is so—then it means that the human rights proponents may be leading humans to lose out on the greatest right that they can attain while violating the most important right of their being.


The right that is being spoken about here is the one described in the following hadith:
Muaadh ibn Jabal narrated: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “O Maudh!” I responded, “At your beck and call, O Messenger of Allah.” He then said, “Do you know what is the right of Allah upon His servants ?” I said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He replied, “The right of Allah upon His servants is that they worship Him and do not ascribe any partner to Him.” Then after a while, he said, “O Muaadh ibn Jabal!” “At your beck and call, O Messenger of Allah,” I replied. He then said, “Do you know what the right of the servants upon Allah is if they perform that?” I replied, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He then said, “The right of the servants upon Allah will be that He will not punish them.”

It is very fitting that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used the word “right” (haqq) in the above hadith. This hadith is intrinsically related to the conflict between the contemporary secular human rights paradigm and the message of Islam. Indeed, it points to the fact that a real right is being ignored. All of the other worldly rights that the people are fighting over are all fleeting. Thus, they cannot compare to the right described by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in this hadith—a right, by the way, declared by God, the only One who has the true ability to enforce and implement what He decrees to be rights.

The above hadith actually demonstrates what a losing proposition the contemporary human rights paradigm is from an Islamic perspective. Worshipping Allah alone and not ascribing any partner to Him involves, among other things, submitting purely to Him and not accepting any authority above His word. Once one submits to others, arrogates to himself the right to change and abrogate some of Allah’s laws, he is no longer submitting to Him, he is no longer worshipping Him alone and, in fact, he is setting up partners with Allah, either setting himself up as a partner, an institution or whatever. By violating the clear precepts of God’s guidance by ignoring His laws or distorting them out of recognition, the individual is violating this sacred pact with Allah. In so doing, he loses Allah’s promise to him that He will not punish him. Additionally, he may further incur Allah’s wrath in this world as well due to his arrogant disobedience to God.

When viewed in this light, one can understand the trepidation involved for a Muslim in embracing the contemporary human rights paradigm. Many human rights advocates are completely secular in their outlook and do not seem to comprehend this internal conflict that they are trying to force upon Muslims. Those human rights advocates who consider themselves “religious” obviously have a very different understanding of what it means to be religious than the traditional Islamic understanding based around the clear texts of the Quran and Sunnah. Hence, they also do not see this dilemma for what it is. (In fact, many of them may simply blame the Muslim believer for not holding their “progressive” understanding of religion.)

The Muslim believer feels that it is actually the contemporary human rights advocates who are missing out. They are groping to find the best possible life for themselves and others. They seem to think that this will be founded upon giving the proper rights to all. However, they do not realize that in the process they may be stealing the most precious right of any human: the right to worship Allah alone and have Allah pleased with him or her in return.

This is perhaps the true impasse between the two paradigms. No secular paradigm can truly speak about God and the Hereafter. Thus, a Muslim believer’s perception is simply different, completely different. This fundamental difference is a reality and people are going to have to accept it for what it is and do what is best within the two frameworks instead of forcing change upon those who do not want such change—especially not in the name of “freedom,” “rights” and “liberty.”