Dr. A. Rashied Omar argues that, from an Islamic perspective, the concept of human rights should be understood – as the honouring and protection of the dignity bestowed on all human beings, without prejudice or discrimination. Living human life with dignity for all should thus be the primary objective of human rights advocacy.
The 21st March is annually commemorated as Human Rights Day in post-Apartheid South Africa – in remembrance of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in which the apartheid police force opened fire on a crowd of anti-pass law protesters killing 69 and maiming 18. On Human Rights Day we pay tribute to the Sharpeville martyrs and all those who sacrificed their lives for a non-racial and democratic South Africa. But, Human Rights Day also affords us with an opportunity to reflect on the never-ending struggle to affirm the dignity and rights of all human beings both locally and abroad. Specifically for Muslims, it is a useful time for familiarizing ourselves with the latest thinking on the longstanding and robust debate about the compatibility between “Islam and Human Rights”.
Beyond Essentializing
Both Islam and Human Rights are not essentialized entities, but rather are subject to interpretation. Even though the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains the primary reference for defining what is meant by universal human rights, the concept of human rights remains open to different and conflicting interpretations in our pluralistic world. It is unfortunate, therefore, that with few exceptions, debates almost always refer to international human rights as a monolithic and essentialized concept, rather than a concept that has been consistently reinterpreted in a transnational context. Amongst Muslim scholars, the human rights debate runs the gamut from those scholars who denounce it and dismiss ‘human rights’ as a sinister imposition of a particular set of Western values, to those that embrace it and work for an overlapping consensus between universal human rights and Islam.
The Ethico-Moral Foundations of Human Rights
One of the major problems with many Muslim studies is that they largely approach the compatibility between human rights and Islam, from the point of view of shari’ah defined narrowly as a legal framework, rather than considering how universal human rights resonates with the moral and ethical foundations of Islam.
One of the few Muslim scholars who has not restricted himself to looking at human rights from a juristic perspective is AbdulazizSachedina. Sachedina is primarily interested in identifying the ethico-moral foundations on which human rights may be understood. In his book, Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights, (2009) Sachedina advises that the cross-cultural discourse on human rights should be rooted in the concept of human dignity (karamat al-insan). He argues that the concept of human dignity is at the core of the ethico-moral worldview of Islam. Sachedina cites the most primary source of Islamic guidance, the Glorious Quran, to argue that dignity has been bestowed on all humans (karamat al-insan) because of their ‘human-ness’, rather than their belief in Islam. That is every human being is afforded dignity because of his/her human personhood, irrespective of his or her beliefs. He basis this claim on Surah al-Isra’, chapter 17 verse 70, wherein Allah the Sublime proclaims:
“We have honoured (all) the children of Adam with innate dignity and provided them with transportation on both land and sea; and given them sustenance from the good and pure things in life; and favored them far above most of those We have created.” (Al-Quran 17:70)
From this Qur’anic perspective, living human life with dignity for all should be the primary objective of human rights advocacy. In our understanding, human rights comprises all rights, from the personal to the political, that acknowledges the innate dignity of all human beings and enables all human beings to live their lives with full dignity. In other words, the denial of human rights to anyone constitutes a violation of their human dignity, and thus contravenes a core teaching of Islam. From this understanding of Islam, every human life, Muslim or non-Muslim, male or female, adult or child, rich or poor, has exactly the same intrinsic worth, and should, therefore, be afforded exactly the same human rights.
In conclusion, a Muslim discourse on human rights needs to foreground the concept of human dignity, which is central to the ethico-moral worldview of Islam. It is this nexus or rather consonance between Islam and human rights namely that of “human dignity” that needs to be lifted up by Muslim scholars and activists in their efforts to develop a meaningful Muslim human rights discourse. On this Human Rights day we ask Allah, the Sublime, to help us to protect our human dignity and rights, and with the same vigour and determination to defend the human dignity and human rights of others.