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We have already seen that
every man, whether he belongs to this country or that,
whether he is a believer or unbeliever, whether he lives in
a forest or in a desert, has certain basic human rights
simply because he is a human being. We have seen, too, that
it is the duty of every Muslim to recognize these rights.
The Right to
Life
The first and foremost basic
right is the right to life. The Holy Qur’an lays down:
"Whosoever kills a human
being (without any reason like) man-slaughter, or
corruption on earth, it is thought he had killed all
mankind." (5:32)
The propriety of taking life
in retaliation for murder or for spreading corruption can be
decided only by a competent court of law. During a war it
can be decided only by a properly established government. In
any event, Qur’an makes clear:
"Do not kill a soul which
Allah has made sacred except through the due process of
law." (6:151)
Homicide is thus distinguished
from destruction of life carried out in the pursuit of
justice. The Prophet, blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him, has declared homicide as the greatest sin after
polytheism. A Tradition of the Prophet reads: "The greatest
sins are to associate something with Allah and to kill human
beings."
In all these verses of the
Qur’an and the Traditions of the Prophet the word 'soul'
(nafs) has been used in general terms without any
indication that citizens belonging to one's own nation or
the people of a particular race or religion should not be
killed. The injunction applies to all human beings.
The 'Right to Life' has been
given to man as a whole only by Islam. You will observe that
reference to human rights in constitutions or declarations
in many countries clearly implies that these rights are
applicable only to the citizens of that country or to the
white race. For example, human beings were hunted down like
animals in Australia and the land was cleared of the
aborigines for the white man. Similarly, the aboriginal
population of America was systematically destroyed and the
Red Indians who somehow survived this genocide were confined
to reservations. In Africa human beings were also hunted
down like wild animals. Contrary to this partial concept of
human rights, Islam recognizes such rights for all human
beings.
The Right to
the Safety of Life
Immediately after the verse in
the Holy Qur’an which has been mentioned in connection with
the right to life, Allah says:
"And whoever saves a life it
is as though he had saved the lives of all mankind." (5:32)
There can be several forms of
saving man from death. If a man is ill or wounded it is your
duty to get him medical help. If he is dying f starvation,
it is your duty for feed him. If he is drowning, it is your
duty to rescue him. We regard it as our duty to save every
human life, because it is thus that we have been enjoined in
the Holy Qur’an.
Respect for
the Chastity of Women
The third important element in
the Charter of Human Rights granted by Islam is that a
woman's chastity must be respected and protected at all
times, whether she belongs to one's own nation or to the
nation of an enemy, whether we find her in a remote forest
or in a conquered city, whether she is our co-religionist or
belongs to some other religion or has no religion at all. A
Muslim may not physically abuse her under any circumstances.
All promiscuous relationships are forbidden to him,
irrespective of the status or position of the woman or of
whether she is a willing partner to the act.
The words of the Holy Qur’an
in this respect are: "Do not approach (the bounds) of
adultery" (17:32). Heavy punishment has been prescribed for
this crime, and no mitigating circumstances are indicated.
Since the violation of the chastity of a woman is forbidden
in Islam, a Muslim who perpetrates this crime cannot escape
punishment-whether he receives it in this world or in the
Hereafter.
This concept of the sanctity
of chastity and the protection of women can be found nowhere
else except in Islam. The armies of the Western powers need
the daughters of their own nations to satisfy their carnal
appetites even in their own countries, and if they happen to
occupy another county, the fate of its womenfolk can better
be imagined than described.
But the history of the Muslim,
apart from individual lapses, has been free from this crime
against womanhood. It has never happened that after the
conquest of a foreign country the Muslim army has gone about
raping the women of the conquered people, or, in their own
country, the government has arranged to provide prostitutes
for them.*
The Right to a
Basic Standard of Life
Speaking about economic
rights, the Holy Qur’an enjoins its followers:
"And in their wealth there is
acknowledge right for the needy and destitute." (51:12)
The wording of this injunction
shows that it is categorical and unqualified. Furthermore,
this injunction was given in Makkah where there was no
Muslim society in existence and where the Muslim came in
contact mostly with disbelievers.
The clear meaning of this
verse is that anyone who asks for help and anyone who is
suffering from deprivation has a right to share in the
property and wealth of a Muslim; irrespective of whether he
belongs to this or to that nation, to this or to that
country, to this or to that race. If one is in a position to
help and a needy person asks for help or if one comes to
know that he is in need, then it is one's duty to help him.
The
Individual's Right to Freedom
Islam has categorically
forbidden the primitive practice of capturing a free man to
make him a slave or to sell him into slavery. On this point
the unequivocal words of the Prophet (blessings of Allah and
peace be upon him) are as follows: "There are three
categories of people against whom I shall myself be a
plaintiff on the Day of Judgment . Of these three, one is he
who enslaves a free man, then sells him and eats this money"
(Bukhari and Ibn Maja).
The words of this Tradition of
the Prophet have not been qualified or restricted to a
particular nation or race, or to followers of a particular
religion. The Europeans take great pride in claiming that
they abolished slavery from the world, though they had the
decency to do so only in the middle of the last century.
Before this, the Western powers had been raiding Africa on a
very large scale, capturing free men, putting them in
bondage and transporting them to their new colonies. The
treatment which they meted out to these unfortunate people
was worse than that given to animals. Accounts in Western
books themselves bear testimony to this fact.
The Slave
Trade of Western Nations
After the occupation of
America and the West Indies, traffic in slave trade
continued for three hundred and fifty years. The African
ports where the Africans were brought from the interior and
put on ships came to be known as the Slave Coast. In the
course of only one century (from 1680 to 1786) the total
number of free people who were captured and enslaved for the
British Colonies amounts, according to the estimate of
British authors, to 20 million. We are told that in the year
1790, 75,000 human beings were captured and sent for slave
labour in the colonies. The ships which were used for
transporting the slaves were small and dirty. These
unfortunate Africans were thrust into the holds like cattle
and many of them were chained, one on top of the other, to
wooden shelves on which they could hardly move because they
were only eighteen inches apart. They were not given proper
food, and if they fell ill or were injured, no attempt was
made to provide them with medical treatment.
Western writers themselves
state that at least 20 per cent of the total number of
people who were captured for slavery and forced labour
perished while being transported from Africa to America. It
has also been estimated that the total number of people who
were captured for slavery by the various European nations
during the heyday of the slave trade was at least one
hundred million. This is the record of the people who
denounce Muslims for recognizing the institution of slavery.
It is as if a criminal is pointing the finger of blame at an
innocent man.
The Position
Of Slavery In Islam
Islam tried to solve the
problem of the slaves that were already in Arabia by
encouraging people to set them free. Muslims were told that
freeing slaves would mean the expiation of some of their
sins. Freeing a slave of one's own free will was declared to
be an act of such great merit that the limbs of the man who
manumitted a slave would be protected from hell-fire-one for
each limb of the slave freed.
The result of this policy was
that , by the time the period of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs
was reached, all the old slaves of Arabia had been
liberated. The Prophet (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him) alone liberated as many as 63 slaves. The number of
slaves freed by }'isha was 67; Abbasliberated 70; }Abd
Allahbin }Umar liberated one thousand; and }Abd al-Rahmnpurchased
thirty thousand and set them free. Other Companions of the
Prophet liberated a large number of slaves, the details of
which are given in the Traditions and books of history of
that period.
The problem of the slaves of
Arabia was thus solved in under 40 years. After this the
only slaves left in Islamic society were prisoners of war
captured on the battlefield. These were kept by the Muslim
government in question until their own government agreed to
receive them back in exchange for Muslim soldiers they
captured by them or arranged the payment of ransom on their
behalf. If the soldiers they captured were not exchanged for
Muslim prisoners of war, or their people did not pay their
ransom money to purchase their liberty, the Muslim
government distributed them among the soldiers of the army
which had captured them.
This was a more humane way of
disposing of them than penning them like cattle in
concentration camps and taking forced labour from them and,
if their womenfolk were also captured, setting them aside
for prostitution. Islam preferred to spread them through the
population and thus being them in contact with individual
human beings. Their guardians, in addition, were ordered to
treat them well.
The result of this policy was
that most of the men who were captured on foreign
battlefields and brought to the Muslim countries as slaves
embraced Islam and their descendants produced great
scholars, imams, jurists, commentators, statesmen and
generals. So much so that later they became rulers of the
Muslim world.
Today, prisoners of war
throughout the world are exchanged on the cessation of
hostilities. This is a practice which has been learnt from
Islam. But treating well prisoners who cannot, for one
reason or another, be exchanged, has not been learnt.
Can anyone tell us, for example, the fate of the thousands
of prisoners of war captured by Russia from the defeated
armies of Germany and Japan in the Second World War? No one
knows how many thousands of them are still alive and how
many thousands of them perished due to the hardships of the
Russian concentration and labour camps. It is doubtful if,
even in the times of the ancient Pharaohs of Egypt, such
harsh labour was exacted from the slaves who built the
pyramids as was exacted from the prisoners of war in Russia
who developed Siberia and other backward areas of the
country.
The Right To
Justice
This is a very important and
valuable right which Islam has given to man. The Holy Qur’an
has laid down: "Do not let your hatred of a people incite
you to aggression" (5:3). "And do not let ill-will towards
any folk incite you so that you swerve from dealing justly.
Be just; that is nearest to heedfulness" (5:8). Stressing
this point the Qur’an again says: "You who believe stand
steadfast before Allah as witness for (truth and) fair play"
(4:135).
The point is thus made clear
that Muslims have to be just not only to their friends but
also their enemies. In other words, the justice to which
Islam invites her following is not limited to the citizens
of one's own country, or the people of one's own tribe,
nation or race, or the Muslim community as a whole; it is
meant for all human beings.
The Equality
Of Human Beings
Islam not only recognizes the
principle of absolute equality between men irrespective of
colour, race or nationality, it makes it an important
reality. Almighty Allah has laid down in the Holy Qur’an: "O
mankind, we have created you from a male and female." In
other words, all human beings are brothers. They all are the
descendants from one father and one mother. "And we set you
up as nations and tribes so that you may be able to
recognize each other" (49:13). This means that the division
of human beings into nations, races, groups and tribes is
for the sake of distinction, so that people of one race or
tribe may meet and be acquainted with people belonging to
another race or tribe and co-operate with one another.
This division of the human
race is neither meant for one nation to take pride in its
superiority over others nor for one nation to treat another
with contempt. "Indeed, the noblest among you before Allah
are the most heedful of you" (49:13). That is, the
superiority of one man over another is only on the basis of
Allah-consciousness, purity of character and high morals,
and not colour, race, language or nationality. People are
therefore not justified in assuming airs of superiority over
other human beings. Nor do the righteous have any special
privileges over others.
This has been thus exemplified
by the Prophet (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) in
one of his sayings: "No Arab has any superiority over a
non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over a
black man, or the black man any superiority over the white
man. You are all the children of Adam, and Adam was created
from clay." (Bayhaqi and Bazzaz). In this manner Islam
established the principle of equality of the entire human
race and struck at the very root of all distinctions based
on colour, race, language or nationality.
According to Islam, Allah has
given man this right of equality as a birthright. No man
should therefore be discriminated against on the grounds of
the colour of his skin, his place of birth, the race or the
nation in which he was born.
Malcolm X, the leader of
African Negroes in America, once launched a bitter struggle
against the white people of America in order to win civil
rights for his black compatriots. But when he went to
perform the pilgrimage, he saw how the Muslims of Asia,
Africa, Europe and America were all wearing the same dress
and were all hurrying towards the Ka'ba ¾ and were
offering prayers standing in the same row. He realized that
this was the solution to the problem of colour and race, and
not what he had been trying to seek or achieve in America.
Today, a number of non-Muslim thinkers openly admit that no
other religion or way of life has solved this problem with
the same degree of success as Islam.
The Right to
Co-operate and not to Co-operate
Islam has prescribed a general
principle of paramount importance and universal application.
The Holy Qur’an says: "Co-operate with one another for
virtue and heedfulness and do not co-operate with one
another for the purpose of vice and aggression" (5:2). This
means that the man who undertakes noble and righteous work,
irrespective of whether he is living at the North Pole or
the South Pole, has the right to expect support and active
co-operation from Muslims. But he who practices vice and
aggression, even if he is our closest relation or neighbour,
does not have the right to our support and help in the name
of race, country, language or nationality, nor should he
expect Muslims to co-operate with him. The wicked and
vicious person may be our own brother, but he is not of us,
and he can have no help or support from us as long as he
does not repent of his ways. On the other hand, the man who
is doing deeds of virtue and righteousness may have no
kinship with Muslims, but Muslims will be his companions and
supports, or at least his well-wishers.
Conclusion
This is a brief sketch of
those rights which 1400 years ago Islam gave to man, to
those who were at war with each other and to the citizens of
its state. It refreshes and strengthens our faith in Islam
when we realize that even in this modern age, which makes
such loud claims of progress and enlightenment, the world
has not been able to produce more just and equitable laws
than those given 1400 years ago. On the other hand, it is
saddening to realize that Muslims nonetheless often look for
guidance to the West. Even more painful is the realization
that, throughout the world, rulers who claim to be Muslims
have made disobedience to their Allah and the Prophet the
basis and foundation of their government. May Allah have
mercy on them and give them true guidance.
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