HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE
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Abstract
According to Islam, the fundamental unity of mankind was revealed at their creation. When Adam and Eve came into being, Allah (God) drew forth from their loins all the children of Adam, from the first human being to the last, and called for their testimony. The first covenant obligates people to know Allah (God), to know one another as one people, and to build the friendly relations essential for peaceful coexistence on earth. The Qur’an repeatedly emphasizes on the unity of mankind, i.e., they come from the same parents. There are, in fact many a commonality among different apparently divergent sections of mankind. Talking in specifically organic terms, every human being constitutes of the organic matter irrespective of his/her habitation. It is also a borne out fact that mankind has descended from the common parents. It is also a common observation that to changing phenomena of weather, climate and atmosphere, men, no matter where do they live, show almost common response and reaction. Interestingly enough, the collective conscience of man has always shown a common sensitivity to the different odds or evils that it faced at different stages of the development of human civilization. Man has never remained silent or passive before falsehood, injustice, oppression, persecution, etc. Even on the individual level he has never remained immune from or unaffected by the wrong deeds performed by him willy nilly. Thus, it seems that, like the ‘physical behavior’ of man which motivates him to guard himself against different forces of nature, mankind has a common ‘moral behavior/basis/ground’ according to which it responds the issues of human rights and peaceful coexistence. In this paper some key issues related with human rights and peaceful coexistence will be discussed in an Islamic perspective.
References
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Ibid.
See, Najeebabadi, Moulana Akbar Shah, Tarikh-i Islam (urdu), vol. I, Farid Book Depot private Ltd., Delhi, p. 73.
Ibid., pp. 76-81.
The Qur’an., 2: 111.
Ibid., 2: 112.
Ibid., 17: 70.
Ibid., 33: 72.
Ibid., 38: 71-73.
Ibid., 2:31.
Muhammad Legenhausen, Islam and Religious Pluralism, Alhoda Publishers and Distributors, London, 1991, p. ii.
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The Qur’ān, 49:13.
Ibid., 5: 48.
Ibid., 10:99.
Ibid., 2:256.
Ibid., 2:251.
Ibid., 22:40.
Ibid., 2:208.
Ibid., 3:19.
Ibid., 10:25.
Ibid., 5:15-6.
Interfaith Dialogue: A Guide for Muslims, op. cit., p. 64.
The Qur’ān, 2:208.
Ibid., 59:23.
Ibid., 10:25.
Muslim on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, H. No. 203.
The Qur’an, 30:22.
Ibid., 11:118.
Ibid., 5:48.
Ibid., 2:136.
Ibid., 2:113.
Ibid., 83:26.
Ibid., 6:108.
See Tarikh-i Islam, op. cit., vol’s. I, II, III.
‘Tagut’ here means; anything worshipped besides Allah.
The Qur’ān, 2:256.
Ibid., 6:107.
Ibid., 10:99.
Al-Faruqi, Isma’il R., Islam and Other Faiths, Ataullah Siddiqui, Ed., Islamic Foundation, UK, 1998, p.74.
The Qur’ān, 3:64.
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Ibid., p. 75.
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Islam and Religious Pluralism, op. cit., p.166.
See for instance, Bilgrami, Ghulam Ali Azad, Sabhatul Marjan fi Athari Hindustan, Bombay, n.d., p. 2.
Ibn Hazm was a Muslim scholar and writer of eleventh century.
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