THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ISLAM: THE CONCEPT AND THE REAL CHALLENGE

By Agus Miswanto

A. INTRODUCTION

Human rights are fundamental issues in the modern era, since it is the measuring instrument of the well being for all society. Therefore, every nation, society, individually, or communally should comply with the requirements of human rights standard. Otherwise, in Moslem Society, human rights still become mainstream discourse today. There are many perspectives on this issues, so there are many cons and pros among Moslems. On one hand, they are in group which contra against human rights also they rely their arguments on Islamic views. On the Other hand, they are in group that they agree, they also rely their argumant on Islamic perspective.   

Debates on human rights in Islam are unovoidable, because of the diversed perspective within Islamic Scholars. If we roote it, the existence of diversity in Islamic way of thinking, there are ranging from traditionalism, conservatism, modernism, revivalism, to liberalism. Therefore, debates on human rights in Islam are also very hard, and some times it is ununderstandable.  

Here, our discussion does not focus on its debates, but it will mark on Islamic effort in early islamic period, that has considered human rights developmentas as the basis of Moslem livelihood.  Even many scholars of Islamic Jurists has described  human rights as the divine message in Qur’an and Sunna to be the very goal of Shari’ah. I think today, that is very important how to be more aware and consious in implementation of human rights wthin society. Because between the concept and implementation some times is far and very the real challenge.

B. THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD AND THE ISLAMIC LITERATURE

Historically, Islam has recorded a great treasury of human rights (al-huquq al-insaniyah) development and achievement whose its sources are either from Holy Qur’an commentaries (tafsir), theology (tauhid), jurisprudence (fiqh), history (tarikh), or civics (tsaqafah). From the history of Muslim society, we find a well-known document called The Madinah Charter (Mitsaq Madinah) ruled the rights and responsibilities of tribes, followers of religions and beliefs into a system bond which called Madinah state, later as the basic of nation state concept. The farewell preach (khutbah wada’) conducted by the Prophet Muhammad at Arafah also contained messages of honour on basic rights of human to all tribes, ethnics, and nations. Freedom of conscience and freedom of speech have never been denied by the Qur’an or the Prophet. The Prophet never suppressed individual freedom or discouraged differences of opinion. He even said that differences of opinion in the Islamic ummah were a matter of grace and mercy.

Moreover, since the twelfth century the result of reasoning from ulama (ijtihad) has also recorded discourses on political power balance (siyasah) that develop normative standard for basic rights of citizens. Even, the term “Tasyaraf al-imam ‘ala ar-ru’yah manuthun bi al-maslahah” is very popular among Muslim scholars in many countries. The term briefly explains that leaders make and release the policy over their people should focus on public interest orientation. It gives a signal that the achievement of Islamic discourse on human rights has developed and popped up rampantly.

Furthermore, the discourse of human rights in Islamic literature coincided with the goal of syariah discourse. The ulama suggested that public interest became a normative standard of the goals of syariah (maqasyid as-syari’ah). In its development, Muslim society elaborated and enacted al kuliyyat al-khams or ad-dharurat al-khams (five pillars of protecting the basic rights of humans) as the pathway to the public interest. The five is to protect the religion (hifz ad-din) including the rights of freedom of religion, to protect human life (hifz an-nafs) including the rights to live and rights to determine his/her future independently, to protect the mind (hifz al-‘aql) including the rights of freedom of expression and getting the information, to protect the family (hifz an-nasl) including rights to get married, to get a health reproduction and have a child, to protect the wealth or properties (hifz al-mal) including the rights of having a property. The concept was developed by Hujjatul Islam, Abu Hamid al Ghazali (505H/1111), and it was elaborated and supplemented clearly and completely by Abu Ishaq as-syatibi (790 H/1388).

The Islamic law, as mentioned before, secures and develops human personality in five main areas: life, family, mind, faith, and property. Furthermore, the human rights covered by these five areas include the collective rights of groups and peoples as well as the rights of individuals; political and social rights have their place side by side. A collective effort to defend the powerless and the oppressed against a powerful oppressor is an essential Islamic obligation. Every right is considered a responsibility and an obligation. In addition to human rights being considered a collective responsibility of the Ummah (the Muslim people as a group) and the authorities, every holder of a right must also struggle for himself/herself to obtain, maintain, and enjoy this right.

In the modern era, the peak of achievement in human rights happened when the Islamic world grouped in OIC (the Organization of Islamic Conference) succeeded to hold a conference and declared the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (UIDHR) in Paris, September 19, 1981. Ten years later, 1990, the OIC declared the UIDHR again in Cairo, Egypt. Fundamentally, the UIDHR is parallel to the UDHR (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations in 1948. The UIDHR contained the basic rights of human beings as follows:

1. Right to Life

2. Right to Freedom

3. Right to Equality and Prohibition against Impermissible Discrimination

4. Right to Justice

5. Right to Fair Trial

6. Right to Protection against Abuse of Power

7. Right to Protection against Torture

8. Right to Protection of Honour and Reputation

9. Right to Asylum

10. Rights of Minorities

11. Right and Obligation to Participate in the Conduct and Management of Public Affairs

12. Right to Freedom of Belief, Thought, and Speech

13. Right to Freedom of Religion

14. Right to Free Association

15. The Economic Order and the Rights Evolving There from

16. Right to Protection of Property

17. Status and Dignity of Workers

18. Right to Social Security

19. Right to Found a Family and Related Matters

20. Rights of Married Women

21. Right to Education

22. Right of Privacy

23. Right to Freedom of Movement and Residence

The Cairo declaration, 1990, was followed by many declarations and conferences. One of them relating to the education was Dakar Declaration on Education for All, April 2000. In the Dakar declaration, the quality of education for women, children, youth, and adults was addressed as prime priority policies and avoided the barriers of their active participation in. Any kind of stereotype in education based on the discrimination, such as gender, race, language, minority, and others should be avoided and eradicated.

Unfortunately, theses concepts  still are unfully implemented among Moslem countries. Futhermore, there are many Moslem countries that dont comply human rights standards, they justify this condition because of the different values between islamic human rights and western human rights standards. They still retains the barrier of the implementation of human rights, then the violation and torture over society still become the daily phenomenon.  

C. THREATS AND CHALLENGES OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Although human rights have developed a good achievement in early of Islamic period and many literatures, in the real world it undergoes distorted and is reduced far from the sight of Qur’anic and Sunnatic spirit. Many practical illustrations from the number of historical context denote abuses of the human rights. The following explanations illustrate the threat and violence toward the human rights, and challenges for the future in development of human rights in Islamic world.

Individual rights are fundamental to the functions of democracy. In fact, the concept of individual rights or human rights has evolved along with the evolution of democratic power structures. As long as the prophet and his companions lived and ruled, the honour of human rights ran well and accordingly to the sight of quranic and sunnatic spirit. On the contrary, with the evolution of feudal and monarchical culture, differences of opinion were not permitted and were ruthlessly suppressed. During the early Abbasid period, a controversy raged whether the Qur’an was created or is coeternal with God. The Abbasid who supported the Mu’tazilah viewpoint that the Qur’an was created forcibly suppressed the other point of view that the Qur'an is coeternal with God and flogged a person of the stature of Imam Abu Hanifa for holding a contrary view. The unchanged authoritarian culture remains in many Muslim countries today. Many Islamic scholars had to leave Egypt, Pakistan, and other Muslim countries for western universities.

There is no fully fledged democracy in any Muslim countries, so there is little respect for the concept of individual rights. Indeed, many authoritarian rulers in Muslim countries reject the very concept of human rights denouncing them as western and secular ideas in origin. Human rights activists in some Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt are dubbed as western agents, persecuted and thrown into jail. Anyone who holds a different political opinion faces persecution. Some who advocate changes in the Shari’ah laws in the light of changed conditions, or attempt to reconceptualize Islamic philosophical doctrine, face severe persecution. There is little respect for individual rights and individual dignity. Full respect for individual rights and dignity are only possible under a fully democratic system. For that there is a basic need for a democratic policy.

The suppression of free speech and freedom of conscience go hand-in-hand with the suppression of freedom of inquiry. It is for this reason that no Muslim country today has a strong tradition in the social or physical sciences. For the sciences to flourish one, it needs a liberal democratic culture. Muslim countries will remain far behind in these fields if their authoritarian power structures are not demolished and replaced with democratic ones. Unfortunately, there is no such movement in sight. The United States has always propped up corrupt and authoritarian rulers in the Middle East who suppress freedom of expression and many of these countries remain totally dependent on the West. They cannot develop even to the extent that India has developed. No Muslim country can boast of any modern scientific discovery.

D. CONCLUSION

In the conclusion, the good concept of human rights is not always parallel to the practical action conducted by the Muslims. Even, violation of human rights is mostly occurred in the Muslim world. Although the abuse of human rights is clearly strickly prohibited in Islam, many Muslims individually or collectively usually seek religious argument to make up their fault the right one. Therefore, it needs more time and more efforts to enforce human rights rules in the Muslim world.

Wallah 'a'lamu bi sawab.