The Concept of Human Rights: A Comparative Study of Islamic and Western Ideology

حقوقِ انسانی کا تصور:اسلامی اورمغربی نظریات کا تقابلی مطالعہ

Abstract

The utmost importance of human rights has been universally acknowledged in contemporary world. For almost a century now, the West has been the biggest advocate of human rights but its slogans are meretricious and impractical to a great extent. Islamic law is the greatest source of human rights. The key difference between Islamic and western concepts of human rights is that Islamic concept of human rights namely “Huqooq-ul-Ibad” is based on revealed texts, Quran and Hadith, whereas western concepts are framed on the basis of individualism and rationalism. Western world developed UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) through a long struggle and evolutionary stages spanning hundreds of years. But due to its controversial status, it still lacks meaning, implementation and practicality. Western human rights are temporary, territorial, revocable and modifiable because they are man-made, on the contrary, human rights bestowed by Islam are universal, eternal and everlasting because these rights are from Allah. This article provides a comparative overview of Islamic and Western concepts on human rights. Islam is often perceived as a violation of human rights due to propaganda on issues such as the abolition of slavery, polygamy, infidelity, and so on. This paper analyzes these significant issues in Islamic and Western perspectives of human rights. As compared to western human rights, Islam offers durable and revealed concept of human rights in the form of "Huqooq-ul-Ibad", coexistence and religious harmony can be promoted by identifying its positive fruits and clarifying the problems related to them.