HUMAN DIGNITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world."
"Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief, and freedom from fear and wants has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people".
"Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law."
"Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations".
"Whereas the people of the United Nations have in the Charter, reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women, and have determined to promote social progress and a better standard of life in larger freedom".
"Whereas ... The General Assembly proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping the Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the people of member states themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction...".
As we have observed earlier, every word and every sentence of this Declaration is well-calculated. It is a manifestation of the ideas of the world's liberal-minded philosophers and legists of several centuries.
IMPORTANT POINTS OF THE PREAMBLE OF THE DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
This Declaration consists of 30 articles, though certain articles are superfluous and some points have been repeated in several articles.
The important points of the preamble are as under:-
(i) All human beings enjoy inherent dignity and inalienable rights.
(ii) Human dignity and human rights are universal and indivisible. They pervade all human beings irrespective of race, colour and sex. All human beings are members of a family, and hence none is superior to anyone else.
(iii) Full recognition of human dignity and inalienable human rights is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace.
The contents of the Declaration imply that the source of all the troubles, wars, acts of tyranny and barbarous acts committed by the individuals and the people against each other, is the non-recognition of human dignity and human rights. This non-recognition compels some to revolt against some others, and thus endangers peace and security.
(iv) The highest aspiration, for the materialisation of which all must strive, is the emergence of a world in which freedom of belief, security and material welfare may be ensured and freedom from suppression, fear and poverty may be guaranteed. The 30-article Declaration has been framed to achieve this purpose.
(v) Belief in human dignity and respect for inalienable human rights must be inculcated gradually in the minds of all, through teaching and education.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN DIGNITY
As the Declaration of Human Rights has been framed on the basis of respect for humanity, liberty and equality with a view to reviving human rights, it should be respected by every conscientious person. We, the people of the East have been believing in human dignity and respect for humanity for a long time. Islam attaches great importance to human dignity and respects human rights, liberty and equality. Those who have really inspired them, deserve our appreciation. Anyhow, it is a philosophical text written by human hands, and not by angels. Hence, every philosopher has a right to analyse it and to point out its weak points.
The Declaration of Human Rights definitely has its weak points, but at present we have no intention to lay our finger on them. Instead; we point out its strong points.
The basis of this Declaration is the inherent human dignity, because of which man is entitled to certain rights which are not enjoyed by other living beings, for they lack that dignity. This is the strong point of the Declaration.
WESTERN PHILOSOPHY DEPRECIATES MAN
Here we are again faced with an old philosophical question:
What is the nature of the human dignity which distinguishes man from a horse, a cow and a pigeon?
It is here that the contradiction between the basis of the Declaration of Human Rights and the Western evaluation of man becomes evident.
The Western philosophy has since long depreciated man. The source of all that used to be said previously about man and his distinguished position was in the East. Now most of the European systems of philosophy ridicule all that.
Man, from the Western point of view, has come down to the position of a machine. The existence of a soul and the magnanimous origin of man have been denied. The belief that nature has an ultimate goal is considered to be a reactionary idea.
Now nobody in the West can talk of man as the crown of the creation. According to the current European theory, such a belief was only an offshoot of the now obsolete Ptole-maic astronomy, according to which the earth was believed to be the centre of the Universe and all the stars were believed to be revolving round it. Now that theory has gone, and, with its disappearance, no room is left for man to claim that he is the crown of the Universe. According to the Europeans, even in the past it was only because of his selfishness that man made this claim. Now man is a modest creature. He does not consider himself to be superior to other living beings. His life is only physical. After a man dies, his body is decomposed and there the matter ends.
The European does not believe that soul has any independent existence. In this respect he does not consider himself to be in any way different from a plant or an animal. According to him, there is no essential difference between the nature of man's intellectual and spiritual capabilities and other properties of matter such as heat, emanating from coal. All these are various manifestations of energy and matter.
Life for all living beings, including man, means a constant struggle for existence. This is the basic principle of life. Man has always been striving to be victorious in this struggle, and to save his position he has invented such moral rules as justice, virtue, co-operation, sincerity etc.
From the standpoint of certain powerful Western schools of thought, man is just a machine which is actuated only by the motives of economic gains. Religion, morality, philosophy, science, literature and the arts are all superstructures. Their infrastructure is the mode of production and distribution of wealth which determines all aspects of human life.
Not only that, some western thinkers are of the view that sexual factors are the real motivating force behind all human activities. Morality, philosophy, science, religion and the arts are all modified and rarefied forms of sex.
We wonder how we can talk of human dignity and inalienable rights and how we can make them the basis of all our actions, if we deny that nature has any ultimate aim, if we think that the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest are the only laws which govern life, if we believe that man is only a machine just like any machine made with human hands, if we maintain that the soul has no existence and all that is attributed to it is mere spiritual exaggeration, if we hold that either the economic or the sexual factors are the motivating force behind all human activities, if we assert that good and evil are only relative conceptions, if we are of the opinion that natural and intuitive inspirations are absurd and if we say that man is a slave of his desires and passions and can submit to force only.
Western views about man are contradictory to his dignity and have lowered his position from every angle - from the angle of the causes which have brought him into existence, from the angle of the purpose for which he has been created, his structure, his motives and his conscience.
Having done all this, the Western countries have proclaimed a high-sounding Declaration about human dignity and position and inalienable and sacred rights and have called upon mankind to enforce it.
The West, before issuing a high-sounding Declaration about sacred and natural human rights, should have revised its interpretation regarding man.
We admit that all Western philosophers do not hold the same views. Many of them think in this respect on the same lines as we do in the East. We have in view that way of thinking which has gripped most of the people in the West and which is now influencing the people all over the world.
The Declaration of Human Rights should have been issued by those, who consider man to be higher than a robot, who think that his motives are not limited to his personal and animal instincts and who have faith in human conscience. The Declaration of Human Rights should have been issued by the people of the East who believe man to be the vicegerent of God on the earth. The Holy Qur'an says: Surely I am appointing a vicegerent on the earth. (Surah al-Baqarah, 2 : 30) Only those who believe that man has a goal and a destination can talk of human rights. 0 men! Surely you have to labour and labour toward your Lord, and then you shall meet Him. (Surah al-Inshiqaq, 84 : 6)
The Declaration of Human Rights befits those systems which believe that man has a natural leaning towards virtue. By the soul and Him who perfected it and inspired it with knowledge of evil and piety. (Surah as-Shams, 91 : 7 - 8)
The Declaration of Human Rights should be issued by those who are optimistic about the nature of man. Surely we have made man in the best proportion. (Surah at-Teen, 95 : 4)
The Declaration of Human Rights does not befit the Western way of thinking. What befits it is only the practical behaviour of those Western people who kill all human sentiments, play with human characteristics, give preference to money over man, worship machinery, regard wealth as almighty and exploit other human beings. Capitalism has acquired such an unlimited power that if by chance a millionaire bequeaths his wealth to his dear dog, it is respected more than human beings, and several men serve it as its secretaries and clerks and show utmost respect to it.
Today's most important social question, in the words of the Holy Qur'an, is: Has man forgotten himself? He has not only forgotten himself, but has forgotten his God also. He has confined his attention to the material world and has totally ignored introspection. He thinks that he has lost his soul. This way of thinking is most disastrous, and may completely ruin humanity. Modern civilisation can produce everything of the highest grade, but it cannot produce a real man.
Gandhi says that the European deserves to be called the lord of the earth. He possesses all earthly resources and can do things which other nations believe only God can do. But there is only one thing which a European cannot do and that is introspection. That alone is enough to prove the futility of the glitter of the modern civilisation.
If Western civilisation has plagued the European with liquor and sex, it is because instead of seeking himself he is after forgetting and wasting himself. His practical ability to discover, to invent and to produce war material is due to his self-escape and not due to his exceptional self-control.
His fear of loneliness, his reticence and his pursuit of money have made him unable to listen to his internal voice. His inability to rule himself is his incentive to conquer the world. That is why the European spreads confusion and chaos wherever he goes. If one loses his own soul, it is no use conquering the world. Those who have been taught by the Gospel to be the missionaries of truth, love and peace, roam about in search of gold and slaves. Instead of seeking forgiveness and justice in the Kingdom of God, as the Gospel teaches, they use their religion only to absolve themselves from their sins. Instead of preaching the Divine message, they drop bombs on the innocent people.
That is the reason why the Declaration of Human Rights is being violated by the West. The philosophy which is followed by the people of the West in their practical life makes the failure of the Declaration inevitable.
Natural Postulates of Family Rights
We have said that man enjoys a sort of innate dignity. The very nature of his creation has bestowed on him a number of inalienable and untransferable rights and freedoms. This is the spirit and basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Islam and the philosophies of the East support this spirit. What is inconsistent with the basis of the Declaration, is the way in which the various systems of Western philosophy interpret the origin and nature of man.
It is evident that the only authoritative source of the knowledge of human rights is the great and valuable book of nature itself. Only by referring to the pages of this great book can we find out the rights which are really common to all mankind, and also ascertain the comparative positions of the rights of man and woman.
It is amazing that certain simple-minded people do not recognise this great source. According to them, the only reliable source is the body of those few world-dominating people who had a hand in drafting this Declaration. Though they themselves practically may not adhere much to its contents but others have no right to dispute. But we, in the name of these very human rights, believe that we have a right to differ. In our view, the only authoritative source is nature itself which may be regarded as a divine book.
We seek the indulgence of the readers, because we have to raise certain questions which are somewhat philosophical and apparently dry. They may even be boring to some readers. We might have avoided such questions, but the subject of the rights of woman is so closely related to them that it is not possible to leave them out altogether.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATURAL RIGHTS AND THE AIMS OF NATURE
In our view, natural and inherent rights have arisen from the divine arrangement according to which the creative machinery, keeping in view its aims, is pushing forward all existing things towards that state of perfection, the capability of which is already hidden in their very making.
Every natural capability is the basis of one natural right and, at the same time, a natural authority for the implementation of that right. For example, every human child has a right to learn and to go to school, but a lamb has no such rights. Why is it so?
It is because a child has the capability of learning and growing wiser, which a lamb lacks. The creative machinery has put the authority for this right within the structure of man, but not in that of sheep. Similar is the case with the right of thinking, voting and having free will.
Some people think that the theory of natural rights and the idea that nature has accorded any special rights to human beings are preposterous and selfish claims. In fact, there is no difference in regard to rights between human beings and non-human beings.
But that is not the reality. Natural capabilities are different. Nature has put every species of all that exists in a particular orbit, and it can prosper only if it moves within its natural limits. The Creator has done so purposely, and this arrangement is not the result of any chance.
The basis of the family rights, which is the point under consideration, should be looked for in nature, like that of all other natural rights. If we look at the natural capabilities of man and woman, we can easily find out whether they should or should not have similar rights and obligations. It should be remembered, as already pointed out, that the controversial point is the similarity of their rights and not the equality of their rights.
SOCIAL RIGHTS
The position of human beings, in regard to their social rights other than family rights, is not always the same. In certain cases they enjoy similar rights, but in certain others they have dissimilar, but equal rights. In the society elementary rights are common to all. Everybody, for example, has a right to utilise his or her talents, to work and take part in the competition of life, to be a candidate for a social post and to secure it by lawful means, and to show his or her practical and intellectual worth.
But this very equality of all in regard to elementary rights puts them in an unequal position with regard to acquired rights. For example, everybody has a right to work and take part in the competition of life, but, as far as the actual performance of work is concerned, all cannot acquit themselves equally well. Some are more capable and others are less. Similarly, some are more efficient and some are less. Again, some persons are more knowledgeable, more competent, more efficient and more suitable than some others. Naturally their acquired rights cannot be similar. To try to make their acquired rights as similar as their elementary rights will be nothing but sheer injustice.
The reason why all human beings have equal and similar rights is that a study of human affairs proves that nobody has been created a boss or a subordinate. Nobody is born a worker, an artisan, a teacher, an officer, a soldier or a minister. These various positions and grades are a part of acquired rights. Individuals have to acquire them in accordance with their ability, talent, effort and exertion.
Here lies the difference between the social life of human beings and that of such gregarious animals as bees The formations of the life of the latter are a hundred per cent natural. Various functions and duties have been distributed among them by nature itself. Some of them have been created chiefs, and others subordinates. Some of them are born as engineers, some as administrative officials and others as simple workers. But the story of the life of human beings is quite different.
That is why some intellectuals have entirely denied the old philosophical theory that man is social by nature, and have presumed that the human society is purely contractual.
