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Law, Religion and Human Dignity in the Muslim World Today: An Examination of OIC's Cairo Declaration of Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Abdullah al-Ahsan
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Extract

Human dignity is the recognition and respect of human need, desire and expectation one individual by another. This recognition is indispensable because no human being survives alone: Human dignity creates the foundation of society and civilization. Our knowledge of history suggests that religious ideas have provided this basic foundation of civilization. Describing the first recognized civilization in history one historian says, “Religion permeated Sumerian civic life.” According to another historian, “Religion dominated, suffused, and inspired all features of Near Eastern society—law, kingship, art, and science.” Based on these observations while defining civilization Samuel Huntington asserts, “Religion is a central defining characteristic of civilizations.”

In Islam, the Qur’an declares that: “We have bestowed dignity on the progeny of Adam.” The verse then continues to remind the whole of mankind of God's special favor unto them with physical and intellectual abilities, natural resources and with superiority over most other creatures in the world. This dignity is bestowed through God's act of creating Adam and breathing into him His Own Spirit. Since all human beings originated from Adam and his spouse, every single human being possesses this dignity regardless of color, race, religion and tribe. The whole of mankind, as khalīfah (vice-resenf) is responsible for establishing peace on earth through divinely ordained values such as amānah (trust), ‘adālah (justice) and shūra (consultation).

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , 2008 , pp. 569 - 597
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2008

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63. We shall elaborate this point at the concluding segment of this paper.

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96. Id.

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119. Many Saudi nationals have participated in the Afghan war against the former USSR in the 1980s, and in the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s.

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121. OIC Res. 17/11-P.

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138. Id.

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141. According to the International Federation for Human Rights, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2003—Turkey,

A number of amendments to the Turkish Law on Association n° 2908 of 6th October 1983, which contains numerous restrictive provisions, were passed in 2003. These amendments were drafted as part of the 4th, 5th and 7th “reform or harmonization packages,” and passed on 2nd January, 21st March and 30th July respectively in the context of Turkey's application for membership of the European Union.

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145. See supra n. 114, at 119-120.

146. Qur’an 61:3.

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148. Qur’an 42:38.

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