Human Rights In An Islamic State

In the address which the Prophet delivered on the occasion of the Farewell Hajj, he said: "Your lives and properties are forbidden to one another till you meet your Lord on the Day of Resurrection." The Prophet has also said about the dhimmis (the non-Muslim citizens of the Muslim state): "One who kills a man under covenant (i.e., dhimmi) will not even smell the fragrance of Paradise."

The Holy Quran lays down:

• "You who believe, do not let one (set of) people make fun of another set."

• "Do not defame one another."

• "Do not insult by using nicknames."

• "Do not backbite or speak ill of one another."
  (49:11-12)

The Quran has laid down the injunction:

• "Do not spy on one another." (49:12)

• "Do not enter any houses unless you are sure of their occupant's consent." (24:27)

Islam has laid down the principle that no citizen can be imprisoned unless his guilt has been proven in an open court. To arrest a man only on the basis of suspicion and to throw him into a prison without proper court proceedings and without providing him a reasonable opportunity to produce his defense is not permissible in Islam.

Among the rights that Islam has conferred on human beings is the right to protest against government's tyranny. Referring to it the Quran says:

"God does not love evil talk in public unless it is by someone who has been injured thereby." (4:148) In Islam, as has been argued earlier, all power and authority belong to God, and with man there is only delegated power which becomes a trust; everyone who becomes a recipient of such a power has to stand in awful reverence before his people toward whom and for whose sake he will be called upon to use these powers. This was acknowledged by Hazrat Abu Bakr who said in his very first address: "Cooperate with me when I am right but correct me when I commit error; obey me so long as I follow the commandments of Allah and His Prophet; but turn away from me when I deviate."