Allah, The Lord of the worlds, worthy of all praise, deserves to be honored and respected, because he is the creator of all creatures, the benefactor who has bestowed all blessings on them, the one who grants life and all senses, to enjoy perfectly.
So, Allah has rights upon His creatures of people, who should be beholden to recognize his grace and blessings, on them.
Accordingly, Allah’s rights upon men consist of three things:
1- Belief:
To believe in His existence and trust in him, also to admit His Oneness and that His Omnipotence.
2- Worship:
To worship no God but Allah.
3- To Bow To His will:
This means to abide by his orders and to avoid what He Has forbidden.
These rights are the supreme ones, because they protect rights of the granter and the protector of all rights.
On the other handthese rights fulfill the goal of human existence, which is to worship the creator by following His manner and His system. Allah has said about this fact, (what means):
"I have only created jinn's and men that they may serve me." Quran( 51/56)
Second: Human Rights:
This kind includes social, economic and political rights; it consists of four essential parts:
A) Individual rights:
Also called civil rights, such as the right to life, education ...
But, in Islam man has also rights upon his own self. He is ordered to keep himself in safety from all things that hurt five things: Faith, Soul, Mind, Property and Dignity or Honor, for Islam aims at protecting these five things which are necessary for a safe life.
Accordingly Islam lays down the following rules towards one’s self:
- Securing one’s self is obligatory, so killing, suicide or abortion are prohibited, and so intoxicants or every harmful thing, like flesh of swine and dead animal as food, or even smoking. Thus, every harmful act, which hurts one's health is firmly forbidden.
- Property and honor are sacred; man is obliged to protect his property (money) from wastage and his dignity from humiliation.
B) Rights of Kindred: Including parents, wife, children and close relatives:
Parents have rights on their sons and daughters, who should be kind to them, especially when they reach old age. Similarly children also have rights on their parents. Both, wife and husband have mutual assistance towards each other.
C) Rights of weak and poor people: Orphans, The needy and The wayfarer:
Islam ordered to protect the rights of these kinds of needy people, and urges Muslims to satisfy their needs. It has imposed amount of money on rich people for their favor. Even more, Islam made this right as a third pillar, called Zakat.
D) Owners of rights:
Many rights enter in this context, like the following:
-Creditors (owners of debts).
- Neighbors: Kindness to neighbor is an obligatory right in Islam.
- All people, who have some right towards someone, whatever is the kind of right.
- Rights due to social interaction: Like the right of the road, or visit to the sick person, following and participating at funeral procession, respond to a greeting with courtesy, and various other rights...
In short this kind of rights includes every moral right. So it involves good ethics, like: trust on its wide meaning, secrets, honor, debts and compensation or Punishment due to felony.
The following Hadith (Hadith is a saying of the prophet or that of his companions) abbreviates the concept of rights in Islam:
"Your Lord has a right on you, your soul has a right on you, and your family has a right on you; so you should give the rights of all those who has a right on you."
The Prophet (PBUH) approved this fact when he said after He heard this:
"Salman has spoken the truth." (Salman is he who advised his brother Abu Ad-Darda by these words).
This Hadith is collected by bukhari(volume 3, Book 31, Number 189)
In conclusion:
We can notice the following:
* Rights in Islam are so wide than those who were proclaimed recently.
* Generally rights in Islam include rights of Allah and Human rights!
* Performance of Allah's rights is the guarantor to protect all rights!
* Every right is related to Allah’s rights, given that Allah is the source of rights and its protector.
* Individual rights are only a bit of a mass of rights that should be protected!
* Parents and relatives' rights include alimony, care and benevolence.
Abderrahman Saidi
Many thanks for my assistant and my best friend, Mr lahcen.