ভূমিকা

Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted. (Quran, 49:13) ***** The issue of human rights, for being an inherent one, has a history as old as human age on the earth. The subject was born when mankind came into existence on the Earth. The bigger the human society and the population grew, the vaster the human rights issue was expanded. It has always been the source of freedom-seeking and freedom-fighting movements and it remained the eternal and perpetual ideal of mankind.

The historians have unearthed documents in their studies and researches that are indicative of the fact that mankind stressed its natural rights and basic freedom and liberty 2000 years before BC. The emergence of Islam in 610 A.D. not only was the milestone but was a golden and perpetual chapter in human history. Because of the contents of its teachings, particularly in human rights, it was welcomed and accepted by the oppressed people in a vast part of the globe and found many followers.

According to a well-known researcher, thinker and scholar, Abul A'la Maududi, the people in the West have the habit of attributing every good thing to themselves and try to prove that it is because of them that the world enjoys this and that blessing, while claiming that "they originated in the West".

They also have a habit of pretending that all the bestowments and privileges are rooted in the West, whereas the very first historical document on the human rights, Magna Carta of Britain (The Great Charter of the Liberties of Britain) was issued by John (England's king at the time) in 1215.

Though the Magna Carta itself came into existence six hundred years after the advent of Islam, this and the subsequent documents, as valid and firm evidence, prove that the West is lagging behind Islam on the issue of the human rights. Its failure to pay attention to human dignity and its delay in its fight against oppression and tyranny which mankind has suffered during centuries is evident here.