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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values For Humanity CHAPTER SEVEN: HUMAN RESPONSIBILITIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS He it is who produceth gardens. . Eat ye of the fruit thereof when it fruiteth, and pay the due thereof upon the harvest day. Quran 6:141 Let me free so that like the Sun I shall wear a robe of fire, And within that fire like a Sun to adorn the world. Rumi But is it always man who “chooses”? And who then is this “man who chooses”?

Where is his limit and his center? If it is man who defines himself, what objective value can be attached to this definition? And if there is no objective value, no transcendent criterion, why think? If it is enough to be a man in order to be in the right, why seek to refer to human error?

Frithjof Schuon TO BE HUMAN Before speaking of human responsibilities or rights, one must answer the basic religious and philosophical question, “What does it mean to be human?” In today’s world everyone speaks of human rights and the sacred character of human life, and many secularists even claim that they are the true champions of human rights as against those who accept various religious worldviews.

But strangely enough, often those same champions of humanity believe that human beings are nothing more than evolved apes, who in turn evolved from lower life forms and ultimately from various compounds of molecules. If the human being is nothing but the result of “blind forces” acting upon the original cosmic soup of molecules, then is not the very statement of the sacredness of human life intellectually meaningless and nothing but a hollow sentimental expression?

Is not human dignity nothing more than a conveniently contrived notion without basis in reality? And if we are nothing but highly organized inanimate particles, what is the basis for claims to “human rights”? These basic questions know no geographic boundaries and are asked by thinking people everywhere.

Christianity in the West has sought to answer them on the firm theological basis that “human beings were created in the image of God” and it is the immortal soul and the spark of the Spirit within men and women that constitutes the basis for human dignity, the sacredness of human life, and ultimately human rights.