Report of the Programme organised by AAS at Department of Islamic Studies

             The Aligarh Activists’ Society organised a Student’s Seminar on the topic “Concept of Human Rights in Islam”. A paper introducing the crux of the topic was presented by Zuhair, which was then followed by an intense discussion among the students present.

            The paper presented by Zuhair began with a preview to the approach of Human Rights, pointing out how Islam considers the rights of Humans in relation to one another and to society as having been ordained by Allah, the Creator and Almighty Himself. These rights are, therefore, inviolable and not subject to human discretion. It then went on to discuss some of the basic rights, such as Right to Life, Right to Safety of Life, Right to protect the Chastity of Women, Right to a Basic Standard of Life, etc.
After the presentation of this paper, the floor was thrown open and students actively came forward to present their views and counter-opinions.


                A point which was raised, repeatedly and re-stressed over and over again was that Islam is a religion and an idea complete in itself, and must not be measured against the standards or values of any other system or ideology. The use of terms like “Human Rights” seems as if we are trying to justify to the West that the ideas and concepts present in their thought and their systems exists within the framework of Islam also.
                However, many students also pointed out that Western ideas and values dominate our time and everywhere it is their systems and media that control power as well as the flow of ideas and information. Thus, it would be foolish to ignore it altogether. The trick is to present our ideas without being apologetic.
                 The consensus that seemed to emerge was that Human Rights in Islam do not exist in isolation. Rather, Islam has its own complete idea of what Society should be, and it is within this desired social reality that human beings are assigned a number of rights and duties in relation to one another and to society. This conception needs to be understood in its entirety before comparing or placing it as an alternative to other systems and ideas.
                  The program had earlier begun by the recitation of a few verses of the Holy Qur’an by Manjur, a student of B.A. in Linguistics. It was conducted by Fawaz Shaheen, a third year student of Law.