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PROTECTION OF BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS

Every person, on attaining the age of consent, starts feeling on the one hand that certain duties are imposed on him and on the other that the society in which he lives, he has certain rights and privileges. This feeling requires that he recognizes his duties and protect his rights, be the rights the individual rights or the collective rights! He also has to see that not only his rights are not denied, but the rights of his fellow men too are protected. If some impediments come in the way of these rights, he must try to the best of his capabilities to remove them. The biggest responsibility for protecting the rights of the individual and the society rests on the state. Therefore, the states, in their statutes give a pride of place to the individual and human rights. They do this to preclude a feeling of insecurity from the minds of the people

These rights, basically, are four in number.

The Right to Live

The first right is the right to live. Every individual in this world has a right to live. The individual or group of individuals have no right to deprive a person the right to live. Islam, which is a system based on the norm of peace, considers murder as the most heinous crime. One blatant murder is termed such a huge sin by Islam as if an entire race has been killed. Therefore, Allah says:

…أَنَّهُ مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا.

“…Whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men. (5/32)”

This verse also permits that killing a person who is guilty of making mischief on the earth is permissible. Because the person himself had been guilty of killing others and creating mischief in the society. Islam prescribing the punishment of a life for a life has very efficiently controlled the urge for taking human life for no reason at all. A person, before killing any one thinks twice that soon he will meet the same end at the hands of Justice! Therefore,

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the Holy Qur’an terms the Law of qisas as the very life of the human race:

وَلَكُمْ فِي الْقِصَاصِ حَيَاةٌ يَا أُوْلِي الْأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ.

“And there is life for you in the law of retaliation (qisas), O men of understanding, that you may guard yourselves. (2/179)”

Similarly, killing someone who attacks with an intention of killing too is not forbidden. It is done in self-defense.

Islam not only forbids killing someone else, but committing suicide too is a major sin in the Faith. In fact severing any part of one’s body is not allowed. Man is made the trustee of his life and the act of killing oneself or severing the parts of one’s body too are taboo. Although in some countries suicide is considered an act of valor, but the truth is that it is the worst type of cowardice and defeatist tendency in the person. The Holy Qur’an has prohibited people from this act:

وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِكُمْ رَحِيمًا.

“And do not kill your people; surely Allah is Merciful to you. (4/29)”

While Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) was the protector of the human values, he was also aware of the importance of the human life. He did not like or tolerate taking human lives needlessly. Although he was in the forefront during the battles fought during the time of the Prophet (a.s), he even fought some battles during his reign as well, but all these battles were in self-defense and not aggressive battles for conquest and self-aggrandizement, as some others did. The Prophet (a.s) took up his sword when the enemy had attacked. Similarly `Ali (a.s) initiated action only when the enemy aggressively came and started hostilities. In fact, he always tried to nip the conflict in the bud and find ways of establishing peace with the enemy. `Ali (a.s) never made a preemptive attack on the enemy and retaliated only when the attack started from the opposing side. Also, he tried to make the hostilities as short as possible to limit loss of lives on both sides. He refrained from taking men captive and forgave even the known sworn enemies. Therefore, after the Battle of the Camel, with a single stroke of pen he gave amnesty to all people of al-Basrah. He did not seek any reparations from Marwan, `Abdullah ibn `Umar, `Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr and sent Umm al-Mu’minin from the battlefield to al-Madinah with all the respect! The Iraqis and the Syrians who were taken prisoner during the Battle of Siffin were released unconditionally. At the end of the Battle of Nahrawan, the injured Khawarij (the

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excommunicated) who numbered 400 were released from detention unconditionally. The people from their tribes were called to take them away. He wanted them to be treated and sent to al-Kūfah after total recovery. Every fair thinking person can make out from the attitude of `Ali (a.s) that his purpose in fighting was just to curb the mischief and not to kill men and plunder territories, as was done by some others not very long ago!

While `Ali (a.s) was very much against unnecessary bloodletting, he did not permit anyone’s blood going waste without the application of qisas. Therefore, when `Umar was killed, his son `Ubaydullah killed al-Harmuzan and a few other innocent persons. `Uthman closed his eyes to this and was not willing to punish the guilty. When Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) took reins in his hands, he determined to extract qisas for the life of al-Harmuzan. But the culprit flew and went to the protection of Mu`awiyah in Syria. Ibn al-Athir writes:

“When `Ali (a.s) took reins of office, he decided to get `Ubaydullah executed, but he (the culprit) escaped to Mu`awiyah in Syria.”[1]

`Ubaydullah ibn `Umar was finally killed fighting against `Ali (a.s) in the Battle of Siffin.

The Right of Thought

The second right is the freedom of thought. This means that every individual must be free of extraneous pressures in his thought process so that he is able to independently decide what is good for him and what is bad. If this freedom of thought is curbed, then he will say a thing is good if the powerful say it is good, and he will accept a thing as bad when the persons in power say that it was bad. He will thus be subservient to the thinking of others and will not have any independent opinion about things. The freedom of thought is the most important aspect of freedom and wherever it is curbed, there the society becomes retrograde.

Islam brought forth this freedom of thought to its followers and broke all the oppressive practices of the Days of Ignorance (jahiliyyah). There is no place for coercion in Islam and its beliefs have never been forcefully thrust on anyone. Those who wanted to embrace Islam were invited to freely think about it and decide for themselves if they were willing to embrace the Faith.

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Therefore, the Qur’an tells in very clear terms:

لاَ إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ قَدْ تَبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنْ الغَيِّ.

“There is no compulsion in religion; truly the right way has become clearly distinct from error. (2/256)”

The period of Amir al-Mu’minin’s reign was a period of independence of though for the people. When, at the end of the third caliphate the people wanted to owe their allegiance to him, `Ali (a.s) asked them to think over the matter before casting their lot. He gave them a full week to think over the matter. `Ali (a.s) had in his mind that in their selection the people should not act on the spontaneous emotions because such decisions are not durable. One day they decide something in a hurry and the next day they go back on it. So, instead of making an emotional decision at the spur of the moment, they must make a well considered and thought of decision. Although the cunning and seasoned politicians take, advantage of such emotions of the people and win their election campaigns with this policy. But Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) gives the people all the time to think and decide. Such an example cannot be cited in the annals of the elections anywhere in the world.

Similarly, in the matter of religion neither he closed the avenues of thought nor he enforced any change of Faith under coercion. People of all faiths, viz: Jews, Christians, and Magians, etc… had total freedom to practice their creeds.

The Right of Action

The third right is the right to act. Man is free, to a certain degree, to act the way he wishes. He cannot be forced to act contrary to his own wishes. He will do what he himself thinks is right for him and shuns what he thinks is harmful. He is within his rights to do this as far as his action does not go against the interest of the people in general. Therefore, certain restrictions are imperative with the right of action. In every civilized society, such restrictions are deemed necessary.

Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s).believed in freedom of action as well as freedom of thought. He never forced any person to do things that he personally did not want to do. Therefore, when some persons refused to owe allegiance to him, he did not force them to agree. When Talhah and al-Zubayr went back after pledging their allegiance to `Ali (a.s), he told them that no one forced them to do the bay`ah. When they wanted to go to Makkah, he told them that it would

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be better for them to stay at al-Madinah. But when they insisted on going, he told them that if they wished to go, they might. About `Umar the history records that he forced important Companions to stay put in al-Madinah lest they go out and hatch conspiracies against him! But Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s), despite knowing the nature of the two persons that their intention in traveling was to create mischief, did not curb their freedom of action. But when they headed towards al-Basrah for raising a rebellion, it became necessary to control them. Similarly Mu`awiyah too raised the standard of rebellion in Syria and steps had to be initiated against him. The step was not taken because he had refused to owe allegiance to the Caliph. The action was necessary because he was creating mischief and disturbing law and order in the realm. Mu`awiyah was only a governor in a province and his action was a clear rebellion by any standards of statecraft. Similarly, the Khawarij were left to their own scruples until they crossed their bounds and started to become rebellious.

`Ali (a.s) respected the freedom of action of the individual so much that even in very delicate situations he did not interfere with it. Even during battles, he allowed this privilege to persons. When he received word that some persons had escaped to Syria, he told Sahl ibn Hunayf, the chief of al-Madinah, “I am told that some of your people are stealthily going to Mu`awiyah. Do not worry about those who have gone. These are worldly-wise persons and they will bend towards worldly things! They have understood, seen and felt justice and learned it well that here, according to their rights, all are equal. Therefore, they have run away to a place where partiality is rampant!” One can know from these few instances to what extent he allowed personal freedom to people: be it a friend or a foe, strong or weak, a known person or a stranger; none was deprived of this freedom. And this is the freedom that the people of a civilized society demand from their rulers. The purpose of this freedom is not that people keep doing anything they wanted to do. When the establishment finds that people have abused the freedom given to them, then drastic action can also be instituted against such persons.

Right of Racial Equality

The fourth right is the right to racial equality. This means that discrimination on the basis of race, color and geographical origin has to be done away with. Every person, by virtue of the fact that he is a human being is entitled to the same respect as any other human being. All the social and economic rights for all individuals in the society have to be maintained at the same level. It is

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immaterial whether the person is rich, poor, Arab or non-Arab, rich or poor, black or white. They are all the creature of the same Allah and belong to the human kind. The differences that existed among the people were the creation of the Days of Ignorance. This was done to put into the minds of the people that some were superior to others! Allah says in the Holy Qur’an:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ.

“O you men! Surely, We have created you of a male and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other; surely the most honorable of you with Allah is the one among you most careful (of his duty); surely Allah is Knowing, Aware. (49/13)”

Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) was the torchbearer of Islamic equality and the guardian of human rights. He treated Qarashi, Arab, non-Arab, freemen, slaves and everyone else on an equal footing. He did not tolerate discrimination between men on the basis of tribal and racial differences.

From the bayt al-mal, a freed slave would get as much allowance that was received by a Qarashi. The way he treated others, he had the same attitude towards his own relations. He never took others and outsiders for granted. His attention was shared in equal measure by all. Once he learned about a governor that he had misused some money. He wrote to the person, “By Allah! If al-Hasan or al-Husayn (a.s) had done what you did, I would not have shown any consideration to them, nor would they be able to influence my decision!”

This was the equity of treatment that the Vicegerent of the Prophet (a.s) presented to the world. Today the Charter of Human Rights is given much importance by all the nations in the world. But Amir al-Mu’minin, in his time, practiced all the norms of human and the individual’s rights that are very dear to the people in these modern times!