Bismillahir Rahman nir Raheem
Human Rights - the rights of the sole intellectual species that inhabit this planet - are in jeopardy today. Unabashed racism, and selfish acquisition of land and resources are new normals. In this age of material progress and moral regression, the age of unashamed and unfair exploitation of the vulnerable by those who hold the clout and bullet, the farce being enacted in the name of ‘human rights’ is diabolically deceptive.
An examination of the western world social structure based on capitalism shows that the universal conscience is dead and economies are driven by greed. Exploitation, loss and suffering of ‘others’ are not the concerns of power hungry governments ready to squeeze them dry so long as they themselves can benefit.
The question now is: why has the human being fallen so low that he is worse than a beast?
You don’t have to look too far to find an answer. The answer lies in the mind frame of those who have compiled the ‘Universal’ Human Rights in the West. A quick browse through them will show that in all of these rights - the individual is at the centre. Every individual and every community is then intent on protecting its own interests. This attitude is promoted from a very young age and is an essential part of the education system. The right to choose what one wants for oneself is of paramount importance. This is an ‘individual’ centred structure, where everyone is ‘looking out for themselves’ in the words of JB Priestley. O yes, we talk about ‘human rights’: our right to speech, our right to privacy or our right to what ever it is we want. But in all these discussions, it is the individual who it at the centre. This feeds the human ego, and makes us feel good because we feel important. Our minds are therefore trained to expected the world to give us ‘our rights’ and our feathers are ruffled if anyone encroaches into our ‘our space’. This ‘self interest’ is individual at its inception but becomes a collective ideology of groups of people. All the people ‘inside’ the group become the beneficiaries - the privileged ones.
This structure, however, opposed to being beneficial, is actually detrimental to our well being. It isolates us and this isolation is the root cause of many mental illnesses the society seems to experience today. The individual is focused on seeking satisfaction from promoting and pampering the ‘self’. Experience tells us that the ‘self’ is never satisfied. It always wants something more, something different … and dissatisfaction sets in. The mind becomes ‘sick’ with a number of psychological imbalances. We then further indulge the ‘self’ and assign big, important sounding names to these sicknesses of the mind. We turn to science for solutions and science turns to medicine and medicine offers drugs to alleviate the symptoms and give temporary respite. But the sickness, remains. Science can find no cures.
This approach cannot succeed. It is bound to fail because we are trying to find a physical solution to a psychological problem.
What we need is a perspective shift.
This perspective shift is a unique view on a social structure offered by Islamic thought. In Islam, the individual is not at the centre. Yes, Islam gives rights and ordains responsibilities to every individual but the angle of observation is different: instead of being ‘individual centred’, it is ‘other centred’.
The fulcrum is still the individual but he/she is now looking outwards. Now, every individual thinks of the rights others have over him/her. For example parents rights over him/her, or neighbour’s right over him/her, or children’s rights over him/her and so on. Rights become responsibilities as well, because now, there are expectations. As a son or daughter, I must fulfil the rights my parents have over me. As a wife/husband, I must fulfil the right my spouse has over me.
This approach, immediately provides a solution to all the problems in society. Automatically we are more inclusive, more tolerant, more respectful, and consequently, more happy and fulfilled.
