Human Dignity: An Islamic Perspective

The inherent dignity of man is the foundation of human rights and human rights instruments have emphasized that all human rights are derived from the inherent dignity of the human person. Although many human rights scholars may assume it as an indisputable concept, it has always been a matter of dispute among competing schools of philosophy of law. Similarly, some Muslim scholars argue that the concept of inherent dignity of man is one of the essential teachings of Islam, while there are others who deny the inherent dignity of man. This controversy among Muslim scholars has been infiltrated into the Islamic human rights instruments. This paper seeks to examine the disputed dimensions of the concept of inherent dignity of man in human rights discourse and Islamic literature. The first part of the paper deals with the concept of inherent dignity in international and regional human rights instruments. In the second part of the paper, I shall discuss the concept of human dignity in the Islamic declarations on human rights. And the third part shall focus on the concept of dignity in the light of the Holy Quran and other sources of Islamic jurisprudence. Finally, the paper concludes that a study of the theoretical foundations of human dignity in the Islamic thought will unequivocally contribute to the promotion of human rights norms and the advancement of universal standards of human rights in the Muslim world.