4. Human Rights Granted in Islam

Book reference: p.87 — "Discuss the human rights grant in Islam. Islam puts great emphasis on human rights."

Core Human Rights in Islam

• Right to life (5:32)
• Right to justice (5:8, 4:135 — even against oneself or kin)
• Right to freedom of belief (2:256 — no compulsion in religion)
• Right to honour and privacy (49:12 — prohibition of spying and backbiting)
• Right to property
• Right to education
• Right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence
• Right to basic economic welfare — via the Zakat system (see Theme I)

Qur'anic Evidence

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

اردو: جس نے کسی ایک جان کو بغیر (قصاص) کسی جان کے یا زمین میں فساد کی سزا کے، قتل کیا تو گویا اس نے گویا سارے انسانوں کو قتل کیا۔

English: "Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or corruption [done] in the land — it is as if he had slain all mankind."

— Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:32

لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ

اردو: دین کے بارے میں کوئی جبر نہیں۔

English: "There is no compulsion in religion."

— Surah Al-Baqarah 2:256

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِكُمْ

اردو: اے ایمان والو! انصاف پر خوب جمے رہنے والے اور اللہ کے لیے گواہی دینے والے بنو، خواہ اپنے خلاف ہی ہو۔

English: "O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves."

— Surah An-Nisa 4:135

Hadith Evidence

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كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ

اردو: تم میں سے ہر ایک نگہبان ہے اور ہر ایک سے اس کی رعیت (زیر دستوں) کے بارے میں پوچھا جائے گا۔

English: "Each of you is a shepherd/guardian and each of you is responsible for those under his care."

— Sahih al-Bukhari 2409; Sahih Muslim 1829

CSS Exam Tips

• Present a comprehensive list with one ayah per right — examiners reward breadth as well as depth in "discuss human rights" questions.
• Cross-reference: Human Rights in Light of the Last Sermon for the single richest textual source, and Rights of Citizens in an Islamic State.

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20-Mark Enrichment — Analytical Material

Core Argument

Islamic human rights are best presented as ḥuqūq — enforceable claims — rather than as ideals. Their distinguishing features are three: they are divinely granted (hence inalienable, since no legislature conferred them and none may withdraw them); they are universal (attaching to banī Ādam, not to Muslims or citizens); and they are doubly enforced, by courts in this world and by accountability in the next. Organise the answer around the classical framework of the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah — the five necessities whose protection is the declared purpose of the entire law — and every right you list will have a place in a coherent structure rather than a list.

1. The Framework — Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah (al-Ghazālī, al-Shāṭibī)

The Sharīʿah exists to protect five ḍarūriyyāt, and each generates a family of rights:

1. Ḥifẓ al-Dīn (religion) → freedom of belief and worship; protection of places of worship.
2. Ḥifẓ al-Nafs (life) → right to life, security of person, prohibition of torture and murder.
3. Ḥifẓ al-ʿAql (intellect) → right to education, free enquiry, prohibition of intoxicants.
4. Ḥifẓ al-Nasl (lineage/family) → marriage rights, protection of honour and chastity, children's rights.
5. Ḥifẓ al-Māl (property) → ownership, contract, prohibition of theft, fraud, usurpation and ribā.

Some jurists add ḥifẓ al-ʿirḍ (honour/dignity) as a sixth. Presenting the answer through this lens is what distinguishes a trained candidate from one reciting verses.

2. Right to Life and Security

• مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا — "Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or corruption in the land, it is as if he had slain all mankind" — (5:32) — the value of a single life equated with all humanity.
• وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا أَوْلَادَكُمْ خَشْيَةَ إِمْلَاقٍ ۖ نَّحْنُ نَرْزُقُهُمْ وَإِيَّاكُمْ — "And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We provide for them and for you" — (17:31) — killing children for fear of poverty prohibited; the state's duty to provide is the corollary.
• The Farewell Sermon's declaration of blood, property and honour as inviolable.
• Prohibition of killing non-combatants in war; مَنْ قَتَلَ مُعَاهَدًا لَمْ يَرَحْ رَائِحَةَ الْجَنَّةِ — "whoever kills a covenanted non-Muslim will not smell the fragrance of Paradise" (Bukhārī).

3. Right to Freedom of Belief and Worship

• لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ ۖ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنَ الْغَيِّ — "There is no compulsion in religion; the right course has become clear from the wrong" — (2:256).
• أَفَأَنتَ تُكْرِهُ النَّاسَ حَتَّىٰ يَكُونُوا مُؤْمِنِينَ — "Then would you compel the people until they become believers?" — (10:99); فَذَكِّرْ إِنَّمَا أَنتَ مُذَكِّرٌ ۝ لَّسْتَ عَلَيْهِم بِمُصَيْطِرٍ — "So remind; you are only a reminder. You are not a controller over them" — (88:21–22).
• لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ — "For you is your religion, and for me is my religion" — (109:6).
• Protection of houses of worship of all faiths (22:40); the Najrān covenant; ʿUmar's (RA) covenant with Jerusalem.

4. Right to Justice and Due Process

• وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُم بَيْنَ النَّاسِ أَن تَحْكُمُوا بِالْعَدْلِ — "And when you judge between people, judge with justice" — (4:58) — justice as a mandatory standard of adjudication.
• كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِكُمْ — "Be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves" — (4:135) — justice even against oneself, parents and kin.
• وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا ۚ اعْدِلُوا هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ — "And let not the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness" — (5:8) — hatred of a people must not push you to injustice; the most powerful verse against communal or ethnic bias in law enforcement.
• Personal responsibility: وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَىٰ — "No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another" — (6:164) — no collective punishment.
• Evidentiary standards: 49:6 (verify reports), 24:4 (penalty for unproven accusations of unchastity), and the jurisprudential maxim that ḥudūd are averted by doubt — ادْرَءُوا الْحُدُودَ بِالشُّبُهَاتِ — "Avert the prescribed punishments by doubts."
• The Prophet ﷺ instructed ʿAlī (RA) as judge in Yemen: do not decide for the first party until you have heard the second (Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī) — audi alteram partem, stated in the 7th century.

5. Economic and Social Rights

• Right to property: وَلَا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُم بَيْنَكُم بِالْبَاطِلِ — "And do not consume one another's wealth unjustly" — (2:188); the Farewell Sermon's inviolability of property.
• Right to subsistence: in the wealth of the rich is a recognised right for the beggar and the deprived — وَفِي أَمْوَالِهِمْ حَقٌّ لِّلسَّائِلِ وَالْمَحْرُومِ — "And in their wealth is a recognised right for the petitioner and the deprived" — (51:19). Note the word ḥaqq: this is a claim, not charity.
• Zakāt as an institutionalised transfer with eight defined categories (9:60).
• Right to fair wages: أَعْطُوا الْأَجِيرَ أَجْرَهُ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَجِفَّ عَرَقُهُ (Ibn Mājah); and the ḥadīth qudsī naming as an adversary of Allah one who hires a worker and withholds his wage (Bukhārī).
• Prohibition of exploitation: ribā, hoarding, fraud, and monopoly.

6. Rights of Specific Groups

• Women: consent, mahr, maintenance, inheritance, education, property, khulʿ (see dedicated sub-topics).
• Children: right to life, lineage, name, nursing, maintenance, education and equitable treatment between siblings (Bukhārī, the case of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr).
• Orphans: an entire architecture of protection — 4:2, 4:10 (those who consume orphans' property "consume fire"), 93:9.
• Parents and the elderly: 17:23–24 — not even a word of contempt (uff).
• Non-Muslim citizens (dhimmī): protection of life, property, worship and personal law; exemption of the poor, monks, women and children from jizyah; ʿUmar's (RA) grant of a state pension to an elderly Jewish beggar from the Bayt al-Māl, saying it was unjust to take jizyah in his youth and abandon him in old age.
• Prisoners and captives: 76:8 — feeding the captive listed as a virtue; prohibition of torture and mutilation.
• Workers and slaves: manumission as expiation; إِخْوَانُكُمْ خَوَلُكُمْ ... فَأَطْعِمُوهُ مِمَّا يَأْكُلُ — "your servants are your brothers; feed them from what you eat and clothe them from what you wear" (Bukhārī).
• Animals and environment: the woman punished over a cat, the man forgiven for watering a dog (Bukhārī & Muslim); prohibition of wasting water even at a flowing river (Ibn Mājah).

7. Comparison with the Modern Human Rights Regime

• Name the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990) and the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (1981) for contemporary articulation.
• Concede honestly that OIC states rank poorly on rights indices — and argue that this indicts governance, not doctrine.

8. Contemporary Relevance for Pakistan

• Constitutional alignment: Articles 4, 9, 10-A (fair trial), 14 (dignity), 20 (religion), 25 (equality), 25-A (education) map closely onto the maqāṣid.
• Live issues where the Islamic argument is directly usable: enforced disappearances (6:164, due process), custodial torture (dignity, 17:70), bonded labour (wage ḥadīth), inheritance denial, blasphemy-related vigilantism (49:6, 24:4, the prohibition of taking law into private hands), and minority protection (Jinnah's 11 August 1947 address read alongside the Charter of Madīnah).

Qur'anic Evidence Bank

• al-Isrāʾ 17:70 — dignity of all human beings.
• al-Māʾidah 5:32 — sanctity of life.
• al-Baqarah 2:256 — freedom of belief.
• al-Nisāʾ 4:58 & 4:135 — justice in adjudication and against oneself.
• al-Māʾidah 5:8 — do not let hatred lead you to injustice.
• al-Anʿām 6:164 — no vicarious liability.
• al-Dhāriyāt 51:19 — a recognised right of the poor in the wealth of the rich.
• al-Nisāʾ 4:10 — consuming orphans' wealth is consuming fire.
• al-Ḥujurāt 49:11–12 — honour, privacy, and protection from defamation.

Hadith / Seerah Application

• Farewell Sermon: blood, property, honour inviolable; no superiority except by taqwā; rights of women affirmed publicly before 100,000 witnesses — the world's first universal declaration of human rights.
• كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ (Bukhārī & Muslim) — rights guaranteed by universal accountability.
• ʿUmar's (RA) rebuke to ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ: "since when have you enslaved people whose mothers bore them free?"
• ʿAlī's (RA) letter to Mālik al-Ashtar: "either your brother in religion or your equal in creation."

Critical / Analytical Angle

The strongest analytical move is to identify what modern rights discourse cannot supply and Islam does: an unconditional source. A right that a parliament grants, a parliament can suspend; the twentieth century demonstrated repeatedly that legal positivism offers no defence when the state itself becomes the violator. Islam removes the grantor from human hands — dignity is conferred in 17:70 and cannot be legislated away — and then adds an enforcement mechanism no state can evade, since the ruler himself stands accountable before Allah. The second analytical move is candour: the gap between Islamic rights doctrine and Muslim state practice is real and large, and the honest answer treats that gap as the central policy problem rather than pretending it away. Examiners reward the candidate who argues the doctrine confidently and diagnoses the implementation failure precisely.

Model 20-Mark Answer Skeleton

1. Introduction (2) — rights as ḥuqūq; divine, universal, doubly enforced.
2. Maqāṣid framework (3) — the five necessities as the architecture of rights.
3. Life, belief, justice (5) — 5:32, 2:256, 4:58, 4:135, 5:8, 6:164, due process.
4. Economic and social rights (3) — 51:19, Zakāt, wages, property.
5. Rights of specific groups (3) — women, children, orphans, minorities, captives, workers, animals.
6. Comparison with UDHR and Cairo Declaration (2).
7. Pakistan relevance and conclusion (2).

✍️ Full Model Answer — Exam-Ready Prose

Introduction (2 marks): Islam presents human rights not as aspirational ideals but as ḥuqūq — enforceable claims — with three distinguishing features: they are divinely granted and therefore inalienable, since no legislature conferred them and none may withdraw them; they are universal, attaching to banī Ādam rather than to Muslims or citizens alone; and they are doubly enforced, by courts in this world and by accountability before Allah in the next. The most coherent way to present them is through the classical Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah — the five necessities whose protection is the declared purpose of the entire law — rather than as an unstructured list of verses.

Maqāṣid framework (3 marks): Al-Ghazālī and al-Shāṭibī identify five ḍarūriyyāt that the Sharīʿah exists to protect, and each generates a family of rights: ḥifȥ al-dīn (religion) yields freedom of belief and worship; ḥifȥ al-nafs (life) yields the right to life and security of person; ḥifȥ al-ʿaql (intellect) yields the right to education and free enquiry; ḥifȥ al-nasl (lineage and family) yields marriage rights and protection of honour; and ḥifȥ al-māl (property) yields ownership and protection from fraud and usurpation. Presenting the answer through this architecture, rather than as isolated citations, is what distinguishes a trained candidate.

Life, belief, justice (5 marks): On life, the Qur'an declares, مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا — "whoever kills a soul, unless for a soul or corruption in the land, it is as if he had slain all mankind" (al-Māʿidah 5:32), equating the value of a single life with that of humanity as a whole. On belief, لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ — "there is no compulsion in religion" (al-Baqarah 2:256) — forbids coercion in matters of faith. On justice, the Qur'an demands impartiality even against one's own interest — "be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves" (al-Nisāʾ 4:135) — and, most powerfully against communal bias, warns that "let not the hatred of a people prevent you from being just; be just, that is nearer to piety" (al-Māʿidah 5:8). Due process was institutionalised early: the Prophet ﷺ instructed ʿAlī (RA), sent as judge to Yemen, not to decide for one party until he had heard the other — audi alteram partem, articulated in the seventh century.

Economic and social rights (3 marks): Property is protected — "do not consume one another's wealth unjustly" (2:188) — and subsistence is framed not as charity but as a claim: "and in their wealth is a recognised right for the beggar and the deprived" (al-Dhāriyāt 51:19), the word ḥaqq signalling entitlement rather than benevolence. This is institutionalised through Zakāt's eight defined categories of recipients (9:60), and fair wages are mandated by the ḥadīth أَعْطُوا الأَجِيرَ أَجْرَهُ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَجِفَّ عَرَقُهُ — "give the worker his wage before his sweat dries" (Ibn Mājah).

Rights of specific groups (3 marks): Islam extends particular protection to the vulnerable: orphans, whose guardians who consume their property are said to "consume fire" (4:10); parents and the elderly, toward whom not even a word of contempt is permitted (17:23–24); non-Muslim citizens, whose life, property and worship are protected under the dhimmī framework, exemplified by ʿUmar's (RA) grant of a state pension to an elderly Jewish beggar; and even animals, as in the ḥadīth of the man forgiven for watering a thirsty dog (Bukhārī & Muslim). Women's rights — consent, mahr, maintenance, inheritance and education — are treated in dedicated sub-topics but belong squarely within this same architecture.

Comparison with UDHR and Cairo Declaration (2 marks): Set against the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Farewell Sermon of 632 CE predates it by thirteen centuries and grounds rights in revelation rather than state consensus, making them non-derogable in principle rather than suspendable in emergencies; the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990) is the OIC's modern articulation of this same foundation. An honest answer concedes that OIC states rank poorly on contemporary rights indices, but argues this indicts governance and enforcement, not the doctrine itself.

Pakistan relevance and conclusion (2 marks): Constitutional provisions such as Articles 9, 10-A, 14 and 25 map closely onto the maqāṣid, and live issues — enforced disappearances, custodial torture, bonded labour, blasphemy-related vigilantism — are all directly addressable through this Islamic framework of due process and dignity. Islam's contribution to human rights, in the end, is not that it listed them first, but that it placed their source beyond the reach of any legislature and their enforcement beyond the reach of any court, including the ruler's own.

One-Line Conclusion for a 20-Mark Answer

Islam's contribution to human rights is not that it listed them first, but that it placed their source beyond the reach of any legislature and their enforcement beyond the reach of any court — including the ruler's own.

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📌 Past Paper Questions — CSS 2017–2026

Every FPSC question on this topic, linked to its solved model answer. Open the year page and jump to the Q number.

Asked directly (2 times):

• 2022 · Q2 — Explain the concept of Human Rights in Islamic thought in specification of "Status of Women in Islam". → 2022 — Islamic Studies (CSS)
• 2026 · Q2 — Provide a comparative and critical analysis of the human rights granted by Islam with those enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). → 2026 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

Related questions:

• 2020 · Q4 — The Last Sermon as the basic document for human rights. → 2020 — Islamic Studies (CSS)
• 2023 · Q8(i) — Human rights in the light of the Sermon of Farewell Pilgrimage. → 2023 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

🎯 Exam pattern: The 2026 question wants a comparison — use a table (source: divine vs man-made; enforcement; duties + rights vs rights only; 1948 vs 632 CE) and be balanced, noting where the UDHR and Islam agree.

📝 CSS Past-Paper MCQs — 2024–2026

Actual FPSC MCQs placed under this relevant syllabus subtopic. Answers follow the existing solved papers, with corrections or cautions stated where needed. The provided 2017–2023 papers lack Part-I questions.

• 2026 · MCQ 6 (1 mark). Which Surah says that killing one person is like killing all mankind?
  • Options: A. Al-Anfal · B. Al-Ahzab · C. At-Tawbah · D. Al-Maidah
  • Correct answer: D. Al-Maidah. Qur'an 5:32. Year-wise solved paper.