The Islamic Approach:
The second point which I would like to clarify at the very outset
is that when we speak of human rights in Islam we really mean that
these rights have been granted by God; they have not been granted by
any king or by any legislative assembly. The rights granted by the
kings or the legislative assemblies, can also be withdrawn in the same
manner in which they are conferred. The same is the case with the
rights accepted and recognized by the dictators. They can confer them
when they please and withdraw them when they wish; and they can
openly violate them when they like. But since in Islam human rights
have been conferred by God, no legislative assembly in the world, or
any government on earth has the right or authority to make any
amendment or change in the rights conferred by God. No one has the
right to abrogate them or withdraw them. Nor are they the basic
human rights which are conferred on paper for the sake of show and
exhibition and denied in actual life when the show is over. Nor are
they like philosophical concepts which have no sanctions behind
them.
The charter and the proclamations and the resolutions of the
United Nations cannot be compared with the rights sanctioned by
God; because the former is not applicable to anybody while the latter
is applicable to every believer. They are a part and parcel of the
Islamic Faith. Every Muslim or administrators who claim themselves
to be Muslims will have to accept, recognize and enforce them. If they
fail to enforce them, and start denying the rights that have been
guaranteed by God or make amendments and changes in them, or
practically violate them while paying lip-service to them, the verdict
of the Holy Quran for such governments is clear and unequivocal