Document Type : Research Article

Author

• Seyyed Hassan Hosseini

Visiting researcher at the University of the Catholic University of America and visiting professor at George Washington University

Abstract

"Human Rights" is the fruition of self-founded intellect of modern man as well as the result of his phenomenological view; however, the main sources of "Islam" (Qur'an and Sunnah) are product of divine revelation and a noumentalistic view to the man. The first view has close affinity with realism and is a bottom to top view, but second one has relationship with idealism and is a top to bottom view, and eventually religion seeks to realize man's transcendent reality, but human rights is after providing basic facilities necessary for human life.
Due to these fundamental differences in the principles and epistemic origins (reason or revelation), goals (training or guidance), processing methods (different languages) and perspectives (status quo or ideal status), one cannot speak easily of overlapping consensus between human rights and Islam. However, is it possible to neglect inconsistency and even independence regarding the relation between human rights and religion and think about "diologue" between them?
The author has given a positive answer, based on self-founded intellect and the text of the Holy Qur'an to the above-mentioned question, and is to explain his aim of this dialogue. According to this view, in their confortation and diologue, human rights and religion both open new horizons as well as interweave these horizons. To this aim, the author has inevitably considered the concepts of rationality, piety, living and acting according to Qur'an, subjective interpretation of Qur'anic texts, humanity and the relationship between the truth and the rights related to guiding.
The study concludes that belief in human rights prepares us to realize the ideals of the Qur'an; the observance of these principles makes our ears better in hearing the call of guidance and causes the realization of human reality promised in the Qur'an. Qur'anic guidance may create necessary enthusiasm to support human rights and to have respect for it. 

Keywords

• human rights
• the Reality of Man
• Dialogue
• Modern Rationality
• the Holy Qur'an
• Subjective Interpretation of Qur'anic Texts

Main Subjects

• Theoretical Foundations of Human Rights