Family Life

We have said that man enjoys a sort of innate dignity. The very nature of his creation has bestowed on him a number of inalienable and untransferable rights and freedoms. This is the spirit and basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Islam and the philosophies of the East support this spirit. What is inconsistent with the basis of the Declaration, is the way in which the various systems of Western philosophy interpret the origin and nature of man.

It is evident that the only authoritative source of the knowledge of human rights is the great and valuable book of nature itself. Only by referring to the pages of this great book can we find out the rights which are really common to all mankind, and also ascertain the comparative positions of the rights of man and woman.

It is amazing that certain simple-minded people do not recognise this great source. According to them, the only reliable source is the body of those few world-dominating people who had a hand in drafting this Declaration. Though they themselves practically may not adhere much to its contents but others have no right to dispute. But we, in the name of these very human rights, believe that we have a right to differ. In our view, the only authoritative source is nature itself which may be regarded as a divine book.

We seek the indulgence of the readers, because we have to raise certain questions which are somewhat philosophical and apparently dry. They may even be boring to some readers. We might have avoided such questions, but the subject of the rights of woman is so closely related to them that it is not possible to leave them out altogether.

Adapted from the book: "Woman and Her Rights" by: "Shahid Murtaza Mutahhari"