(daa wa) on behalf of the Ismaili movement. The
term has also been adopted as a title to honor
Twelve-Imam Shii Ulama, who may be called huj-
jat Allah (or hojjatollah), “proof of God.” Among
Muslim theologians and philosophers, hujja has
been used in the technical sense of a convincing
or rational proof in a theoretical argument, such
as in debates over the immortality of the soul or
the createdness of the Quran.
See also aUthority; shiism.
Further reading: Farhad Daftary, The Ismailis: Their
History and Doctrines (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1990), 127–128, 561.
human rights
The relationship between Islam and human rights
is the subject of much contention in modern
political and religious discussions. Individual
rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of
assembly, and freedom of religion that found early
expression in the U.S. Bill of Rights, the French
Revolution, and more recently in the 1948 United
Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human
Rights form the basic framework of interna-
tionally recognized principles of human rights.
Together with additional covenants on political,
economic, and social rights, the rights of children,
and declarations against torture and discrimina-
tion based on race and gender, these documents
aim (some would say claim) to represent a set,
albeit incomplete, of universal principles appli-
cable to all persons everywhere.
However, some question whether these rights
are really achievable or desirable for everyone,
particularly in Islamic contexts. Those who see
Islam as an impediment to human rights often
focus on gender inequalities found in the sharia,
Islamic law, and the poor human rights records
of many governments in Muslim-majority lands.
They cite these as evidence that some essential
quality of Islam prevents the realization of human
rights for its believers. The vast majority of Mus-
lims and many non-Muslims argue, however, that
human rights are not only compatible with Islam
but integral to its core values of justice, equality,
and freedom. They criticize the cultural bias of
the current UN framework as placing too much
emphasis on the individual and call for a deeper
understanding of the rich cultural and religious
heritage Islamicate societies have to contribute to
the discussion.
The Arabic word for right, haqq (pl. huquq),
also means truth. Muslims agree that the ulti-
mate expression of truth for Islam is found in
its holy book, the qUran, and that God (allah)
is the final arbiter of justice. Human rights then
are given to humanity and guaranteed by God.
They are universal and for all time. The Quran
discusses freedom of religion (Q 2:256), justice
and equality (Q 5:8), the right to a basic stan-
dard of life (Q 51:19), the right to participate in
governance (Q 42:38), and rights of inheritance
(Q 4:7–9), among others. It should be noted
that interpretations of these verses are not fixed.
Rather, they often reflect the liberal and conser-
vative views of different sectors of society. One
can say broadly, however, that rights in Islam are
conceptualized as belonging to the individual
and to the community, and the community’s right
to function in harmony takes precedence over
those of an individual. In addition to this major
difference, some Islamic scholars (Ulama) also
promote a vision of gender relations built on the
idea of complementarity, which refers to different
but equal and complementary rights and roles
for each of the genders. This differs significantly
from secular and feminist emphasis on strict
equivalence of gender roles.
The public discussion of human rights in
Islam has traditionally taken the form of legalistic
debates between ulama as to the meaning of the
Quran. While this continues to the present day,
additional forums appeared in the latter half of the
20th century. They include the Universal Islamic
Declaration of Human Rights issued in 1981 and
the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in IslamK 314 human rights