İlahiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi

Abstract

The issue of human rights is an ontological, philosophical, legal, ethical and theological problem by its nature. It is known that mentioning about human rights as a doctrine has covered a long process and the searches have continued. Societies' understanding of rights, their pursuit and struggle have different processes. Muhammad Âbid al-Jâbirî, one of the contemporary thinkers, and also he has discussed the concept of human rights in the Muslim consciousness. First, he has touched on the issue in the context of universality and locality. Human rights, duties and responsibilities as to human being have been discus-sed in every age and culture. Although the content of the concept has changed, the search and struggle for human rights has continued. In this sense, different historical experiences of societies and civilizations can be mentioned. It is seen that the aim of al-Jâbirî is to eliminate the lack of awareness which he has this feeling in the Arab/Muslim consciousness about human rights and to give mo-tivation to the Muslim mind over again. Within the scope of Islamic references, he has made justifications by using the concepts of reason/aql, nature/fitra, pact/misaq and council/shûra. On the other hand, he has also attached impor-tance to the Western experience. He has advocated acting from our own dyna-mics by drawing lessons from their experiences not imitating them. Because the cultural and civilizational dimensions of human rights are human dimensions and all existing cultures unite at the point of raising them above the realities of culture and civilization. The demand for respect of human rights has always been directed against the reality of an existing culture and civilization.
Al-Jâbirî has conceptualized the fundamental rights as the right to life, the right to benefit from life, the right to believe and to know, the freedom to be different, the right to council, the right to equality, the problem of slavery, woman's rights, the right to justice and the right of the oppressed which he has qualified. According to him these rights are not fixed and unchangeable, but it possible to renew their contents based on contemporary readings. Since he has considered human rights as a universal demand, it can be said that he has positioned the rights that he has seen as a conceivable/mufaqqar fih against the purposes/maqâsıd. Therefore, he has recommended that the things that can be considered in line with the purposes of the Shari'ah are constantly updated since it is possible to change the rules with the change of time.