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managed. Even Caliphs had to seek public approval before they could use public monies for any
private purpose.In a sense, public accountability has support within the Quran. There is, in the
Quran, a clear conception of consultations with the people on all matters of public importance.
This is `the basis of the administrative relationship between the government and the people.
People also have the right to choose and remove their rulers in accordance with this principle’.
Economic Rights
Apart from some of these principles which parallel basic concepts in democracy, Islam also
embodies economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights which are similar to the rights
contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other
United Nations Declarations and Conventions. The Quran, for instance, bestows upon the poor an
automatic right to the wealth of the community through the institution of the zakat (a wealth tax
every Muslim with some means is required to pay). Since zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam, is
placed on the same level as profession of faith and worship of God through regular prayers, one
can argue that the right of the poor to the wealth of the community, is an unchallengeable,
unquestionable right in Islam. As the Quran puts it, `And in their wealth there is acknowledged
right for the needy and destitute.There are many other economic rights which Islam provides,
particularly for the poor and disadvantaged. All persons, for instance, should have access to `the
basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, education and health care, irrespective of their age, sex,
colour or religion’. At the same time, `every worker is entitled to a fair recompense for his or her
work. There must be no discrimination based on race, colour, religion or sex’. For those who
cannot take care of themselves due to some temporary and permanent disability, it is the obligation
of the community to provide them with social security.
Social & Civil Rights
Like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Islam too recognises the right to found a family,
the right to privacy, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to use one’s own
language, the right to practise one’s own culture and the right to freedom of religion. The
Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, for instance, — a document formulated by a
group of Islamic scholars in 1981 based upon the values and principles of the Quran and the
Sunnah (the life of the Prophet Muhamad) — states unequivocally that `Every person has the right
to freedom of conscience and worship in accordance with his religious beliefs’. This article in the
Declaration has been influenced no doubt by the Quranic injunction that there shall be no
compulsion in religion.
Political Rights
Using the Quran as a basis, Muslim jurists and philosophers have also evolved a wide variety of
political rights. They acknowledge that `every individual and every people has the inalienable
right to freedom in all forms — physical, cultural economic and political — and shall be entitled
to struggle by all available means against any infringement or abrogation of this right; and every
oppressed individual or people has a legitimate claim to the support of other individuals and/or
peoples in such a struggle’. More specifically, Islam makes it explicit that `it is the right and duty
of every Muslim to protest and strive (within the limits set out by the Law — Shariah) against
oppression even if it involves challenging the highest authority in the state’. The right to protest is
linked to the right of every person `to participate individually and collectively in the religious,
social, cultural and political life of his community and to establish institutions and agencies meant
to enjoin what is right (ma’roof) and to prevent what is wrong (munkar)’.
Right to Life
More than any political, civil, social, cultural or economic right, it is the right to life which Islam
regards as the supreme right. Human life, the Universal Islamic Declaration observes, `is sacred
and inviolable and every effort shall be made to protect it’. Equally significant, it points out that,
`Just as in life, so also after death, the sanctity of a person’s body shall be inviolable. It is the