*The Status of Human Rights in Islam and the Muslim Society*
(This is a rare speech)
*By Fuzail Akhtar Qasmi Bhairvi*
Alhamdulillah Rabbil Aalameen, and peace and blessings be upon the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers, and upon his family and all his companions. To proceed:
*Respected listeners and honorable gentlemen*
In today's auspicious gathering, the topic I am about to address is not merely an academic subject, but a matter that determines the life and death of the Muslim Ummah: *"The Status of Human Rights in Islam and the Muslim Society."*
Respected gentlemen! If I were to say that our greatest decline, our greatest crisis, our greatest trial is the violation of human rights, then by God, not a single word would be an exaggeration. Why? Because it is the foundation upon which the religion stands, it is the pillar upon which faith is established, it is the responsibility from which there is no escape.
*Honorable listeners*
Islam has not only made the rights of people a matter of moral education, but has also made it a standard of faith. The Quran has drawn its map in an unparalleled and unique way: "وَقُولُوا لِلنَّاسِ حُسْنًا" Speak kindly to people. Similarly, the Prophetic hadith also declares: "المسلم مَن سلم المسلمون من لسانه ويده" A perfect Muslim is one from whose tongue and hand other Muslims are safe. But alas! Today we are busy worshipping Allah, but even more busy breaking the hearts of people; our prayers are becoming longer and longer, but our tongues are becoming more bitter; the beads of the rosary are turning, but the heart is full of malice; the face is according to the Sunnah, but the character is wandering far away; outward religion is safe, but inward morals have become a graveyard.
*Respected listeners!*
Is this not a moment for reflection? We have understood worship as religion and worldly affairs as the world. However, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: "What will you need most on the Day of Judgment? Good deeds!" But alas! Our mountains of deeds will be reduced to dust on that day if we have violated the rights of people today.
*Respected listeners!* See the justice of the religion that in the rights of Allah, Allah Almighty Himself says: "If I wish, I will forgive!" But in the rights of people, He declared: "ان ﷲ لا يمنع ذا حق حقه" Indeed, Allah does not withhold the right of anyone who has a right! Now think, if the wound has been given by a human, then the balm will be applied by a human, if the heart has been broken by a human, then forgiveness will be given by a human, if the right of a human has been taken, then the reckoning will also be with a human. This is why the society of the Companions was a beacon of light, why? Because in their view, the rights of people were no less than worship, but were considered even more important many times.
*Respected listeners!*
Today our hearts are wounded, our homes are broken, our families are scattered, our neighborhoods are filled with hatred, the Ummah is divided into thousands of pieces! Why is this so? Because we have made it necessary to observe the forty days of Itikaf, but have forgotten to comfort the heart of an old mother. We have made it a habit to perform Tahajjud, but have forgotten the rights of our neighbors. We have certainly grown a beard, but have not removed the poison from our tongue. We have adopted the Sunnah, but the distance from the Seerah of Muhammad ﷺ has increased.
Today there is strife in every street, conflict in every home, piles of cases in the courts, brother is the enemy of brother, neighbor is disgusted with neighbor, son-in-law is thirsty for the blood of his in-laws, wife is a test for the husband, husband is a trial for the wife, there is fire everywhere, smoke, strife, enmity. Why all this? Only because human rights have disappeared from our character.
*Respected gentlemen!*
Shorish Kashmiri used to say: "The destruction of the Ummah did not begin with the committee members of the mosques, but with those tongues that continued to drink the blood of people even after the prayer," and this is what is happening today. Sin is not only what happens by abandoning an obligation, the greater sin is what happens by violating someone's honor.
*Respected listeners!*
Just look into your hearts, have we ever thought about how many people we wound with our tongues every day? How many hearts do we break? How many relationships do we spoil? How many homes do we set on fire? How many poor people do we remain indifferent to? How many orphans do we ignore? How many parents' feelings do we trample on? And while doing all this, we still think we are "good"? O Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ! Give up this deception, the one who breaks a heart, his prayers are not accepted. The one who harasses a neighbor, his fast is not valid.
The one who eats the wealth of an orphan, his Hajj is not accepted. The one who violates honors, none of his worship reaches the court of Allah.
*Listeners!*
This society is calling us, this Ummah is calling us, Muslims arise! Revive human rights, otherwise remember that the walls of the Kaaba will also testify that so-and-so came to the House of Allah, but came after destroying the hearts of people.
O those who take the name of Islam!
The foundation of Islam is not only based on worshipping foreheads, but also on the justice, love, compassion, and goodwill that are established between people. If religion is understood as a building, then its pillar is good behavior with people. The Quran has linked the rights of people with the remembrance of the Lord in many places, as if the Sharia declares that what belongs to God is one thing, but the punishment for what belongs to people is not forgiven in this world or in the hereafter.
*O devotees of the religion of Islam!*
The beauty of Islamic society was that the honor of relatives was protected there, the neighbor's wall was a sanctuary, the orphan's heart was not left broken, the traveler did not fall alone in the darkness of helplessness, and the laborer did not remain in need of anyone's door for his wages. This was the arrangement that turned the streets of Medina into a model of paradise. No echo of lies, no storms of suspicion, no dust of injustice. But today, this same Ummah has become so blindly involved in usurping the rights of others that it is as if there is no existence of the court of the Hereafter.
My respected and honorable listeners!
Take a look at your deeds, our gatherings are full of suspicion, our tongues are polluted with backbiting, our hearts are broken with the wounds of envy, and our hands are looking for opportunities to commit injustice. The ropes of kinship have become weak, brother is the enemy of brother, neighbor is unaware of neighbor, father has forgotten his children, children have become indifferent to their parents. Which right is not being axed? Which responsibility is not being violated? The rights of women have been made a burden on the chest. Mocking their feelings, seizing their wealth, shouting at them, attacking their honor. All these acts of disobedience have consequences that make the soul tremble even to imagine. Similarly, violating the rights of the husband, disobeying him, breaking the order of his house, all these are not minor sins in the eyes of this Lord. The same is true of parents. The trembling voices of their old age do not reach the ears of our youth today. Those parents, who sacrificed their lives breath by breath for their children, today take refuge in silence after seeing the expressions of the same children. Islam has shaken us here too: Allah's pleasure is in the pleasure of parents, and His wrath is in the displeasure of parents. And those orphans, those poor, those old, those disabled, those laborers, all these were our responsibility, but how many of us fulfill their rights as a trust from the Lord? By withholding the wages of the laborer, by eating the wealth of the orphan, by taunting the poor, by mocking the disabled, do we think that all this will end in this world? No, and never! Every particle of this injustice will cry out on the Day of Judgment; every scream will be given a voice; every drop of tear will be given verbal proof.
*Respected gentlemen!*
Do not forget that human rights are not only in financial or physical matters, but also in the use of language. What do you say about someone? In what tone do you say it? What is the intention behind it? Everything is being written. Backbiting, slander, tale-bearing, taunting, all these are sins that eat away at a person's good deeds like termites eat wood. A person will stand amazed that I offered prayers, fasted, recited the Holy Quran, but why is the scale empty? Then the answer will come that your good deeds have been given to those whose honor you looted with your tongue, whose hearts you broke, whom you slandered, whom you wounded behind their backs.
Alas, a thousand times alas! I have to say with great sadness that today's Muslim has understood that if he wins in court, then the right has come to him. However, both the Quran and the Hadith declare that falsehood can raise its head for a while in the court of the world, but it has no passage in the court of the Hereafter. The land taken by oppression will wrap around like a snake. The wealth taken by deceit will become a coal of hell. The honor that was snatched will return as a sword on the Day of Judgment. Muslims, it does not stop here, the limit is that we have taken sin lightly, and have made the violation of human rights a path to progress. We assume that our business will grow from the wealth of others, our fields will spread from the land of others, we will save our world by withholding the money of others. But the reality is the opposite. What we consider an increase in our rights is actually an increase in the material of hell. What we consider success for ourselves is actually eternal loss. What we consider our cleverness is actually the destruction of the Hereafter.
*Respected listeners!*
When it comes to human rights, Islam does not only advise us, but also calls us, because human rights are not merely human affairs, but the basic pillars of divine tests. No fiery eloquence of any language works here, the scale here tilts only on the basis of justice. Today, when we look at our society, we feel that our mosques are populated, but the doors of our hearts are desolate; worship has increased, but character has decreased; outward piety is present, but inward responsibilities are absent.
Dear ones, this is the moment where the thunderous warning of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is heard that poverty is not caused by not praying or fasting, but by wasting human rights. A person will come on the Day of Judgment, with prayers, fasts, and charity, but also with the wounds of the tongue, the excesses of the hand, and the histories of hurting hearts. On the one hand, deeds are being taken out of the scale of good deeds and transferred to the accounts of the oppressed, and when the good deeds are finished, the sins of others are transferred to the record of the oppressor. Is this the end we want? Is this the destiny we are writing with our own hands?
*Respected listeners!*
Today's tragedy is that the Muslim is a worshipper but is constantly becoming ill-mannered; he is religious but is becoming unjust. He fills the rows in mosques but breaks hearts in homes; he shows humility in prostrations but arrogance drips from his tongue; he reads the Quran but ignores its moral commands. Islam made us such a community that we are the balm for people's hearts, not the ones who inflict wounds; we are the comfort of the neighbor's shadow, not the cause of his pain; we are the ones who show the justice of the market, not its deception; we are the security of the society, not its fear. But alas! Today, we stick a religious sentence on every injustice, and think that the matter is over. No! In human rights, the matter does not end with Allah without forgiveness.
*Respected listeners!*
If we really want our society to come alive again, its soul to awaken, then we have to wage the jihad of character along with worship. We have to revive gentleness with prayer, purity of heart with fasting, protection of the tongue with Hajj, and generosity of heart with Zakat. We have to bring back justice in our homes, respect in our gatherings, honesty in our transactions, nobility in our attitudes, and love in our conversations. This is the path by which the dignity of the Ummah will be restored, this is the ladder by which Allah's help will descend.
*Respected listeners!*
Think about it, when Muslims kept human rights alive, they were an example for the world; their decisions were a testimony to justice; their characters were rays of light; their morals opened the doors of hearts. Today we have to knock on that door again. We have to teach our generations this lesson that worship brings you closer to Allah, but morals bring you closer to the servants of Allah, and without both, no path is complete. Let us pledge that we will soften our tongues, bring truthfulness in our dealings, not take anyone's right, not break anyone's heart, learn to forgive, spread love, adopt gentleness, and revive these bright principles of Islam in our homes, our streets, and our society. This is not just the passion of a speech, this is the path to the survival of the Ummah, this is the cure for the society of sick hearts, this is the only support for the scattered Ummah. I end my speech on these few points.
And the last of our prayer is that all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
*From the pen of Fuzail Akhtar Qasmi Bhairvi*
*Student, Department of Specialization in Jurisprudence, Fatwa and Judiciary, Jamia Islamia Darul Uloom Hyderabad*
November 22, 2025