A Chronological Look at the Application of the Term

Talebi, Mohammad Hossein

A Chronological Look at the Application of the Term "Right" in Western and Islamic Cultures

Document Type : Scientific Paper

Author

Mohammad Hossein Talebi

Assistant Professor of Field and University Research

Abstract

This article demonstrates the falsity of two common statements through a historical analysis of the usage of the term "right". The statements are: 1. The issue of having a right is invented in modern period; 2. The Islamic culture is influenced in this regard by Western one.
The article first shows that "right" was used by authors in medieval period in their works, and that, the concept of having a right does not depend on any particular culture or literature. Certainly, human beings adopted rules, however rudimentary, in the early stage of social life to prevent chaos in the society. One of the implications of having laws is creating the rights and duties. It is nonsense to say that there is a system of law in a society without any system of rights and duties.
The sacred Islamic texts indicate that the word "(having a) right" was used at the beginning of Islam (in the 7th Cen.), that is, 700 years before western authors. This argument says that the discourse of rights and justice was important even from the first period of Islamic culture and literature. This discourse was not dependent on any other culture

Keywords

Philosophy of Rights

the Structure of the Word "Right"

Islam and Human Rights

Human Rights

منابع

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