In addition, Natural law is the basis of human government. Government has the role to preserve human life, to suppress moral corruption, and to oppose violence to persons and property. Government is a natural and collective human responsibility. Its role is limited to upholding the dictates of natural law. In this role, government is to support a person’s life, property, family, business, and reputation. Government is to act justly and impartially and within its limited sphere of authority towards all human beings equally.
Further, natural law is the basis of human rights. Every person has the right to equal protection under the law. This protection is not conditioned upon race, color, religion, sex, social status, etc. Since natural law is common to all of humanity, human rights are common to all of humanity. They are natural human rights that do not depend upon the pleasure of a prophet.
Since prophetic claims are not self-evidently true, human government and human rights are not subject to the dictates or whims of a prophet’s claimed authority. Human government and human rights belong in the sphere of Natural law. Furthermore, each individual alone must answer to Almighty Allah in the Last Day. Hence, it is the individual who must be the possessor of religious rights. This is because the individual has the right to pursue the commands of Allah as they understand Allah’s commands to be. The government should not play the role of Allah in a person’s life, because it is the person’s responsibility and dignity to serve Allah as they best see fit. If the person is wrong, the person will face divine retribution for his sins in the flames of eternal hell. There will be no government around to plead the individual’s case in the Last Day.
Last edited 01/07/2000