Lex Islamica Quarterly

Lex Islamica Quarterly

The Analysis of Human Dignity Paradigm: A Comparative Study of Islamic and Western Legal Systems

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Judicial Law, University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services, Tehran. Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Judicial Law, University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services, Tehran. Iran.‌
3 LLM in Public Law, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Law, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Human dignity is one of the fundamental concepts in the legal system of Islam, Iran, and one of the influential ideas in the formulation of international documents. The concept of dignity serves as the foundation for defining human rights, and if there is a distinction between the notion of dignity in Islamic legal systems and Western legal systems, which human rights documents are based on, the nature of the rights considered for humans from these two perspectives will not be the same. This paper aims to address the primary question: "What is the relationship between human dignity in the Islamic legal system and its corresponding concept, i.e., Human Dignity in the Western legal system?" In this regard, using a descriptive-analytical method and library resources, we will first examine human dignity in the Western legal system, including the foundations of thought and international documents, and then in the Islamic legal system. The research results show that in the international documents, which reflect Western legal thought, the foundations and consequences of this term differ fundamentally from those in the Islamic legal system. This study, while emphasizing these differences, focuses on systematically analyzing the legal consequences resulting from the lack of conceptual alignment between these two systems. The most significant difference in the Islamic and Western thought paradigms is that their origin differs. In Islamic thought, the source of human dignity is the will of the Almighty, and if a person deviates from the divine path, this divine gift will be revoked. In contrast, in Western thought, the concept is not viewed from the perspective of a divine origin or the possibility of revocation. Furthermore, in Western thought, this concept is sometimes extended to non-human beings, which further distinguishes it from Islamic thought. Therefore, it must be stated that between these two, which stem from different paradigms, there is no identical relationship, and what is stated in Western international documents and human rights thinking under the term Human Dignity or Inherent Dignity cannot be precisely equated with the concept of human dignity in Islamic thought. Consequently, the legal implications associated with that concept cannot be applied to the Islamic understanding of human dignity.
Keywords


Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 04 September 2025

  • Receive Date 24 April 2025
  • Accept Date 02 August 2025