Âdamiyyah and'Ismah: The Contested Relationship between Humanity and Human Rights in Classical Islamic Law

In this article it is argued that the cleavage in modern legal discourse between the advocates of universal human rights and domestic civil rights has also been observed in Islamic law since its formative period in the first century of Islam, which corresponds to the seventh century AD. A survey of the works of Muslim jurists from the classical era demonstrates that the relationship between the 'ismah (inviolability or legal and political protection of basic human rights) and adamlyyah (humanity, personhood) has been contested for centuries, thereby giving rise to a latent cleavage between universalistic and communalistic jurists. This cleavage has yet to be explored, although it is crucial to determine whether there are universal human rights in Islam. This article is a brief presentation of the preliminary findings of an ongoing research.