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Medina Charter Prophet Muhammed\'s Reign 1948 International

Last reviewed: October 14, 2012 ~7 min read
Abstract

Even with the fact that the masses have been accustomed to considering that human rights have not been a priority for most major powers from around the world until the second half of the twentieth century, the truth is that humanity has expressed great interest in the concept centuries before this moment. Muhammad founded the Medina Constitution in 622 A.D. with the purpose of having a complex community of Muslims, Jewish individuals, and pagans living together in harmony. It is very intriguing that this Charter was issued thirteen centuries earlier than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when taking account that the latter contains a great deal of ideas present in the former.

¶ … Medina Charter" Prophet Muhammed's reign 1948 "International Declaration Human Rights" in terms similarities differences. (Please essay simple eyes). Font: 14 times roman

Even with the fact that the masses have been accustomed to considering that human rights have not been a priority for most major powers from around the world until the second half of the twentieth century, the truth is that humanity has expressed great interest in the concept centuries before this moment. Muhammad founded the Medina Constitution in 622 A.D. with the purpose of having a complex community of Muslims, Jewish individuals, and pagans living together in harmony. It is very intriguing that this Charter was issued thirteen centuries earlier than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when taking account that the latter contains a great deal of ideas present in the former.

While the Medina Charter can be perceived as a rough and faulty draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is nonetheless important because it was devised many centuries earlier than it and because it made it possible for the masses to acknowledge that it was possible for people from different backgrounds to support many similar beliefs. Also, the Medina Charter is impressive because it was unprecedented, taking into account that humanity was unable to accept laws that prevented particular groups from abusing others until that time. "The Constitution of Medina sets out in general terms the rights of various classes of citizens, their duties to each other, and the manner in which disputes would be resolved" (The Medina Charter).

The Middle Eastern community contemporary to Muhammad was experiencing problems because of the diverse religious ideologies that it contained. As a consequence, these people started to express interest in being ruled by an Islamic law system that would provide them with the opportunity to express themselves freely. One of the most interesting aspects of the Medina Charter was that it promoted the concept that Jews needed to be provided with equal rights and that it was wrong for particular communities to be discriminated. People basically hoped that having an external system of laws would benefit them as a whole, especially considering that most of them were well-aware that their community would dissolve rapidly otherwise (The Medina Charter).

The first Islamic state and the United Nations are very similar in character when considering how they were founded. Even with this, people generally tend to believe that the former was created as a result of bloodshed and as a consequence of individuals who were determined to exploit others. Muhammad had the courage to go beyond values promoted during his era and started to promote a series of freedoms with the purpose of having people realize that it was in their best interest to accept them. Islam thus came to be perceived as being much more than a religious ideology, as it was directed at supporting fields like science, pluralism, and technology in general.

It is actually curious that Islam is presently associated with violation of human rights and that the masses are generally inclined to believe that Muslims are hesitant about respecting the human rights agenda when considering that Muhammad is the person responsible for creating the Medina Charter. People need to understand "that Islam is the only religion that truly affords the non-Muslims their fair share" (Human rights not coined in heaven). Surely, the Medina Charter is a poor attempt at promoting human rights, but it is nonetheless essential because it emphasized values like equality and respect. While Muslims in the contemporary society have a tendency to put across the feeling that they do not respect women, "Islam was also the first religion, from its very inception, which tremendously elevated the status of women and reinstated their dignity when most parts of the world treated them like slaves, as mere sexual objects and a commodity to be traded" (Human rights not coined in heaven).

Both the Medina Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were devised with the purpose of having people express more acceptance toward each-other and in order to influence them to acknowledge that they needed to be actively involved in promoting peace. These two documents were basically meant to guarantee that the communities that they were directed at educating would no longer encounter problems as a consequence of the fact that some groups respected different values when compared to other groups. Muhammad wanted Jews, pagans, and Muslims to live together in harmony in spite of the fact that he was a Muslim. Similarly, some of the world's greatest powers wanted to prevent events like the Second World War and the Holocaust from ever happening again and thus started to concentrate on reaching common ground regarding an agenda that would go through great efforts in order to stop abuse from happening.

The general public needs to understand that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not as innovative as it might seem. It is simply a more advanced version of human rights agendas that have been issued throughout time. Both the Medina Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are based on a philosophy that regards man as the appraisal of all things, good and bad.

In contrast to the Medina Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not associated with religious values and is directed at a more mature general public. Muslims living contemporary to Muhammad were enabled to see the world through different eyes, but they were limited in doing so because the Medina Constitution was not very complex and because it failed to highlight the exact attitudes that people needed to take on in order to contribute to making society a better place. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was mainly devised with the purpose of preventing events like the Holocaust from ever happening again. The social order was horrified with the actions that some people are capable of performing and thus wanted the whole world to understand that strict laws need to be installed in order to make the world a safer place.

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PaperDue. (2012). Medina Charter Prophet Muhammed\'s Reign 1948 International. PaperDue. https://www.paperdue.com/essay/medina-charter-prophet-muhammed-reign-1948-82580

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