Right to Privacy and Islamic Ethics
By Arman Neyazi, New Age Islam
20 July 2021
The Right to Privacy That Islam Bestowed
Upon the Human Being in Its Primitive Age, the Age of Jahiliya, Is Every Now
And Then Abused By This Literate World
Main Points:
1.
The
right to privacy is a fundamental human right bestowed upon human beings by
Allah, the almighty.
2.
The
world has achieved remarkable development in every field of science and
technology but has also remarkably failed in every aspect of humanitarian
ethics.
3.
The
human being is supposed to be attentive towards the human rights of fellow beings
but it has transformed itself into an insensitive machine
4.
One
of the most despicable abuses of the age of materialistic supremacy is the
abuse of ‘privacy’.
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Image Courtesy:
blog.ipleaders.in/right-to-privacy-judgment-impact
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The right to privacy is a fundamental human
right bestowed upon human beings by Allah, the Almighty. The right to privacy
that Islam bestowed upon us in its primitive age when people were living in an
age of Jahiliya, illiteracy is now and then abused by this literate world.
The world has achieved remarkable
development in every field of science and technology but has also remarkably
failed in every aspect of humanitarian ethics. The world has achieved this
development at the cost of its religious, spiritual and emotional ethos. The
human mind seems to have gone through the most painful experiences of ethical
blankness. Now this materialistic world has developed a society that is bereft
of every kind of humane approach towards life.
The human being is supposed to be attentive
towards the human rights of fellow beings but it has transformed itself into an
insensitive machine that mechanically searches new avenues for the fulfilment
of its devilish desires. This age of intellectuality is heading fast towards
its downfall that has to transform man into a machine, that knows no humanity,
compassion and spirituality but everlasting desires of greed and lust for
power, economic and social.
One of the most despicable abuses of the
age of materialistic supremacy is the abuse of ‘privacy’. Human being invented
dwellings only for the sake of privacy. Man gives away all his savings for
maintaining his private life. People think they are and their private life is
safe in the four walls of his house but it is not so. Man has no privacy even
in his house. Man has to live in fear of his privacy being abused and he is
ashamed.
Among the innumerable scientific inventions
that we boast of is the machine that peeps into our most private places, the
bedroom, the drawing-room and the office. This machine listens to what you are
talking to others, reads the messages that you send to your social contacts.
You think that your privacy is secured but, no, it is dented at will by the
people around you to control your social relations and ultimately your life.
What Allah the Most Gracious says in the
Holy Quran and in the light of Quranic lessons what Prophet Muhammad Pbuh says
about peeping into the privacy of your fellow human beings are the need of the
hour to understand and follow in letter and spirit. Consider the following
Quranic Ayaat and Prophetic tradition:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا…………….. وَلَا
تَجَسَّسُوا
‘Do not spy on one another’ (49:12)
.... يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَدْخُلُوا
بُيُوتًا غَيْرَ بُيُوتِكُمْ حَتَّىٰ تَسْتَأْنِسُوا
‘Do not enter any houses except your own
homes unless you are sure of their occupants' consent’
(24:27).
فَإِنْ لَمْ تَجِدُوا فِيهَا أَحَدًا فَلَا
تَدْخُلُوهَا حَتَّىٰ يُؤْذَنَ لَكُمْ
And if you do
not find anyone there, do not enter it until permission is given to you. (Quran, 24:28)
وَإِنْ قِيلَ لَكُمُ ارْجِعُوا فَارْجِعُوا
ۖ هُوَ أَزْكَىٰ لَكُمْ ۚ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ عَلِيمٌ
And if you
are told 'return', so return that is purer for you; and Allah knows the things
you do. (Quran, 24:28)
لَيْسَ الْبِرُّ بِأَنْ تَأْتُوا الْبُيُوتَ
مِنْ ظُهُورِهَا وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنِ اتَّقَىٰ ۗ وَأْتُوا الْبُيُوتَ مِنْ أَبْوَابِهَا
ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
..it is not
righteousness that you should enter the houses at their backs, but
righteousness is this that one should guard (against evil); and go into the
houses by their doors and be careful (of your duty) to Allah, that you may be
successful. (Quran 2:189)
…وَلَا
تَلْمِزُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ …
Do not find
fault with one another. (Quran 49:11)
أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا
مِنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ
Believers,
abstain from most suspicion, some suspicion are a sin, (Quran, 49:12)
وَظَنَنْتُمْ ظَنَّ السَّوْءِ وَكُنْتُمْ قَوْمًا
بُورًا
So you
harboured evil thoughts, and so you are a destroyed nation. (Quran, 48:12)
وَإِنَّ الظَّنَّ لَا يُغْنِي مِنَ الْحَقِّ
شَيْئًا
Suspicion
does not make people needless about the truth.
(Quran, 53:28)
وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ
ۚ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَٰئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا
Do not follow
what you do not know. The hearing, sight and heart about all these you shall be
questioned. (Quran, 17:36)
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُدَافِعُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
Allah will
defend those who believe. (Quran, 22:38)
Prophetic Traditions Vilifying Spying
“Do not go out and search for the fault of others” (Sunan Al Dawood,
2283)
Mu’awiyah reported: The Messenger of Allah,
Pbuh, said, “Verily if you seek out the faults of people, you will corrupt them
or nearly corrupt them.” - Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4888
Zayd ibn Wahab reported: A man was brought
to Ibn Mas’ud, RA, and it was said, “This man was found with wine dripping from
his beard!” Ibn Mas’ud said, “Verily, we have been prohibited from spying, but
if he shows it to us publicly we will seize him.” - Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4890
Abdur Rahman ibn Awf reported: He would
patrol the city at night with Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with
him, and on one occasion they were walking when the lamp of a household caught
their attention. They approached it until they heard loud voices inside the
door. Umar grabbed the hand of Abdur Rahman and he said, “Do you know whose
house this is?” He said no. Umar said, “This is the house of Rabi’ah ibn
Umayyah ibn Khalaf, and they are inside drinking wine right now! What do you think?”
Abdur Rahman said, “Indeed, I think we have done what Allah has prohibited for
us. Allah Almighty said, ‘Do not spy,’ (49:12) and we have spied on them.” Umar
turned away and he left them alone. - Al-Mustadrak 8198
Islamic ethics are against the trait of
suspicion as it is at the root of various ills of one’s social life. It is
suspicion that forces one to spy upon another. Tearing up one's reputation by
any means cannot be considered to be just, hence it should be condemned. We
will do better to remind us what Socrates told:
“Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.” ― Socrates
And Allah Knows the Best.
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Arman Neyazi is a columnist with
NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-human-rights/human-rights-privacy-spyware-ethics/d/125106
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