natural rights

Thomas Hobbes's theory of "social contract" provided a new basis for the establishment of the gov-ernment, which had fundamental differences with the theories before it. In such a way that he con-sidered the government "constitutional" and not "natural". According to him, before the govern-ment, people lived in a natural state, which is a kind of a state of war, and according to the natural law and the rule of reason, they should have left this state and entered a state of peace. A state of peace requires the "establishment" of the government to provide security. Based on this, the citizens establish the government through agreement and contract and transfer all their rights to it in order to end the war situation and be the final judge of the affairs. This theory of Hobbes was proposed in the field of religious and political ideological controversies, which its roots go back to the late Mid-dle Ages and the conflict between the church and the kingdom regarding the basis of the legitimacy of the government. On this basis, without paying attention to the context of Hobbes's discussion, it is not possible to get a precise understanding of his theory and intention in the "Social Contract" plan. Our goal in this article is to read Hobbes's theory "context-centered" and we use Quentin Skinner's approach. As a result, our question is, in what context was Thomas Hobbes's "social con-tract" about the basis of government legitimacy formed, and what was his intention in proposing it? Our hypothesis is that Thomas Hobbes, in the field of disputes between the church and the kings, based on the two main theories of the absolute authority of the Pope (controversy of installation) and the divine right of kings, to transition from the state of religious-political wars in England, pro-posed a "social contract" and provided a new basis of legitimacy for the establishment of the state.

The present article seeks to investigate the theoretical foundations of human rights in Islamic thought.  It would briefly overview the foundations of human rights in international law as well. By reflecting on the epistemological, cosmological and anthropological foundations of human rights in Islamic thought we can reach a realistic view relating to human being and his/her identity thereby justify human rights. Divine rights include two collections of rights: statutory rights that are recognized for human beings in the Book and Sunnah and those rights that are originated from Fitrah and nature. From an Islamic point of view, there is no contrast between Divine rights and those originated from Fitrah. Using reason and the revelation, legal school of Islam is one of the most reliable and reasonable sources for clarifying Fitrah and natural rights. Basing human rights on dignity is logical when correlation between human being and dignity is referred to correlation between humanity and dignity. That being the case, potentiality of humanity leads to potentiality of dignity and the actuality of the former results in the actuality of the latter. All of the results of secular human rights are not necessarily in contradiction with Islamic views and there are cases in which, despite difference in foundations, similar results can be seen. Accordingly, most of the articles of UHRD can be confirmed by Muslims.