Islam Rediscovered
20. The Revolutionary Role of Islam
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his son in a well known case asked: “Since when
have you enslaved people while their mothers had
given birth to them in freedom?” (
Al-Abqariat Al-
Islamia
).
This voice was echoed eleven hundred years later
by the well known French reformer Rousseau (d.
1778). His book, titled
The Social Contract
, began
with this famous sentence: ‘Man was born free, but I
find him in chains’. This concept of intellectual and
religious freedom had fully matured by the end of
the 20th century. With the establishment of the
United Nations, all the nations of the world signed
its charter of Human Rights, proclaiming that
intellectual and religious freedom is the irrevocable
right of every human being and that on no pretext
can it be abrogated.
FREEDOM OF CHOICE
Through a long process, that age has finally come
when man has secured the absolute right to adopt
the religion of his choice and to propagate that
religion, on the sole condition that he will not use
violence in the exercise of his religious freedom.
This change brought about in the world has thrown
