Sadr al-Din Shirazi (Mulla Sadra) and Natural Human Rights

The concept of ‘natural human rights’ serves as a pivotal fundament in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is among the most commonly discussed topics in today’s world. Belief in natural rights for humankind means that, humans, qua humans, have a natural and inherent right, apart from any type of contract/convention or command. This paper sought to address whether such a view could be attributed to Mulla Sadra, considering he never addressed this question seriously or mentioned it in his writings. To this end, we needed to indirectly pursue the issue; we did this within the framework of Mulla Sadra’s perspective on ethical values. The data were gathered through library research and the conclusions were reached using a logical, deductive method. The results showed that Mulla Sadra’s belief in decency (good) and obscenity (evil) would indicate his acceptance of natural human rights. Although the discussion of rights is apparently different from the discussion of ethical values, these two topics can be linked according to some views; the foundations raised in one area can be extended to another, and we may conclude that, although Mulla Sadra did not expressly state his acceptance of natural human rights, his ideas were in conformity with inherent natural rights based on evidence and rational reasoning taken from his moral views.

Sadr al-Din Shirazi (Mulla Sadra) and Natural Human Rights Keywords:

: Inherent Decency and Obscenity , Rational Decency and Obscenity , Human rights , Natural Human Rights , Sadr al-Din Shirazi