The Universality of Islamic Equality

Where the laws of our civilization are concerned, every aspect of them hem is pervaded by man's equality. In prayer they all stand before God in the same capacity (as slaves of God), there being no place of distinction reserved for any monarch, chieftain or a learned person. In fasting too, they all abstain from food alike, there being no distinctive facility for the rich. And on the Hajj pil-grimage, people are all clad alike (in a white shroud), stand alike. And there is no distinction of any kind whatsoever made between (those living) far and (those living) near, the strong and the weak, and the classes and the masses. Then if we look at the civil code, we find that one and all are treated on the basis of the truth and justice. The main objective of legislation is dispensation of justice. The law lifts its banner to check people from injustice, so that all aggrieved and deprived persons may find refuge under its shade. Again, when we come to study the criminal law, we see that all men are equally liable to punishment in case of violation of the legal limits. The murderer gets murdered, the thief gets punished for theft and whoever is guilty of violence is admonished and corrected. The murderer may be a learned person or an ignorant clod and the murdered person may be rich or poor "whoever has been oppressed may be an Arab or a non-Arab, may belong to East or West, they are all equal in the sight of Law." {The free for the free, the slave for the slave, the woman for the woman} (Qur'an 11:178)