The Concept and Foundations of Human Dignity as Presented in the Noble Qur’ān and International Documents

One of the most important foundational bases recognized for human rights is human dignity. It has been stipulated in Islamic texts as well as the introduction and primary matters of the international human rights documents. This recognition and emphasis mostly regard the importance and priority of this element and its role as the cornerstone of other rights. Despite this recognition, verification, and stipulation, there is no clear definition of human dignity and its theoretical foundations and indices have not been clarified. Therefore, the main question of this study is "What is the concept and theoretical principles of human dignity in the Islamic rules and international documents related to human rights?"Adopting a descriptive-analytical method, this study found that dignity is on the one hand one of the important goals of Islam and on the other hand one of the main foundations of human rights. Human dignity is a real issue, and the actualization of human dignity includes all humans. It is related to all layers of humanity. In addition to being one of the main principles of human rights, the dignity of humankind is a divine grace in the human being's creation. This common point is deemed an important starting point for creating interaction between human rights and Islamic rules. Nonetheless, due to the disagreement in ontology and theoretical principles, the attitude to it is different from the viewpoint of Islam and international documents. That is, human dignity is viewed differently by Islam and international documents in terms of ontology, theoretical principles, source of origination, types, kinds, effects, nature, and realms.