Article 12

This article falls in the same broad category as Articles 9-11, only it touches upon matters that concern each individual more intimately, being more personal in their nature. Islam goes further than any other system in safeguarding these, not only vis-a-vis the State, but also vis-a-vis other citizens.

“O ye who believe, enter not houses other than your own until you have asked leave and saluted the inmates thereof; that is better for you that you may be heedful. If you find no one therein, do not enter them till you are given permission. If it be said to you, ‘Go back’. then go back, that is purer for you. Allah knows well what you do. But it is no offence on your part to enter uninhabited houses wherein are your goods. Allah knows that which you disclose and that which you conceal” (24:28-30).

Muslim jurisprudence recognizes and gives effect through legal procedures, to what is known as the easement of privacy. After a prescribed period, premises used for residence acquire the right of enjoyment of undisturbed privacy against any structure proposed to be constructed thereafter which would interfere seriously with that enjoyment.
Certain climatic and cultural considerations come into play in connection with this easement. But even in temperate regions, under the pressure of growing urban communities, privacy in western countries also is beginning to be unduly interfered with, and some relief may have to be sought by making due allowance for that very legitimate need in building and housing regulations.

Another doctrine of Muslim jurisprudence tends in the same direction, that is to say towards stressing and safeguarding some of the values set out in this article.

Sales of urban residential property are, under Islamic law, subject to the right of pre-emption. Briefly, this may be explained as the right of an owner of contiguous property, or of property enjoying an easement against or being subject to an easement in favour of property which is proposed to be sold, to purchase it, if he so wishes, in preference to another not possessing an equal or superior right of purchase. If a sale takes place in contravention of this right, the right may be enforced through judicial process. The purchaser then has to give way to the pre-emptor, who is entitled to be substituted in place of the purchaser on payment to him of the price actually paid by him for the premises.

Great stress is laid in Islam on kindness to and benevolence towards a neighbour. “Worship Allah and associate naught with Him, and behave benevolently towards parents, kindred, orphans and the needy, and the neighbour that is a kinsman and the neighbour that is a stranger, and the companion by your side and the wayfarer, and those whom your right hands possess. Surely, Allah loves not the proud and the boastful, who are niggardly and enjoin people to be niggardly and conceal that which Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty” (4:37-38).

The Prophet laid repeated stress on the duty owed to a neighbour. He said on one occasion, “So often and so much has God impressed upon me the duty owed to a neighbour that I began to think that a neighbour might perhaps be named an heir.”1

In his Farewell Address he declared, “Your lives, your properties and your honour are declared sacred as the sanctity attaching to this day (the day of Pilgrimage) and this month and this spot.”2

Such is the concern of Islam for the individual and what he owes to his fellow men, particularly those with whom he has to be in close contact. It is thus clear that the objectives of Article 12 are fully supported and subscribed to by Islam.