The Rights of God.. Islam, Human Rights and Comparative Ethics

This monograph examines the complex intersection of Islamic theology, human rights discourse, and comparative ethics, offering a sophisticated analysis of how divine rights shape moral frameworks across religious and secular traditions. Oh investigates the theological foundations of Islamic ethics, particularly the concept of huquq Allah (rights of God) and its relationship to huquq al-ibad (rights of human beings), demonstrating how these categories structure moral reasoning in Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy.

The work engages critically with contemporary debates about the compatibility of Islamic law and international human rights norms. Oh argues that framing this relationship as one of simple compatibility or incompatibility obscures the deeper methodological and epistemological differences between Islamic and secular ethical systems. She traces how classical Islamic scholars developed sophisticated frameworks for balancing divine commands with human welfare, showing that Islamic ethics contains resources for addressing contemporary moral challenges while maintaining its distinctive theological commitments.

Oh's comparative approach illuminates how different traditions conceptualize the relationship between divine authority and human moral agency. She examines parallel discussions in Christian natural law theory and Jewish halakhic reasoning, revealing both shared concerns and distinctive approaches to grounding ethics in transcendent sources. This comparative analysis challenges simplistic narratives about religious versus secular ethics, demonstrating that both religious and secular human rights discourses rely on foundational assumptions about human nature and moral authority that require critical examination.

The monograph contributes significantly to discussions about moral argumentation in pluralistic contexts. Oh develops a framework for cross-cultural moral dialogue that takes seriously the theological dimensions of Islamic ethics without reducing them to mere cultural preferences. She argues that genuine comparative ethics requires understanding how different traditions structure the relationship between divine commands, human reason, and moral experience. Her analysis reveals that debates about God's existence and nature have profound implications for how communities understand moral obligation, human dignity, and social justice.

Through careful textual analysis and philosophical argumentation, Oh demonstrates that Islamic discussions of divine rights offer important insights for contemporary moral philosophy. Her work challenges both religious and secular thinkers to examine their assumptions about the sources of moral authority and the possibility of universal ethical norms in religiously diverse societies.