“I am therefore I have rights,” argues this paper. Mere existence qualifies a human being foruniversal human rights. Yet human beings do not live in solitude; they are always embedded ina network of social relations which determines their rights and duties in its own terms. Conse-quently, the debate about the universality and relativism of human rights can be best understoodby combining legal and sociological perspectives. Such an approach is used in this article to ex-plore the tensions and contests around the universality of human rights in Islamic law. Whetherall human beings or just citizens are qualified for the inviolability of human rights is a questionwhich divided Muslim jurists into two schools: Universalistic School, emanating from Abu Han-ifa, advocated for the universality of human rights, while Communalistic School, originating fromMalik, Shafii and Ibn Hanbal, advocated for civil rights. Universalistic School was adopted bysuch great cosmopolitan empires as Umayyads, Abbasids, Mughals and Ottomans. It was also re-formed by the Ottomans during the nineteenth century in the light of the new notions of universalhuman rights in Europe to purge remaining discriminatory practices against non-Muslim citizensand to justify constitutionalism and democracy. Yet the universalistic tradition in Islamic law hasbeen forgotten as the chain of memory was broken after the collapse of Ottoman Empire. This ar-ticle briefly unearths the forgotten universalistic approach in Islamic law to build upon it a modernuniversalistic human rights theory for which there is a pressing need at this age of globalization.
