A Chronological Look at the Application of the Term

This article demonstrates the falsity of two common statementsthrough a historical analysis of the usage of the term "right". Thestatements are: 1. The issue of having a right is invented in modernperiod; 2. The Islamic culture is influenced in this regard by Westernone.The article first shows that "right" was used by authors in medievalperiod in their works, and that, the concept of having a right does notdepend on any particular culture or literature. Certainly, human beingsadopted rules, however rudimentary, in the early stage of social life toprevent chaos in the society. One of the implications of having laws iscreating the rights and duties. It is nonsense to say that there is asystem of law in a society without any system of rights and duties.The sacred Islamic texts indicate that the word "(having a) right"was used at the beginning of Islam (in the 7th Cen.), that is, 700years before western authors. This argument says that the discoursetraditional to the modern law. This research, therefore, intends todemonstrate parameters of the modern law and to put light on the issue ofhow and in which field and through which changes, these parameters andcharacteristics are formed? On the other hand, according to the Westernlawyers, the legal system of Islam is a traditional system. Does that meanthat the religious legal system of Iran is foreign to the parameters of themodern legal system? If this is not so, then which parameter is refused bythe Iranian system and which parameter is accepted? In its evolution themodern law has also been in crises. These crises have changed certainfactors of the modern law and have brought divisions in the modern lawitself (liberal modern law and social modern law). How much is the shareof this division in the amount of parameters of legal modernity and in therange of accommodation of the Iranian legal system with the mentionedparameters?