The Declaration of Independence also stipulates that one of the inalienable rights of human beings is that of the pursuit of happiness. While not as compelling a right as that to life or liberty, it nonetheless is a profound statement about the purpose of government: part of its charge is either to assist the citizen in achieving happiness, or at the very least to allow him or her the right to its pursuit.

In watching the evening news over the last two decades, from the images of the Iranian Revolution in the 1980s to the regime of the Taliban twenty years later, I have come away with one inescapable conclusion: even if the average non-Muslim American were to penetrate the vituperative haze and see Islam as a religion of mercy and justice, surely he or she would never see its political system as one that emphasizes "the pursuit of happiness" as an inalienable right. Rather, the impression is that of a dour people and a rather miserable lot.

However, Islam does indeed guarantee the pursuit of happiness within lawful bounds as a right of every human, and does so by a direct injunction of the Quran itself:"Say ‘Who is there to forbid the beauty which God has brought forth for His creatures, and the good things from among the bounty [which He has provided]’" (Quran 7:32).

This concept was amplified in the portion of Islamic jurisprudence known as maqasid al-sharia, or the underlying purpose of laws in Islam. The name most associated with this branch of jurisprudence is that of a scholar known as Abu-Ishaq Al-Shatibi, in his famous work, the Muwafaqat (790 C.E.). This work was penned about six centuries ago and divided the purpose of the legal code of Islam into three areas in descending order of priorities: attaining for each human being the necessities of life, attaining for each human being the needs of life, and attaining for each human being the refinements in life. It is this last category, attaining the refinements of life, as an established aim of the legal and political systems, which equates to our modern concept of the pursuit of happiness.

Therefore, it is clear that the pillars of justice, equality before the law, due process, and absence of cruel and unusual punishment, as they are present at the heart of our Constitution, were cornerstones of Islamic jurisprudence for a millennium before the writing of our Constitution today, in nearly identical concepts, and nearly identical words, arising from the writings of numerous Islamic scholars. Beyond that, the concept that the lawful pursuit of happiness is itself a God-given human right which should be protected by the legal system, is also a stolid concept within Islamic jurisprudence.

The Muslim, then, feels quite at home and quite comfortable with the American Constitution, since it is a familiar echo of the principles which lie at the basis of Islamic law. This sentiment is the true foundation of patriotism in Islam.