Mutual responsibility in society

No form of life can be satisfactory in which every individual is bent on the enjoyment of his absolute freedom. Without bounds or limits, he might be led to expect such freedom by his belief in the absolute equality which exists between himself and all other individuals, in respect of all privileges; but also of the individual himself. For there is the important matter of the welfare of society, short of which the freedom of the individual must stop; there is also the private welfare of the individual himself, which entails his giving up freedom at certain specific limits.
Thus, on the one hand, he may not allow himself to be carried to extremes by his passions and appetites and pleasures. On the other hand, his freedom may not conflict with that of others. For when this latter takes place, it produces unending disputes, and makes liberty an unendurable burden, through it the growth and improvement of community life are checked by the claims of individual welfare, which is a much narrower interest.
Islam grants individual freedom in the most perfect form and human equality in the most exacting sense, but it does not leave these two things uncontrolled; society has its interest, human nature has its claims, but a value attaches also to the lofty aims of individual freedom; and beside them both it sets the principle of social responsibility, which makes demands alike on the individual and on society. This is mutual responsibility in society.