The Islamic approach to environmental protection …

In our eagerness to ‘progress’ and ‘develop’ we have lost sight of the finite and delicate nature of planet Earth and of humanity’s place in it. Islamic teaching offers an opportunity to understand the natural order and to define human responsibility. It could be said that the limits of the human condition are set within several principles –

First, the Earth is a sacred place of prayer. The Quran says that the entire Earth was given to us as a place of prayer. That is, a sacred place. We keep the insides of our churches and mosques and synagogues clean because we connect them with a place where we “visit” with God. But here Allah is saying that the entire earth is such a place. The lesson is then that we must care for it as we would care for any place of prayer, any sacred place.

055.010 وَالأرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلأنَامِ

Waal-arda wada’aha lil-anam

It is He Who has spread out the earth as a prayer carpet for His creatures:

Second – Tawheed is the fundamental statement of the oneness of the Creator, from which everything else follows. It is the primordial testimony to the unity of all creation and to the interlocking grid of the natural order ecology of which humanity is an intrinsic part. God says of Himself in the Qur’an:

قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ112.001

Qul huwa allahu ahad

112.002 اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ

Allahu samad

Say; He is God, One, God, the Everlasting Refuge Quran 112:1-2

and about creation:

وَلَهُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ كُلٌّ لَهُ قَانِتُونَ030.026

Walahu man fee alssamawati waal-ardi kullun lahu qanitoona

وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ وَهُوَ

أَهْوَنُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَهُ الْمَثَلُ الأعْلَى فِي

السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ030.027

Wahuwa allathee yabdao alkhalqa thumma yu’aeeduhu wahuwa ahwanu ‘aalayhi walahu almathalu al-a’ala fee alssamawati waal-ardi wahuwa al’aazeezu alhakeemu

To Him belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and the earth, all obey his will And it is He who originates creation

The whole of creation – being the work of one Originator – works within one stable pattern, however complex it may be. Another verse in the Qur’an refers to the heavens and the Earth as extensions of God’s throne, thus conveying the idea that creation was designed to function as a whole. Each of its complimentary parts, including humankind, plays its own self-preserving role, and in so doing supports the rest.

Third – Fitra describes the primordial nature of creation itself and locates humankind in it. The Qur’an says:

فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ

الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا لا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ

اللَّهِ ذَلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ

النَّاسِ لا يَعْلَمُونَ030.030

Faaqim wajhaka lilddeeni haneefan fitrata Allahi allatee fatara alnnasa ‘aalayha la tabdeela likhalqi Allahi thalika alddeenu alqayyimu walakinna akthara alnnasi la ya’alamoona

So set thy face to the religion, a man of pure faith – God’s original upon which He originated mankind. There is no changing God’s creation. That is the right religion; but most men know it not

God originates humankind within His creation, which He also originated. Humanity is then inescapably subject to God’s immutable laws, as is the rest of creation. Creation cannot be changed: global warming can be seen, in this light, as the Earth’s endeavor to maintain a balance in the face of the human assault against it.

Part 2

Fourth – Mizan is the principle of balance, of the middle path. In one of its most eloquent passages the Qur’an describes creation thus:

055.001 الرَّحْمَنُ

Alrrahmanu

055.002 عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ

‘allama alqur-ana

055.003 خَلَقَ الإنْسَانَ

Khalaqa al-insana

055.004 عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ

‘allamahu albayana

055.005 الشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُ بِحُسْبَانٍ

Alshshamsu waalqamaru bihusbanin

055.006 وَالنَّجْمُ وَالشَّجَرُ يَسْجُدَانِ

Waalnnajmu waalshshajaru yasjudani

055.007 وَالسَّمَاءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ

Waalssamaa rafa’aha wawada’a almeezana

055.008 أَلا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ

Alla tatghaw fee almeezani

055.009 وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ وَلا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ

Waaqeemoo alwazna bialqisti wala tukhsiroo almeezana

055.010 وَالأرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلأنَامِ

Waal-arda wada’aha lil-anami

055.011 فِيهَا فَاكِهَةٌ وَالنَّخْلُ ذَاتُ الأكْمَامِ

Feeha fakihatun waalnnakhlu thatu al-akmami

055.012 وَالْحَبُّ ذُو الْعَصْفِ وَالرَّيْحَانُ

Waalhabbu thoo al’asfi waalrrayhani

The All-Merciful has taught the Qur’an.

He created man and He taught him the explanation.

The sun and the moon to a reckoning, and the stars and trees bow themselves;

and heaven – He raised it up and set the balance.

Transgress not in the balance,

and weigh with justice, and skimp not in the balance.

And earth – He set it down for all beings,

therein fruits and palm trees with sheaths,

and grain in the blade, and fragrant herbs.

Of which your Lord’s bounties will you and you deny?

Quran 55:1-12

God has singled out humans and taught them reason – the capacity to understand. All creation has an order and a purpose. If the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees and the rest of creation did not conform to the natural laws – ‘bow themselves’ – it would be impossible for life to function on Earth. So we have a responsibility not to deny the ‘Lord’s bounties’ and actively to recognize the order that is around us, for ourselves, as much as for the rest of creation.

Fifth – Khalifa – or the role of stewardship – is the sacred duty God has ascribed to the human race. There are many verses in the Qur’an that describe human duties and responsibilities, such as the following which aptly summarizes humanity’s role:

It is He who has appointed you viceroys in the earth Quran 6:165 (part)

Humankind has a special place in God’s scheme. We are more than friends of the Earth – we are its guardians. Although we are equal partners with everything else in the natural world we have added responsibilities. We are decidedly not its lords and masters.

We may deduce from these principles that creation, although quite complex and yet finite, only works because each of its component parts does what is expected of it – in the language of the Qur’an, submits to the Creator. Humanity is inextricably part of this pattern. The role of humans – who uniquely have wills of their own and are thus capable of interfering with the pattern of creation – is of guardianship. This added responsibility imposes limits on their behavior and should lead to conscious recognition of their own fragility. They achieve this by submitting themselves to the divine law.

Until quite recently the human race – both rebels and conformists, the ignorant and the enlightened, whether in small self-governing communities or vast empires, barbarian tribes or points of high civilization – functioned unconsciously within natural, unwritten boundaries. It had an intuitive disposition to live within the Fitra, though this was only achieved by conscious recognition of the existence of a superior force, the divine. This was an existential reality, neither idyllic nor utopian.

We are clearly no longer functioning within these limits. Two events in 16th and 17th century Europe allowed the human species to break free from the natural patterning of which it had always been part. One was the appearance of the Cartesian world view, which propounded a dualism that separated mind and matter and allowed for the development of science on purely mechanistic lines. Cartesian skepticism brushed aside the accumulated wisdom of the ages and sowed the seeds of doubt. From then on humanity began to worship itself: in Descartes’ own words humans were ‘lords and masters of creation’. They now had reason on their side to support them in their acts of predation.

This period also saw the laying of the foundations of the banking system to which we are all now in thrall. Bankers have, in Islamic terms, sabotaged the Mizan of creation by not only charging interest but by doing so on money which they create endlessly out of nothing. This explosion of artificial wealth provides the illusion of economic dynamism: but in reality it is parasitic. Endless credit devours the finite Fitra. If kept up, this would eventually result in the Earth looking like the surface of the moon.

People who lived in the pre-Cartesian dimension, that was before we were told that nature was there to be plundered, were basically no different from us. They had the same positive and negative human attributes, but the results of human profligacy were contained by the natural order of things, which transcended technological and political sophistication and even religious disposition. Excess in the natural order was contained because it was biodegradable. When old civilizations, however opulent, profligate, greedy, or brutal died, the forest just grew over them. They left no pollutants, damaging poisons or nuclear waste. By contrast, and assuming we survive as a species, archaeologists excavating our present rampant civilization are going to have one or two problems…

And Allah knows best.

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