Transcript Document

Reflections on the Relationship between Science and Spirituality:
A Multi-disciplinary Colloquium
April 13th, 2005
Lubbock, TX
Seeing the Environment
through Islamic Eyes
Safei-Eldin Hamed, Ph.D
Texas Tech University
Seeing the Environment through Islamic Eyes
• Harvard University Conferences (1998)
• The Key Question: What role can religion play
in addressing our global environmental crisis?
• What are the Islamic values pertaining to
natural resources management and
environmental planning?
• Is it practically possible to derive from the
Islamic jurisprudence a set of environmental
planning and Management guidelines?
ISLAM AND
ECOLOGY
RELIGION, ETHICS, AND
THE ENVIRONMENT:
Questions to the World
 What is required to attain sustainable
development on earth ?
 How should we build capacity for that
goal?
Questions to the Muslim World
 How can the Muslim environmentalist
respond to the global problems of
pollution and natural resources
depletion?
 What is the Islamic approach to
achieving an environmentally sustainable
development world community?
The Issue of the Real and the Ideal
Intentions
Value System (Theoretical)

Stewardship (Khilafa)

Equilibrium (Mizan)

Actions
Institutions (Practical)

Hisbah (Office of
public inspection)
Waqf (Endowment)
Communities on earth (Ummah)

Iqtaa (Land grants)

Justice (Adl)


Moderation (Taowsot)
Ihya (Development
of waste lands)

Hema (Reserved
zone)
Haram (Forbidden
area)


Stewardship (Khilafa)
• “Then We appointed you stewards
in the earth after them, to see how
you would behave”.
•
(Qur’an, 10:15)
Equilibrium (Mizan)
• “And the earth We have
spread out, set thereon
mountains firm and
immovable; and produced
therein all kinds of things
in due balance.”
•
(Qur’an 15:19)
Equilibrium (Mizan)
• We made from water every living thing”
(Qur’an 21:30)
• “It is He who has made the sea subject, that ye
may eat thereof flesh that is fresh and tender.”
(Qur’an 16:14)
• “And He caused rain to descend on you from
heaven to clean you therewith.”
•
(Qur’an 8:11)
Communities on earth (Ummah)
There is not an animal that lives
on earth, Nor a being that flies on
its wings, but forms part of
communities like you.
(Qur'an, VI: 38)
Why revitalizing traditional Islamic institutions?
 The size of the Muslim world
 75 developing countries
 Urbanization, industrialization & pollution.
 The need for appropriate ethics
 Islam’s unique paradigm and environmental
values
 Development as a question of values
 The historical record of Shari’ah
 The failure of borrowed economic models and
development systems
 The widening gap
 The failure of governmental institutions
Call for new ethics
• A new ethics, embracing
plants and animals, as
well as people, is required
for human societies to
live in harmony with the
natural world on which
they depend for survival
and well being”
•
IUCN,
World Environmental Strategy, 1980
•
Is sustainable development possible?


The newly established agencies
The existing legislation


Should we anticipate any change?
Do we have a blue print for revitalizing Islamic models?


The size of the Muslim world
Who sets the goals?

Which models are pursued? Which are resisted?


Do we know whether prevailing norms and practices are
compatible to the ideals of the Shari’ah and the principles
of sustainability?
Can Muslim countries afford the costs of information?

How do leaders perceive the information age?

How independent and ethical can a development planner be?

How much public involvement and Shura would existing
governments allow?
Ideas for the future
Sustainability of the earth is vital for the
future well-being of humanity. This can
only be attained through solidarity of
purpose and a commitment to
environmental ethics and values.
Ideas for the future
Islam could play an
important role in this
venture, particularly
since it has been for
sometime a rich, yet
untapped source of
environmental ideas
and ideals.