The Vol 3 No 1 2019

Ecological ISSN 2515-1967

Ci t ize n A peer-reviewed journal

www.ecologicalcitizen.net

C O N FRO NTIN G H U M A N S U PRE M AC Y IN D E FE N C E O F TH E E A R TH

IN THIS ISSUE

Focus on religion
Twelve pieces explore
different facets of religion in
relation to the natural world

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The

EC C i t i z e n Ecological
An ecocentric, peer-reviewed,
free-to-access journal

ISSN 2515-1967

Aims
1 Advancing ecological knowledge
2 Championing Earth-centred action
3 Inspiring ecocentric citizenship
4 Promoting ecocentrism in political debates
5 Nurturing an ecocentric lexicon
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“ When service to people

is paramount, disservice to
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Stan Rowe

2 The Ecological Citizen Vol 3 No 1 2019

www.ecologicalcitizen.net
A bestowed trust: The perception
of nature and animals in Islam
I İbrahim
  grew up in a small village as a child
of a farmer. I enjoyed the beauty of
the natural environment with all its
richness in the 1960s. When I saw my first
– but also, unfortunately, my last – wild
wolf, I was about seven years old. Then,
I could still drink the water of the creeks,
as it was crystal-clear. Later, I learned that
Rachel Carson was writing her seminal and
groundbreaking book Silent Spring (1962)
during those same years.
Now I have four children, two
granddaughters and a grandson. I never
thought that my descendants might not
enjoy the same kind of life that I had in my
childhood, but it seems that they live in a
different world. They have hardly seen a wild
animal in nature, only in documentaries
and zoos. In my lifetime many species
have disappeared forever from the face
of the Earth because of our treatment of
them. For a long time, we have ignored the
impact of our lifestyle on the planet Earth
and our fellow creatures. Therefore, like
many concerned colleagues of different
religions, faiths, cultures and races, I have
deep concerns about my descendants’
future and the world they are going to live
in. Addressing environmental problems and
climate change are thus a moral imperative
for me.
It is needless to say that environmental
threats affect everyone without discrimin-
ation – whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim
or Buddhist. A key question is whether
adherents of different religions can work
together to respond effectively to these
challenges to humanity, whilst still
preserving their differences.
Whether explicitly or implicitly, every
religion and philosophy proposes a
worldview to its followers – a way of
looking at the universe, nature and ‘other’
The Ecological Citizen Vol 3 No 1 2019
SNAPSHOT
human beings. In other words, religions
and philosophies provide conceptual and
practical maps to navigate in life. Özdemir
When we look at the first chapters and
About the author
verses of the Qur’an, which were revealed
İbrahim is a professor of
to the Prophet Muhammad in the Meccan philosophy at Åbo Akademi
period in 7th century Arabia, we see that University, Turku, Finland.
its main purpose was “to awaken in man His research focuses on
the higher consciousness of his manifold Islamic environmental
relations with God and universe” (Iqbal, thought and environmental
ethics, and, more broadly,
1958). All these should be considered as
on the connections
components of the Qur’anic Weltanschauung. between sustainable
The Qur’an challenged the polytheism of development, religion and
the Pagan Arabs by conceptualizing nature the environment.
as an assembly of orderly, meaningful and
Citation
purposeful phenomena. Briefly, the Qur’an
Özdemir İ (2019) A bestowed
asserts that God created the universe and
trust: The perception of
adorns the skies with the sun, the moon
nature and animals in Islam.
and the stars, and the face of the Earth The Ecological Citizen 3: 33–4.
with flowers, trees and the various animal
species. God causes the rivers and streams Keywords
to flow, upholds the skies, causes the rain Religion; worldviews
to fall and places the boundary between
night and day. That is, the universe, in all
its richness and vitality, is the work and art
of God.
In other words, nature – “having a firm
and well-knit structure with no gaps,
no ruptures, and no dislocations” – is
regarded as “one of the grand handiworks
of the Almighty” (Rahman, 1980). Like a
mirror, nature reflects the power, beauty,
wisdom and mercy of its Creator; it is a
balanced, just, peaceful, unified pattern,
created and sustained by God. Moreover,
the Qur’an’s insistence on the order, beauty
and harmony of nature implies that there is
no demarcation between what the Qur’an
reveals and what nature manifests (Iqbal,
1958; Özdemir, 2003).
A number of chapters of the Qur’an have
animal names: The Cow (chapter 2), The
Cattle (chapter 6), The Bee (chapter 16), The
33
A bestowed trust: The perception of nature and animals in Islam
Ant (chapter 28), The Spider (chapter 29)
and The Elephant (chapter 105). Camels,
cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, sheep,
monkeys, dogs, pigs, snakes, worms, ants,
bees, spiders, mosquitoes and flies are all
mentioned by name. The Qur’an portrays
animals as works of art displaying the
Maker’s skill and perfection (16:66). It
invites us to consider camels and how they
“The implication are created; the sky and how it is raised
is that all the
high; the mountains and how they are
natural phenomena fixed firm; the Earth and how it is spread
around us are ‘full out (88:17–20). The implication is that all
of meaning, high the natural phenomena around us are “full
of meaning, high design, and the goodness
design, and the
of God to human beings” (Özdemir, 2003)
goodness of God to and therefore must be handled with care
human beings’ (and and responsibility.
therefore must be The Qur’an emphasizes that the natural
world has not been created solely for
handled with care
humanity’s use. Even if the human being
and responsibility.” is the vicegerent of God on Earth, this does
not mean that the whole of nature and its
resources are designed for human benefit
alone (55:10–12). Rather, it is a bestowed
trust for human beings. The Prophet
Muhammad therefore insisted, for example,
on the protection of animals and the kind
treatment of them. His concern that they
should be well treated, protected and not
abused or degraded is truly noteworthy.
Care for the environment and for all
animals, and deep concern over climate
change and its daunting consequences, are
thus our moral responsibility as Muslims.
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34
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It seems to me that our responsibility to
raise environmental awareness in Muslim
societies has both theoretical and practical
dimensions. On the theoretical level, we need
to deal with the issues from the ontological,
cosmological and epistemological perspective
of the Qur’anic Weltanschauung. However, on
the practical side, we also need to provide
useable tools for interested groups, which
will involve drawing from the best and most
successful examples in the world.
We Muslims are faced with a choice
between continuing to live amid
environmental problems and handing
over to the next generation a hellish place
in which to live, or rolling up our sleeves
and working together to redefine our
relationship to the environment. As the
whole of creation is a bestowed trust to us,
to strive to make the world a better place
to live for ourselves, our children, our
grandchildren and all fellow creatures is a
moral imperative. n
References
Carson R (1962) Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin, Boston,
MA, USA.
Iqbal M (1958) The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in
Islam. Ashraf Press, Lahore, Pakistan.
Özdemir İ (2003) Towards an understanding of
environmental ethics from a Qur’anic perspective. In:
Foltz R, Denny F and Baharuddin A, eds. Islam and
Ecology: A bestowed trust. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, MA, USA: 1–37.
Rahman F (1980) Major Themes of the Qur’an. Bibliotheca
Islamica, Chicago, IL, USA.
The Ecological Citizen Vol 3 No 1 2019