Islamic environmental ethics: a model for shaping Muslim attitudes in helping to promote environmental education, awareness and activism

The environmental themes contained within the Quran and the traditions of the Islamic faith are some of the most understudied and largely ignored concepts within the Islamic educational landscape. Amid the severity of the environmental crisis there has been a growing interest in the subject area of Islamic environmental ethics by scholars who have elucidated the environmental themes contained within the Quran and the traditions of the faith. These scholarly works have helped to raise awareness and revive Islam’s ecological ethic, inspiring many Muslims worldwide to translate some of its principles into practice. Islam’s foundational educational institutions, however,still remains a vital but underutilised learning centre for imparting Islam’s ecological teachings. This thesis provides a review of the historical development of environmental ethics and the growing interest amongst scholars to coalesce religion and science to help tackle the environmental crisis. This work explores and presents an Islamic theological perspective of the environmental crisis. The concepts of tawḥīd, the Covenants, and the Attributes of God are significant themes within the Quran and these are explored, together with Islam’s five pillars of faith, to show their significance in the development of Islamic Environmental Ethics. The study affirms the importance of presenting a holistic view of Islam’s ecological teachings and concepts with a transformative approach which can help to educate, inspire and change the perceptions and behaviours within the British Muslim communities. Using Islamic concepts, based upon tawḥīd and the covenantal obligations, it puts forward a theocentric ecological ethics which can help to change attitudes, lifestyles and reinvigorate a spirituality that will create a metaphysical view of the world based on these Quranic concepts. The work provides an incentive to Muslim communities to introduce Islamic environmental ethics into teaching curriculums and to create alliances and inter-faith dialogue to help better the environment and create future leaders and academics in both the secular and religious environmental disciplines.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mres

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Rahman, Aminur Khosru

• BJ Moeseg
• BP Islam. Bahaiaeth. Theosoffi, ac yn y blaen
• GE Gwyddorau Amgylcheddol

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:2032