The Globalization of Muslim Environmentalism

In Islamic Law

The legal corpus known as thesharī‘a , codified by Islamic jurists during the Classical period (8th-10th centuries CE), was meant to be all-encompassing and thus includes aspects which could be said to deal with environmental protection and management of natural resources. The jurists applied the four principles of Qur’anic injunctions, the example of Muhammad as attested in the hadiths, analogical reasoning, and their own consensus of opinion, to the pre-existing customary practices of the Arabs and the Persians in particular, and to some extent of other Muslim peoples.

The aspect ofsharī‘a law with the most explicit environmental applications may be the institution of the protected zone (harīm ), which prohibited the development of certain areas, mainly riverbanks, for purposes of protecting watersheds. A related institution is that of the preserve (hima ), which usually entailed the protection of trees and wildlife. Some traditionalharīm s andhima s still exist today, notably in Saudi Arabia, but they are much diminished from former times and continue to disappear. The legal texts go into some detail about the distribution of water resources, and also devote sections to the “bringing to life” (ihyā ) of “dead” lands (mawāt ), including the conditions and rights pertaining to one who engages in such “development.”

Islamic law also extends many legal protections to non-human animals, including the “right of thirst” (haqq al-shurb ), which states that they cannot be denied drinking water (Qur’an 91:13). A thirteenth-century work by ‘Izz al-din ibn ‘Abd al-salam,Qawā’id al‑ahkām fī masālih al‑anām (Rules for Judgment in the Cases of Living Beings ), includes what might be called in contemporary terms “an animals’ bill of rights.” Among the provisions are that animals should be properly cared for, not overburdened, kept safe from harm, given clean shelter, and allowed to mate.

Although there is little in the classical legal corpus that could be explicitly categorized as environmental law, there exist within it several basic principles which could, if so interpreted, serve to mitigate the some of the main causes of global environmental degradation today. In particular one may cite the principles of minimizing damage, the primacy of collective over individual interests, and the giving of priority to the interests of the poor over those of the rich. While some contemporary Muslims - notably Mawil Izzi Dien and Uthman Llewellyn - have attempted to provide such interpretations, these have not yet found their way into the legal codes of any existing Muslim societies.