Islam, Christianity and
Environmentalism.
Islam and
Christianity have so much in common as religions, that I began to wonder
whether they were comparable in terms of scripture that supported “Green”
practices. In 1994 The World Conservation Union published an Environmental
Policy and Law Paper on Environmental Protection in Islam. This paper outlines
in some depth the basis for what are now considered Green practices in the
Quran. I wanted to know more. Because I am neither Muslim nor Christian, I in
particular I wanted to know which parts of the Quran and Hadith and the Bible
were used to ground Environmentalism in Islam and Christianity.
In the West
of the 21st Century, Islam is known for many things, most of them
quite awful. What is not known in the West are Islams surprisingly Green
credentials. Islam can claim with some justification, to be a Green Religion. Christianity, which is the dominant Abrahamic
religion in the West, in my opinion struggles with being Green. A comparison
between the two religions in terms of their respective “Greeness” would make for an interesting intellectual exercise.
Environmentalism
runs surpisingly deep in Islam, with people we wouldn’t naturally think of as
being “Greenies”, having very clear opinions in support of the environment. The
much loathed and unlamented Osama Bin Ladin certainly had Green beliefs and
expectedly he used them to attack the West and in particular the US for not
signing the Kyoto Protocols: Osama's
concern for the environment is not exactly new-found, but it is intermittent.
In a 2002 letter to the American people, Bin Laden wrote: "You have
destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any other
nation in history. Despite this, you refuse to sign the Kyoto agreement so that
you can secure the profit of your greedy companies and industries." (Goldenberg, 2010).
Apart from
this a quick search of online Quran and Bibles provided the quotes below:
Islam
"But seek, through that which
Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and (yet), do not forget your
share of the world. And do good as Allah has done good to you. And desire not
corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like corruptors. "[Quran 28:77]
“Eat and drink from the
provision of Allah, and do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption." [Quran 2:60]
"Corruption has
appeared throughout the land and sea by (reason of) what the hands of people
have earned, so He (i.e. Allah) may let them taste part of (the consequences
of) what they have done that perhaps they will return (to righteousness).”
[Quran 30:41]
“The world is beautiful and verdant, and verily God, be He exalted, has
made you His stewards in it, and He sees how you acquit yourselves.” (Saheeh Muslim)
“If any Muslim plants a tree or sows
a field, and a human, bird or animal eats from it, it shall be reckoned as
charity from him.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
“If anyone plants a tree, neither human being nor any of
God’s creatures will eat from it without its being reckoned as charity from
him.”
“If the day of resurrection comes upon anyone of you while
he has a seedling in hand, let him plant it.”
The approach of Islam toward the use and
development of the earth’s resources was put thus by Ali ibn Abi-Talib, the
fourth Caliph, to a man who had developed and reclaimed abandoned land: “Partake of it
gladly, so long as you are a benefactor, not a despoiler; a cultivator, not a
destroyer. (Bagader, 2006)
Christianity
A
search using “creatures of the earth” provided these quotes from the Bible:
Psalm
104:24: How
many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of
your creatures.
Romans 8:39:
Neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Genesis 1:28:
God
blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the
earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and
over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 2:15:
The Lord
God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of
it.
Christianity
seems to base its environmentalism on Psalm 104 which in addition to the very
brief quote above goes onto say:
25 There is the sea, vast and
spacious, teeming with creatures
beyond number— living things both
large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic
there.
27 All creatures look to you to give
them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them, they
gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are
terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit, they are
created, and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure
forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it
trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord all my
life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be
pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the Lord.
35 But may sinners vanish from the
earth and the wicked be no more.
We can quite
readily see that in Islam the scripture itself deals with the environment in a
much clearer and explicit manner. The quote from the Quran 2:60 is remarkably
clear when it comes to explaining how Allah feels man should behave in terms of
the environment. Whereas the quotes from Genesis 2:15 and Psalm 104 are
remarkably vague and actually don’t address caring for Creation at all.
To me this
is quite curious. It becomes more so when we remember that Christianity arose a
little over 1200 km from where Islam was born. The origins of Islam and
Christianity share the same geography and semi to arid environment. You would
be forgiven for thinking that they would share the same theological approach to
Creation. Surprisingly they don’t. Christianity seems to stop its theology at
everything being for mans use (Blocker, 1996). In fact in their article in the “Journal for
the Scientific Study of Religion” Eckberg and Blocker argue that large sections
of Christianity are traditionally actively hostile to the environment. Eckberg
and Blocker are far from alone in this argument. This perhaps helps explain why
in the West environmentalism traditionally has been such a secular event.
Reasons for this
secularism may be found in “One Body of Christian Environmentalism” by Raymond
E. Grizzle and Christopher B. Barrett who argue that the reason for an almost
complete absence of environmentalism in Christianity is an extreme anthropocentric
perspective in Christianity (Raymond E. Grizzle and Christopher B.
Barrett, 1998).
Eckberg and Blocker in their paper “Christianity, Environmentalism, and the
Theoretical Problem of Fundamentalism” written in 1996, quoting an earlier paper on the subject provide us
with this opinion as an explanation for Christianitys lack of explicit
environmentalism: Briefly, he proposed
that the desacralization of nature in Genesis 1 predisposes Christians to
regard the environment as having value primarily through its use by humans, and
as falling properly under human dominion. People living in such a culture could
be expected to be unconcerned about the general state of nature insofar as they
would be oriented primarily toward its exploitation.
With these two quotes in
mind it isn’t hard to see why the teachings of the traditional denominations of
Christianity in the forms of the dominant Roman Catholic, the Protestant and
the various Orthodox churches and environmentalism aren’t natural companions.
In direct contrast to opinions expressed in the Quran and by Islamic authors,
it is almost impossible in the above mentioned forms of the Christian religion
with such a clear anthropocentric world view to be an environmentalist and a
“good Christian”. The two ideals are functionally incompatible.
Fortunately
there is a strand of Christianity that does embrace environmentalism. The
Evangelical form of Christianity is the most Green of all Christian groups (Kearns, 1997), though James L.
Guth et al in their article for the Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion “Theological Perspectives and Environmentalism Among Religious
Activists” (James L. Guth, Lyman A. Kellstedt, Corwin E.
Smidt and John C. Green, 1993) do provide evidence of environmentally inclined theologians
in even the Roman Catholic Church. In particular they name Matthew Fox as being
a prominent Roman Catholic theologian who teaches on environmentalism in a
positive light (Fox, 2014), though Fox seems to
have paid dearly for his environmentalist views. His website states he was defrocked
from the Dominican Order by none other than Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Pope
Benedict the 16th. For the
Evangelical form of Christianity Dr Calvin DeWitt is a leading theoretician (Calvin DeWitt et al, 2014). Though all authors
note that Christians who adhere to a literalist interpretation of the Bible are
the ones who are the least interested in any form of environmentalism.
BioLogos
which is an organisation associated with Calvin DeWitt has on its “About Us”
section of its webpage these entries: We believe that God also reveals
himself in and through the natural world he created, which displays his glory,
eternal power, and divine nature. Properly interpreted, Scripture and nature
are complementary and faithful witnesses to their common Author. And We believe that the methods of science are an important
and reliable means to investigate and describe the world God has made. In this,
we stand with a long tradition of Christians for whom Christian faith and
science are mutually hospitable. Therefore, we reject ideologies such as
Materialism and Scientism that claim science is the sole source of knowledge
and truth, that science has debunked God and religion, or that the physical
world constitutes the whole of reality.
We believe that God created the universe,
the earth, and all life over billions of years. God continues to sustain the
existence and functioning of the natural world, and the cosmos continues to
declare the glory of God. Therefore, we reject ideologies such as Deism that
claim the universe is self-sustaining, that God is no longer active in the
natural world, or that God is not active in human history.
When it comes to interpreting Scripture BioLogos has
this: Applying a method of interpretation to scripture passages can be a
daunting task. C.S. Lewis advises us to, “Look. Listen. Receive.” Reading
and understanding the Bible is a process of discovery that goes beyond a hasty
read-through. One must carefully study and seek to interpret the author’s
intended meaning without projecting meaning onto the text. In order to read
scripture in a meaningful and accurate way, it is logical to use what the Rev.
Ernest Lucas calls the “standard methods of biblical interpretation that have
been well established since the time of Augustine and the early church
fathers.” Lucas, who has doctorates in both biochemistry and theology, explains
that these standard methods involve asking the following five questions: What
kind of language is being used? What kind of literature is it? What is the
expected audience? What is the purpose of the text? What relevant extra-textual
knowledge is there? Which to my
understanding isn’t all that different to what Al-Jayyousi and Özdemir put forth below as Islamic
opinions. Matthew Foxs website simply isn’t as well organised as DeWitts and I
can’t get a sense of if or where his environmentalism connects with his
Christianity. To be completely fair, Fox seems to have left Christianity behind
since his defrocking.
In direct
contrast to most forms of Christianity, Islam appears to not only have put more
thought into the environment, but to be positively Green. In a religion that
is, in its present incarnation so conservative, Islam is devoting considerable
intellectual energy in its modern form to the environment than Christianity
seems remotely close to doing. With Christianity proving to be very limited in
Green credentials, the only way left for us to move forward is to explore
Islams Green credentials.
There is the
observation that Islam is a more pragmatic religion, which fits in perfectly
with Islams belief that it is the final and perfect communication from God to
man. With Islam “God finally got it right” and feels no further need to
communicate with us. This is why Islam directly applies itself to the matter of
environmental sustainability. Islam in the 21st Century sees that
there is a problem in terms of the environment that needs fixing and is setting
about the task. As we have already
explored and in direct contrast to this, in the West the very fiercest of
climate change deniers are Christians.
It is
fitting that an examination of where environmentalism actually fits into modern
Islamic thought. Environmentalism in Islamic thought actually covers a great
more intellectual ground than simply doing what Allah tells us to do, which I
illustrated in the quotes at the beginning of this essay. The logic supportive
of environmentalism in Islam is both circular and internally consistent. Environmentalism
involves: Wisdom (Hikma), Justice (Adl), Public Interest (Malasha) and Innovation
(Ijtihad).
In page 15
of “Islam and Sustainable Development” Odeh Rashed Al-Jayyousi defines Wisdom as “the purposeful acquisition
and embodying of wisdom from all nations
(my italics). Justice is good
governance which is based on rights. Public
Interest is based on consensus within the community. Most interestingly Innovation refers to applying effort and
intellectual capital to solving present and emerging problems. It also involves
the reinvention of tools in order to make the transition to sustainability (Al-Jayyousi, 2012).
I think the
title of al-Jayyousi’s book is, in and of itself deeply interesting. Not only
does the West rarely think of Islam as being Green, we equally as rarely think
of it as being sustainable, the development part of the title, the West has no
problems with. Just ask anyone who has been to Malaysia, Qatar or Dubai in the
last ten years and they will tell you about the massive development happening
in those countries. With Wisdom
Al-Jayyousi explores how Islam can, and should, go about being sustainable.
Importantly and in direct contrast to Osama Bin Ladin, Al-Jayyousi leaves open
intellectual and technological borrowing from, presumably the West in order to
solve environmental issues in Muslim countries. The important word is “all”. To
me this means that if, for example, the Israeli’s develop a solar powered
desalination plant that converted gigalitres at a time, then Muslim nations
would be obliged to purchase it. It also means that Muslim countries are
obliged to pursue research into renewable energy technologies, which are
currently something the West has a technological advantage in.
Justice is interesting in an environmentally
sustainable context when we remember the opinions expressed in “Environmental
Protection in Islam” by Abu Bakr Bagader et al. On page 9 of the Review, there
is clear mention of plants and animals having Rights. Justice in the way that Bagader uses it is derived from the fact
that all plants and animals are the creation of Allah. Given that Bagader goes
on to say on page 10, that Allah created plants and animals so that they may
also praise him, the concept of legal equality between humans and animals is
the subject of Justice in an Islamic
context. We are obliged to give justice
to the environment for two reasons: the first is that, in Islam and in direct
contrast to Christianity, in the first place it isnt our property. It is the
“property” and creation of Allah. In the second place is that in the eyes of
Allah there is as I understand it, no functional difference between a person
and a goat. We are both expressions of Allahs love and wisdom and both species
can offer praise to Allah. Thus justice in
terms of environmental sustainability and Islam means that a Muslim is obliged
to treat the environment with the same love that he or she has for Allah.
Public Interest given the interpretation of Justice by Bagader is open to
interpretation. I won’t venture into the intellectual and philosophical
quagmire as to whether animals have the capacity to reason. Though if we take Justice to a logical conclusion, Islam
accepts that animals do have a very clear ability to engage in reasoning due to
their ability to know Allah and to praise Him. However, as I said, that is a
door I’m only too happy to leave closed in this essay. Though what is left open
is opinion from ecologists etc., on the likely impact that an environmental
project is going to have on the ecosystem where it will be located. This leaves
only the Public Interest of humanity
as the subject of discussion. Even with just the human community in mind, with Public Interest Al-Jayyousi is opening
the door to democracy, something Islam as a religion is experiencing
difficulties practising. Public Interest implies
consensus with and consultation from the humans who have vested interests in
the environmental project. When Public
Interest is taken into account in Islam, everyone affected has the right to
have their opinions heard and respected when it comes to environmental issues.
Innovation is an aspect that I have in part
already discussed in Wisdom. There is
a crucial difference between Innovation
and Wisdom in that Wisdom is the ability to recognise
superior technology when you see it and then buy it for use in your own
projects. Innovation on the other
hand, in English means investing in and conducting your own research into how your
environmental problem can be solved. Al-Jayyousi is of the opinion that a
Muslim has no excuse when it comes to rectifying environmental damage. If a
Muslim nation cannot buy existing technology to repair damage from another
nation regardless of either religious or ideological differences between them,
then it is obliged to invent the technology needed to repair the damage.
The above is
all fair and reasonable, and from the perspective of a Western environmentalist
perfectly logical and acceptable…even if it does wear religious clothes.
Al-Jayyousi then steps into country that I understand very few Western
environmentalists or ecologists or animal rights activists ever venture into.
Al-Jayyousi begins to use the words Beauty
(Ihsan) and Tasbeeh (Prayer) when
discussing environmental sustainability. Al-Jayyousi holds the opinion that
environmentalism in Islam must restore the environment to or ennable it to
remain in a state of Beauty. The
logic is simple, because the environment is a creation of Allah and was created
for His and not our enjoyment, it is
therefore beautiful in its natural state. Because environmental damage is an
act of man, and not Allah who is apparently either incapable or unwilling to
damage his own Creation, it is our duty to restore it to the Beauty
that it had when Allah created it and before we destroyed it, so that the Beauty of the environment may please Allah.
Prayer is part of Islamic environmentalism according to Al-Jayyousi
because of the direct connection between the environment and Allah. I think
this is a significant difference between environmentalism of Islam and
Christianitys extremely limited engagement in environmentalism. To find a
Muslim author that directly connects, for example, noxious weed removal or
Clean Up Australia Day to Prayer is,
for me, to enter new intellectual ground. If, I am correct in the understanding
that Prayer is the glorification and
praise of Allah, then Al-Jayyousi holds the opinion that the practice of
environmental sustainability is identical to other forms of worship in Islam.
To practice environmental sustainability in Al-Jayyousi’s opinion is to be a
good Muslim. I simply don’t know of any Christian authorities who hold the same
opinion.
Given that I
have been taught that Islam regards the Quran and Hadith as the sources of all Wisdom, that they teach Justice, are in the Public Interest and encourage Innovation
the loop of logic can now be closed.
However, it
is unwise to accept only one opinion on a subject as complex and as relevant as
environmentalism, especially Islamic environmentalism. I will now explore a
number of other opinions, “Islam and Ecology” is an anthology of essays (Richard C. Foltz, Frederick M. Denny et al,
2003).
In the essay
“Toward an Understanding of Environmental Ethics from a Qur’anic Perspective”
Ibrahim Özdemir covers much the same ground as Al-Jayyousi. Özdemir writes: Nature has been regarded as “the prime
miracle of God, cited untiringly in the Qur’an, due to its well knit structure
and regularity.” The Qur’ans insistence on the order, the beauty and harmony of
nature implies that there is no demarcation between what the Qur’an reveals and
what nature manifests. We can see this at once if we reflect in the way that
the Qur’an invites us to, by using our intellect and freeing ourselves from the
boundaries and limitations of culture and tradition, looking at everything with
an observant eye in the name of God” (Özdemir page 9). In another part of
the same page Özdemir writes: The Qur’an
employs the perfect order of the universe/nature as the proof not only of God’s
existence, but also of His unity, which is known as the “cosmological evidence
of Gods existence” in the philosophy of Islamic theology”. Thus we can see that Özdemir is in
agreement with Al-Jayyousi when he includes Beauty
as part of enviromental sustainability, both authors directly connect the
environment with Allah.
Özdemir
includes a quote from the Quran in his essay that reinforces Al-Jayyousi’s
opinion that we are obliged to view the environment as being created for Allahs
enjoyment and not ours: “Not for (idle)
sport did We create the heavens and the earth and all that is between! If it
had been Our wish to take (just) a pastime, We should surely have taken it from
the things nearest to Us, if We would do (such a thing)! (Quran 21:16-17)
Özdemir
takes the position: “One immediate
conclusion, from an environmentalist perspective, is that every individual
creature or being has its own ontological existence as a sign of God, and by
its very being manifests and reveals His majesty and mercy. Therefore, every
creature deserves attention and consideration for its relation to the Divine. A
sincere follower of the Qur’an is always aware of the fact that “Our Lord is He
who gave to each (created) thing its form and nature, and further gave (it)
guidance” (Qur’an 20:50) (Özdemir page 10).
Özdemir on page
16 introduces the concept that nature, the environment itself is Muslim. When
we remember that nature was created by Allah in part to praise and glorify Him
and that because nature is Allahs creation it submits to Allah, this makes nature Muslim. Özdemir then quotes a number of verses from
the Quran that show, that if anything, nature is more Muslim than any man or
woman can hope to be: Quran 22:18, 13:13, 24:41-42, 3:83. Özdemir in common
with many Islamic scholars is of the opinion, which I quote above, that a good
Muslim learns about Allah from nature. Thus we have the concept that Allah and
his Creation are indivisably intertwined and that a practising Muslim stands in
awe of them both. So if we were to ask Al-Jayyousi and Özdemir the question:
Can a practising Muslim knowingly engage in the wilful destruction of the
environment? Their answer would have to be an emphatic: No!
To balance
these opinions I turn to Richard C. Foltz in his essay “Islamic
Environmentalism: A Matter of Interpretation” in the anthology “Islam and
Ecology”. It should be noted that Al-Jayyousi is a more recent author than both
Foltz and Özdemir, who incedentally contradict each other. Foltz for all the
faults in the arguments he makes (word play pun intended) finds it hard to
challenge the Green credentials of Islam and quotes without attribution passages
where the Prophet taught that if animals are to be slaughtered it is to be done
as quickly and as humanely and that the environmental impact of conflict is to
be minimised.
Foltz does
go on to make the valid point that most of the Green orientated writings in
Islam are being sourced from either Muslim writers resident in the West or who
have been educated in the West. Which seems to be true of both Al-Jayyousi and Özdemir.
Foltz then points out an all too common dichotomy and problem in Islam, in that
there is a very clear gap between what the Quran teaches, Muslim intellectuals
write about and what happens in Muslim countries and the latter point has
little or nothing in common with the former two points. Even with this
troubling and ongoing inconsistency, Foltz struggles to find where Islam is
less Green than Christianity.
So it is
that in this essay we have explored the Green credentials of Christianity and Islam.
We have sourced not only the Bible and the Quran, but also the thoughts of
intellectuals both religious and secular. The only conclusion that I was able
to arrive at is that Islam whilst a long way from being completely Green in
outlook is still substantially closer to it than Christianity is.
There is a
very clear and acknowledged dichotomy between the Quranic teachings on
environmentalism and the practices of most Muslims in the modern world. What is
a source of hope is that in Islam there is the basis for environmentalism in
the Quran itself and that mainstream Muslim authors such as Al-Jayyousi are
actively promoting environmental sustainability in an Islamic context. Another
source of hope for Islamic Environmentalism is that even people as reviled as
Osama Bin Ladin expressed support for the environment...even if it was in the
context of giving the Western democracies he so deeply opposed another kick.
This is in
complete contrast with Christianity where the Bible has very little, if
anything, that supports environmentalism. In Christianity, the dominant
churches are actively hostile to environmentalism, and this is perhaps best illustrated by the defrocking of Matthew Fox
by the future Pope Benedict the 16th for his stance on the
environment. It is only in the Christian Evangelical movement, which is still
something of a fringe element in Christianity is an environmentalist theology
being actively promoted. It is in the theology of the Evangelical Churches that
Christianity comes closest to the Islamic environmentalist theology, which is,
unlike its Christian cousin, part of the Islamic mainstream teachings.
Thus it is
very hard not to find that Islam has the better environmentalist credentials
when compared with Christianity.
Bibliography
1.
Al-Jayyousi. Odeh Rashed “Islam and Sustainable
Development”. MPG Books. London, UK. 2012
2.
Foltz. Richard C. “Islamic Environmentalism: A Matter of
Interpretation” from the anthology “Islam and Ecology”.
3.
Foltz. Richard C., Denny. Frederick M et al
“Islam and Ecology”. University of Harvard Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USA. 2003. An anthology of writings
4.
Grizzle. Raymond E and Barrett. Christopher B. “One
Body of Christian Environmentalism” .
Zygon Press. Upland, Indiana, US. 1998.
5.
Guth, James L., et al. "Theological perspectives and environmentalism
among religious activists." Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion (1993): 373-382.
13.
Özdemir.
Ibrahim “Toward an Understanding of Environmental Ethics from a Qur’anic
Perspective” from the anthology “Islam and Ecology”.
