The book Care for Creation: An Islamic Perspective, has recently been authored by the prominent Turkish environmentalist Professor İbrahim Özdemir. The topic couldn’t be more crucial nowadays; Europe has planned to slash carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 and the need of a global effort to tackle, in several manners, climate change is increasingly discussed on mass media an social media, day by day.
In his book Professor Özdemir proves that Islam is a “genetically environmentalist religion”.
Indeed we have not to forget — as Abdul Matin highlights in his book Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting The Planet and Professor Özdemir in Care for Creation; An Islamic Perspective — that one of the fundamental principles of Islam is Mizan: balance; a general concept including, of course, the duty to find a virtuous relation with the environment surrounding and supporting us.
That is to say: with God’s creation as it is clearly affirmed in the following verses in the Holy Quran:
In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.
The Compassionate. Has taught the Quran. He created man. And taught him clear expression. The sun and the moon move according to plan. And the stars and the trees prostrate themselves. And the sky, He raised, and He set up the balance. So do not transgress in the balance. But maintain the weights with justice, and do not violate the balance.
(The Holy Quran, 55:1-9)
When we reflect on the moral implications of these verses, highlights Professor Özdemir, we will see that they would be enough for developing an environmental ethic and sustainability from the Holy Quran itself. First, justice and balance are universal; second, this universal balance is created and sustained by God, and third, humans must both attempt to comprehend and to protect this universal balance.
Indeed, how we can read again in the Holy Quran, as human beings we have been entrusted with conserving and developing (in a balanced way) our planet:
He who has made you successors (Khalifa) upon the earth.
(The Holy Quran, 6:165).
In his book Care for Creation; An Islamic Perspective, Professor Özdemir explains in detail how a good Muslim should behave to respect the environment in tune with the prescriptions of the Holy Quran and of the Sunna, mentioning the preservation of the cleanliness in public spaces, the preservation of trees, woodland and green areas, the protection of the animals (the famous French writer Montaigne touched on this subject when he said: “The Muslim Turks found hospitals and pious foundations for animals even”, to report only one example) and the need to be strongly mindful managing consumption and waste.
As history as well as Western travellers of Muslim lands observe, writes Professor Ozdemir, “Islam attaches the greatest importance to the conservation of the environment as a whole. For the environment and all the living beings within it are created by God.
“The conservation of the environment is therefore not only a human obligation but also a religious obligation.”
How profound are Yunus Emre’s, the Turkish poet of 13th century, words: “We love creatures for the sake of their Creator!”
No concerned and believing Muslim individual will forget that he is answerable for how he treats not only men but also all creatures, or that one day he will be called to account for how he acted. With the following verse, the Holy Quran warns all Muslims: “Whoever does an atom’s weight of good shall see it, And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil, shall see it” (The Holy Quran, 99: 7-8).
At the end of Care for Creation; An Islamic Perspective is reported the integral text of The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change, drafted in 2015. Among the members of the Islamic Declaration Team there was Professor Özdemir himself.
Nowadays Care for Creation; An Islamic Perspective can be an important source of inspiration for the growing number of Muslims engaged in environmental activities. Since it has been published (at the end of 2022) it has attracted growing interest internationally.
Five copies of Care for Creation; An Islamic Perspective have been requested by the Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries in the UK for the catalogue of National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Library of Oxford University, the National Library of Wales, Cambridge University Library and the library of Trinity College in Dublin.
The book will soon be available in the catalogue of the British Library as well, the most important in the world.
Care for Creation; An Islamic Perspective has been published both in paper and digital formats and it is easily available on line. We are doing our best to spread its contents and to give our small contribution to support the “brown to green” revolution. Of course there is still much theoretical and practical work to be done but we hope the publication of this book has been one of the first, crucial steps.
Manuel Olivares is an Italian author and publisher living between Italy and the UK. He is mainly interested in ecology and comparative religion. He spent several years in Asia, mostly in India, devoting a remarkable amount of time studying Eastern religions.
More recently he has strongly supported the campaign for an eco-friendly Ramadan which had an excellent, international response. For more information visit his web site www.viverealtrimenti.com.
