The Environment, Climate Change
and its Challenges: Examining the
Sharia Perspectives and Islamic
State Practices
Javaid Rehman, Professor of Law, Brunel University,
London
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Introduction
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Amidst substantial jurisprudence on IEL,
Islamic perspectives appear overlooked
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Presentation – focuses on Islamic Law and
examines Sharia’s regulations on
protection/development of Environment and
climate change.
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Key Objectives
(1)
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(4)
Articulate Sharia’s principles on Environmental
Law
Highlight relationship & contributions of
Sharia towards IEL
Examples from Islamic State practices (OIC
members) regards environment & Climate
change
Conclusions – notwithstanding inconsistencies
– considerable flexibility
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Sharia’s principles on Environmental
Law
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Sharia – also known as Islamic law derives from:
Primary sources – Quran & Sunna (Prophet’s
tradition & practices)
Secondary sources - Qiyas (application by
analogy or deduction); Ijma (consensus) and
Ijthihad (independent legal reasoning).
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Sharia’s principles on Environmental
Law
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Sharia not simply representing religious laws, but
covers wide range of secular laws and
ordinances
articulated principles–regulating environment
(principles & policies & ordinances e.g.
preservation of water & air resources,
sustainable development of land and soil,
protection of plants & marine environment).
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Sharia’s principles on Environmental
Law
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Sharia & environment relationship:
Sharia literal meaning “the road to the watering
place”; “the righteous path to follow to reach
the goal set by the Quran”,
analogy being that as water is essential to human
existence, so is the righteous path as ordained by
God Almighty.
Sharia’s principles to be visualised in context of
7th Century Arabia – with scarcity of resources.
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Sharia’s contribution to Environment
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Highlights value of resources e.g. ‘water’, ‘fresh
air’, vegetation, ‘fruits’, ‘trees’ and ‘Animals’.
Various references: e.g. Quran
“Then let man consider his nourishment: that We pour
down the rain in showers, and We split the earth in
fragments, and therein make the grain to grow, and
vines and herbs, and olives and palms, and gardens of
dense foliage, and fruits and fodder–provision for you
and your cattle”.
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Sharia’s contribution to Environment
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“There is not an animal on the earth, nor any
being that wings its flight, but is a people like
unto you”. The Quran S 6: 38.
Considerable tradition of Prophet in protection
of environment, plants, animals:
- declared: territory around Makah & Medina
inviolable sanctuaries (can’t cut trees, animals
protected from any harm)
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Sharia’s contribution to Environment
- Concept of Trust and Inter-Generational
Duties
Human beings guardians, responsibility to look after planet
- Inter-Generational Responsibilities
Grant of Trust till eternity, therefore, environmental protection
obligation on all States
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Sharia’s contribution to Environment
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- Sustainable Development
Within Sharia ‘integration of the development
and conservation of natural resources is clear in
the idea of bringing life to the land and causing
it to flourish through agriculture, cultivation and
construction’. Bagader et al (1994).
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Modern Islamic State Practices
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Considerable Environmental Challenges -
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OIC members eg Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan etc face:
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Poverty; overpopulation; economic
underdevelopment; armed conflicts; imbalanced
political structures
Examples of damage to environment eg
Bangladeshi civil war (1970);
Iran-Iraq war (1980-88); Iraq’s invasion of
Kuwait (1990-91); Iraq invasion (2003 - )
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Modern Islamic State Practices
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Contributions eg
Regional Organisation for the Protection of
Marine Environment (ROPME) established &
operational since 1979
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Members: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
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new ethos protecting marine environment,
generated new standards (protocols - hazardous
waste, marine emergencies & sea-based
pollution)
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Modern Islamic State Practices
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Protocol concerning Regional Co-operation in
Combating Pollution by Oil & Other Harmful
Substances in Cases of Emergency (1978)
Protocol–Marine Pollution resulting from Exploration
and Exploitation of the Continental Shelf (1989)
Protocol for–Protection of the Marine Environment
against Pollution from Land-Based Sources (1990)
Protocol on Control of Marine Transboundary
Movements & Disposal of Hazardous Wastes (1998)
Protocol concerning the conservation of biological
diversity & establishment of protected areas.
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Modern Islamic State Practices
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Domestic Level – imaginative Legal mechanisms
for protecting environment
‘Public Interest Litigation’ - flexible rules in
:initiating proceeding (eg letter to court); locus
standi; inquisitorial (rather than adversarial)
proceedings & innovative remedies
Shehla Zia v. WAPDA PLD 1994 SC 693 (Article
9 constitutional right to life, right to unpolluted
environment)
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