Week 2: Islam and Sustainable Development

In week 2, we learned about Islam and Sustainable Development. The idea of sustainable development is not new to Muslims. The foundation for human welfare, both physical and spiritual, is provided by the Qur'an and the Hadith. There are over 500 verses in the Qur'an giving Muslims guidance on matters relating to the environment and how to deal with it, and there are numerous examples from the prophet Mohammed's life (PBUH) and his sayings, which provide a model for justice and equity.

The topic of Islam and Sustainable Development can be divided into three parts, which are Islam and Environmental, Social and Economic Sustainability. However, today I will only be talking about Islam and Environmental Sustainability as it relates to the topic of my project. The prophet says "there shall be no damage and no infliction of damage". This relates to environmental sustainability. In Islam, everyone has the shared right to enjoy the benefits of the fundamental environmental elements and resources, including water, minerals, land, forests, fish and wildlife, arable soil, air, and sunlight. Every person has a right to share in the benefits of a common resource, provided that the impact on the environment and the level of need (which must be differentiated from wants) are taken into consideration.

Furthermore, during this week's class we were told to discuss how we can include Islam into our Sustainable Development project. My groupmates and I are doing a project about the waste management issue on campus. This issue can be associated to SDG 12 which is to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Moreover, this issue also relates to Islam as Islam is a religion that encourages cleanliness, and poor waste management is the opposite of that. Therefore, we can see from this example that Islam teaches us ways to sustain environmental sustainability.

That is all from me today! Let us all continue to practice sustainability in our daily lives!