Islam and Sustainable Development: The Inner Crisis of Man and

the Opportunity for 'Return'.[*]

________________________________________________________________________

Abstract:
This Paper discusses principles within Islam concerning the issue of Sustainable
Development. It explores the dimensions of economic growth and development in
light of an Islamic understanding of the Self. Exploring the role crisis serves as a
corrective measure in bringing about restorative balance in nature once it has been
transgressed, the paper states that our contemporary distortion of ecological justice is
an expression of the crisis of modern man. The solution is a 'Return' to man's innate
function as 'Stewards of the Earth'. The paper concludes by exploring what such a
'Return' may entail.
By: Yusuf Jha1 and Sheikh Rami Kilawi2
Keywords: Islam, sustainable development, stewardship, environment, economic,
ecological, consciousness, justice and balance.
_____________________________________________________________________
We have created a civilization that is in such a state of disequilibrium with the
natural environment that if one takes the longer view one can assert that this
civilization is itself the greatest weapon of mass destruction. Ecocide is also
suicide.
-- Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Introduction
An unprecedented convergence of crises define our era, spanning domains of
finance3, energy4, health care5, and the environment6. In our current financial system
[*] Presented at the International Conference on Islam, Science and Sustainable Development:
Maqasid al-Shari'ah & Humanity's Wellbeing, IAIS, KL, October 6-7, 2015.
1

Yusuf Jha currently works as a Trainee Mufti (Islamic Jurist) at the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and
Endowments (AWQAF), Abu Dhabi. Prior to this, he worked for over a decade in the Islamic finance industry
with stints at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, BMB Islamic, Dar Al Istithmar and 1st Ethical. He can be contacted at:
yusuf.jha@gmail.com
2

Sheikh Rami Kilawi currently works as a Mufti (Islamic Jurist) at the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and
Endowments (AWQAF), Abu Dhabi. Prior to this he was Senior Researcher at the Department of Islamic Affairs
and Charitable Actvities, Dubai, wherein he authored monographs in Arabic and English on Sustainable
Development in Islam. He has a Bachelors in Civil Engineering as well as a Bachelors and Masters in Shari'a from
Omdurman Islamic University, Sudan. He can be contacted at: rami.ki@hotmail.com
3

The fragility of the global financial system is illustrated by impending hyperinflation, currency collapse, and
depression waiting for the day when the American dollar can no longer be sustained (Eisenstein, 2007).
4

Peak Oil and the dependency of all aspects of our economic infrastructure and food supply on fossil fuels is a
significant challenge when one considers that no conventionally-recognized alternative energy source can possibly
hope to replace oil and gas any time soon (Eisenstein, 2007).

the intimate interlink between the economic and ecological realm has never been
more apparent. If today's economic growth translates into the progressive conversion
of nature into products, people into consumers, cultures into markets and time into
money (Eisenstein, 2012), then what ramifications does this have on 'sustainable
development'?
What is Sustainable Development ?
One of the most widely recognised definitions of sustainable development comes
from the United Nations commissioned report Our Common Future, also called the
Brundtland Report, which states:
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains
within it two key concepts:

the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to
which overriding priority should be given; and
the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social
organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.
(WCED, 1987, 43),"

Theory aside, the above definition alludes to the practical challenges pertaining to
sustainable development. Who defines what it means to be developed? Whose needs
are actually met by such development? If the needs of the world's poor are intended to
be given priority (as the U.N. report states), then who defines how the poor's needs
are met and how does this relate to development?
As the definition alludes, the sustainability of 'development' is intrinsically tied with
the limits of the environment. More simply stated, sustainable development in the
words of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Environmental Affairs, Dr. KerriAnn Jones, translates into the project to simultaneously maintain economic growth
and protect the environment (Brooks, 2012).
The Fallacy of Perpetual Growth
It is the more practical definition of sustainable development that highlights its
inherent logical conundrum; namely, that an infinite, exponential growth on a limited
planet does not add up. If economic 'growth' in our current system means the
conversion of natural resources into 'goods' and human relationships into 'services',
then to maintain such growth and protect the planet's resources is an impossible task.

Recent times have seen an epidemic rise of autoimmune diseases; heavy metal poisoning, electromagnetic,
chemical, and genetic pollution. These factors aligned with the degeneration of the modern diet, the toxicity and
impotence of most pharmaceutical drugs indicate more than a significant cause for concern (Eisenstein, 2007).
6

Climate change, global warming, desertification, coral bleaching, tree death, topsoil erosion, habitat destruction,
irreversible loss of biodiversity, toxic and radioactive waste, PCBs in every living cell, swaths of disappearing
rainforests, dead rivers, lakes and seas, increasing slag heaps and quarry pits all point to the fact that the planet the
next generation will inherit will be very different to one we currently live on (McKibben, 2011).

Such an irreconcilable contradiction should never be a perplexing proposition, for

nothing in nature grows forever without reaching a steady state (Daly, 1973).
As our economic growth too reaches the limits of our ecology it faces an era of
transition. Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, states that
the era of growth is over because of a convergence of three factorsresource
depletion, environmental impacts, and systemic financial and monetary failure
(Heinberg, 2011). Arriving at the gradual exhaustion of the remaining supplies of
accessible petroleum, the onset of Peak Oil7, a depletion of over fifty percent of the
worlds fisheries, destruction of rain forests, acidifying oceans, mass extinction of
species, threatened food chains and rapidly changing climate patterns; our impasse in
our ability to furnish more economic growth has never been more apparent.
And yet proposals of "sustainable growth" rarely challenge the assumption of its
perpetuality. Arguably, this happens for a very deliberate economic rationale. Modern
money today is created as interest-bearing debt, entailing that collectively at any
given time the amount of money owed is greater than the amount of money already
existing (Eisenstein, 2011), ensuring that debt rises faster than the ability to service
it. This is the primary reason why in our current system, economic growth assumes a
certain 'sacrosanctness' and why to question it becomes economic heresy. Essentially
our financial system has no neutrality, instead it relegates us to "the choice between
growth and collapse, not growth and stability (Douthwaite, 1999, p.28-29). Thus it
is the institutionalization of interest within our financial system, that traps the entire
global economy in a trajectory of seeking non-inflationary economic growthan
increase in the production of goods and services ... [and] the relentless conversion of
life into money (Eisenstein, 2007, p.269).
Development and Growth
Given the institutional bias of our current financial system, development goes hand in
hand with the powerful economic forces of growth. For in the absence of growth,
pressure increases to privatize (i.e. monetize) more public assets, liquidate natural
resources, remove trade barriers, remove labour protections, deregulate industries, cut
social services and direct everything towards the servicing of the accumulation of
debt. Effectively these 'austerity' measures and the facilitation of economic
development become in reality two sides of the same coin. Their intent being to open
up a country to international cash flow, a means by which they can become
'developed', a definition of neoliberal prescription, in tandem with the process of
Globalization.
Globalization defined as the rapid integration of international markets for
commodities, manufacturers, labour and capital (Ferguson, 2009, p. 287), thus
translates into a channeling of local labour, lumber, land, minerals and resources back
to the global multinational Corporations that fund the industrial mega-projects
alongside development aid. All of this happens through a process of 'market
7

Peak Oil is often misunderstood to refer to the total exhaustion of petroleum resources. In fact it signifies the
period when the production of oil achieves its maximum rate before beginning its inevitable decline. This peaking
and decline of production has already been observed in thousands of individual oilfields and in the total national
oil production of many countries including the U.S., Indonesia, Norway, Great Britain, Oman, and Mexico
(Heinberg, 2011).

liberalization' that Noble-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz (former Chief

Economist at the World Bank and the IMF) states, leaves havoc in its wake where
the benefits accrue to the well-off and especially the very well-off (Stiglitz, 2002, p.
14-17).
The similarity of such an endeavor in mirroring colonialism has not been lost to
many. Harvard Historian, Niall Ferguson, in discussing parallels between
Colonization and Globalization notes the days had gone when investors could
confidently expect their governments to send a gunboat when a foreign government
misbehaved. Now the role of financial policing had to be played by two unarmed
bankers, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Their new watchword became conditionality: no reforms, no money. Their preferred mechanism was
the structural adjustment programme. And the policies the debtor countries had to
adopt became known as the Washington Concensus, a wish-list of ten economic
policies that would have gladdened the heart of a British imperial administrator a
hundred years before (2009, p.309).
Thus it is the biased nature of such 'growth' that makes an economic development that
strives to give priority to the essential needs of the poor an increasingly mirage-like
endeavour. As Vandana Shiva (2013) states, "The dominant model of economic
development has in fact become anti-life. When economies are measured only in
terms of money flow, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the rich might
be rich in monetary terms but they too are poor in the wider context of what being
human means."
If economic development is understood to mean economic growth, then this makes
"sustainable development" closer to an oxymoron. For without the euphemism,
"sustainable development" becomes better translated as "sustainable monetization", a
'sustainable' cashing of the word's resources to service an economic necessity that in
turn arises out of a growth-dependent interest-based financial system8. Crucially, the
system itself is not a necessity, but a choice that springs forth from an ideology that
transcends economics.
The Ideology of Development
Unless the underpinning ideology of 'development' is redefined, the reconciling of
economic growth with poverty alleviation remains an endless deferral of quest. If
sustainable development truly intends to eradicate poverty, then in the words of
Herman Daly (2011): is not the solution to poverty to be found in sharing now,
rather than in the empty promise of growth in the future?
Arguably the reason why the empty promise of growth has to employed, is because
such growth is itself encased within an ideology of self that assumes a future 'fix' to
current problems. Authors such as Charles Eisenstein (2007) and others have referred
to this ideology as the 'Ideology of Ascent', a narrative of 'self' that arises out of
rejection of the Divine, leading first to the conceptual separation and subsequent
objectification of nature and subsequently to its control and utilization along
8

The need to change the nature of economic growth is implied by the Sustainable Development Goal No.8 which
alludes to the need to "Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive
employment and decent work for all". The key word 'inclusive' alludes to a current bias.

utilitarian lines. Premised on an ideological shift in Western Europe that saw

Nietzches Death of God9, Foucault's arrival of "Man10" and the early articulation of
Eisenstein's "Scientific and Technological Program11", paradoxically called the
Enlightenment, from a faith perspective it was anything but.
Bequeathing a rationalizing impulse that was intended to liberate modern man from
the 'tyranny' of faith in myth and superstition and their embodiment in the objective
world, this ideology became paradoxically responsible for reducing man and nature to
the status of that objective12. Following the enlightenment, nature was first
converted into "resources", then into property, and ultimately into money. A process
that eventually entailed that the relationship of people to nature was transformed
from one based on responsibility, restraint, and reciprocity to one based on
unrestrained exploitation(Shiva, 2011).
It is clear that 'Development' as currently understood fits within the utilitarian
framework of this worldview, premised on an economic system that assumes the
competitive view of human nature as that of maximizing financial self-interest. A
system that drives and requires growth, which in turn requires a quantification of the
multiplicity of qualitative values in nature into the singular metric of money. Despite
the best of intentions and rhetoric to the opposite, the process results in an objectified
nature turned into a container for raw materials waiting to be transformed into
inputs for commodity production (Shiva, 2011).

The Need for a New Narrative of Self

The root issue thus is the definition of Self. How do human beings view themselves
vis--vis their role to nature?

Readings of Nietzsches works indicate that this was not an attempt to say God does not exist or that God dies
but was instead a metaphorical assertion that God as understood in Western Europe was culturally, historically,
and/or sociologically no longer relevant. As such, his primary concern was historical, that of demarcating a new
epoch in human existence; saying less about God, or of a conception of God, and more about culture and history.
In that light Nietzsches comments are an admission that effectively presupposes the effectiveness of the rational
assault on religion as having permanently altered the direction of those societies, thereby creating a historical
landmark after which things would never be the same again, a landmark he chose to refer to as being that of God
dying.
10

Foucalt held that Nietzsche's 'death of God' was a marker for a radical break with the western metaphysical
tradition. Heralding the arrival of reason, objectivity, and more pertinently a world wherein
Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are
not, as quoted in Theaetetus by Plato, section 152a.
11

Eisenstein cites the modern mythof Man as being two parallel mythical stories: a Scientific Program
promising complete understanding and a Technological Program promising complete control. Together, in
essence, these Programs encapsulate the defining myth of our civilization, namely that: Science will find an
answer and Technology will find a way. (Eisenstein, 2007)
12

At its root, the Scientific Method assumes that there is an objective universe out there, that we can query
experimentally, thus ascertaining the truth or falsity of our theories. With nature being a self-subsistent entity that
can be encapsulated exhaustively in the quantitative formulae of natural sciences, this then leads into other key
assumptions of which reductionism and determinism are among the key components.

As Eisenstein (2014) says : "When we see water, minerals, trees and so on as

something less than sacred, as not having the qualities of self, then there is no
alternative but to treat them in a utilitarian mode (i.e., to develop them). The
mindset of development is inherent to the way we see the world. Unless the deep
narratives of ascent and separation change, any variant of development that we offer
is unlikely to bear results much different from what we have seen already."
It is for this reason, that despite the best of intentions and notable commendations of
the recent U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which convey real concern
and care for the eradication of poverty and preservation of the environment, an
ideological change to development remains imperative.
By way of illustration, current SDG prescriptions that advocate the way out of poverty
for the "least developed countries," posit developing export industries that raise GDP
by at least 7% growth (See goal 8.1). The idea that more GDP, more industrial
infrastructure, roads, ports, etc., somehow translates into poverty elimination and
ecological sustainability is mired in an old ideology that is empirically inaccurate.
Buttressed against the fact that such growth in wealth usually ends up in the hands of
local elites, corporations who extract the resources, and the financial institutions that
lend the money for the development; it is also worth noting that a near tripling of
global GDP since 1990, has not prevented the number of people suffering food
insecurity from rising, and a shrinking of the middle class in many countries with the
highest growth. As Herman Daly points out, it appears that modern 'economic growth'
has increasingly become 'uneconomic' in that within 'developed' economies costs
increase faster than benefits. What this means is that in the contemporary world an
increase in GDP may actually be making us collectively more poorer rather than
richer. Perhaps this is why in modern times, an increase in GDP far from being a
measure of increased wealth has instead become a pointer to the consumption of
natural capital (depletion of mines, wells, aquifers, forests, fisheries, topsoil, etc.), and
paradoxically acts as a statistical index to the aggregate of pollution, depletion,
congestion, and loss of biodiversity (Daly, 2010). All of which leads to economists
such as Kenneth Boulding to suggest that GDP may be better relabelled as GDC, or
Gross Domestic Cost (Daly, 2011).
In this light, the ideology that posits human beings as disconnected, separate
individuals in an objective universe 'out there' has to be challenged. Premised on
impersonal forces and a purposeless world, development itself, socially and
technologically, becomes a matter of imposing human will onto nature. Within such a
worldview, as embodied by statements from Yale Professor William Nordhaus13 and
Oxford economist, Wilfred Beckerman14, bankrupting the earth ludicrously makes
economic sense. In contrast most pre-modern cultures had a sense of the sacred in
nature, and assumed precisely what such an ideology of development denies, a

13

Agriculture, the part of the economy that is sensitive to climate change, accounts for just three percent of
national output. That means there is no way to get a very large effect on the US economy. From: William
Nordhaus, Science (September 14, 1991), p. 1206.
14

Even if net output of agriculture fell by 50 percent by the end of the next century, this is only a 1.5 per cent cut
in GNP. From: Wilfred Beckerman, Small is Stupid: Blowing the Whistle on the Greens (London: Duckworth,
1995), 91.

revelation of a living universe. This is evidenced by the Islamic conception of Self as

well.
The Islamic Conception of Self and the Living Universe
Islam sees the Universe as a theophany of divine disclosure (Brown, 2013), positing
natural phenomena as being signs of God revealing Himself. As the Qur'an says:
Wheresover you turn, there is the Face of God.
[Qur'an 2:115]
The mystic vision described by the famed prophetic tradition of worshiping God as
though you see Him15 is cited as the peak of Islam's spiritual excellence (Ihsan).
Indicating that diligent spiritual endeavour in Islam is understood to bequeath a
special state of witnessing, given to someone who has a special state of presence,
someone who has a heart, who listens attentively, and is a witness.16 The
implication being that such vision17 is only reflective of the order of reality, the
inevitable result of being truly present with ones inward and outward faculties.
Plainly put, Islam says God is already manifestly present and to be witnessed in His
creation, it is we who are veiled if we can't see this.
Thus Islam does not allow for a nature that is separate, and instead posits a
sacralisation that is all-encompassing, one that is both in18 and of19; denoting both
immanence and transcendence, without being pantheistic20. By extension, it precludes
15

See: famous Prophetic saying (Hadith) referred to as the Gabriel Hadith, narrated to Umar ibn al-Khattab [Sahih
Muslim, 1.37: Hadith 8].
16

[Qur'an 50:37].

17

It is noteworthy that parallel articulation of beholding an essential unity and one-ness throughout the natural
world across different religious traditions shows a descriptive similarity that makes it hard to assert such mystic
experiences as being artificially constructed.
18

By in is meant that aspects and events in the physical environment, literally constituting the horizon of ones
vision come to manifest in their collective and individual sense the tajall (manifestation) of Gods names and
attributes, literally the message that He is the Truth. As the Quran says: We will show them our signs on the
horizons and in their very selves until it becomes clear to them that He is the truth [Qur'an 41:53].
19

By of is meant the understanding in Muslim tradition that otherwise inanimate objects are imbued by God with a
type of awareness or consciousness relative to them. Thus the Qur'an posits that nature is not only a source of
remembrance of God, but is in itself engaged in remembrance of God. As the Qur'an says: And there is not a
thing except that it exalts [God] by His praise, but you do not understand their [way of] exalting[Qur'an
17:44]. By way of further confirming this the Islamic Hadith tradition of Prophetic sayings abounds of narrations
of supposedly inanimate objects such as rocks, pebbles, trees and flora and fauna all being heard by the Prophet
and his companions as glorifying God (Brown, 2013).
20

The English word pantheist was first used by John Toland (d. 1722), who in identifying himself as a pantheist
taught that the cosmos and God were identical and, thus, in due course the term pantheism came to serve as a
proper noun for the belief that all is God, etymologically derived from the Greek words pan meaning all and
theos meaning God. Islamic ontology rejects pantheisms assertion that God and the cosmos are united by their
substance, as it posits that Gods absolute transcendence does not allow for His Essence to be identical with that of
His creation. Such transcendence does not preclude His immanence, in that He is simultaneously the sole Creator
and Sustainer of all that exists. With all created existence contingent and subject to nonbeing, beginning, and
ending except through His Creative Act, the only absolute existence is understood to be God's alone. Thus, God in
Islam is understood to be simultaneously transcendent and immanent. This is to be taken note of by environmental
activists who advocate criticism of the stewardship model of creation care (that advocated by Judaism, Christianity

the developmental notion of nature being objectified, thereby negating the

progressive conversion of nature into products, people into consumers, cultures into
markets and time into money (Eisenstein, 2012).
Instead Islam sees nature as a living cosmic book, evidenced by the fact the word
Ayt refers not only to Quranic verses, but to natural signs within the Cosmos,
implying that both have instructive qualities required to be reflected, deciphered and
acted upon (Nasr, 1997, p. 94-95). As the Qur'an says:
Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of
the night and the day, and the ships that run in the sea with that which profits
men, and the water that God sends down from the clouds, then gives life with it
to the earth after its death and spread sin it all animals, and the changing of the
winds and the clouds made subservient between the heaven and the earth, there
are signs (lit. Ayt) for a people who understand.
[Qur'an 2:164]
Thus the Qur'anic portrayal of nature is one of a repository for the glorification of
God, a gift of sustenance, whose sacrosanctness demands attention and discernment to
the messages within. By way of further guidance, the Qur'an itself is replete with
illustrative analogies of nature implying a deep interconnectedness with all that
exists21. From fecundating winds that carry pollen to produce blossoms being
indicative of Gods divine mercy, to the oft-mentioned theme of rain giving life to
barren land as illustrating Gods bringing dead hearts back to life; natural phenomena
are consistently posited a source for revelatory communication, revealing both what is
right and what is wrong; highlighting the deeper meaning behind the role of crisis.
Divine Balance, Stewardship and the Role of Crisis
The Arabic word for Justice, Adl, is mentioned fifty-three times in the Quran and has
been defined by Islamic lexicologists as literally meaning to place things in their
proper balance in a manner that eliminates all excesses and disparities. It is this role of
balance that has been said to be the over-arching universal principle that governs the
metaphysical discourse of Muslim environmental and economic consciousness
(Brown, 2013). The Qur'an articulates such balance as being concerned with the

and Islam) on the premise that it separates God from the natural world as a sort of 'absentee landlord' (Fox, 2015).
Such thinking from an Islamic perspective is misplaced; God's creation is continual, divine activity pervades the
natural order, for He is never separate from what is, whilst not entailing He is it in literal substance.
21

The following Quranic verses illustrate this interconnectedness: Quran 80:24-32(Let man consider the food he
eats! We pour down abundant water and cause the soil to split open. We make grain grow, and vines, fresh
vegetation, olive trees, date palms, luscious gardens, fruits, and fodder: all for you and your livestock to enjoy.")
Quran 25:48-49 (It is He who sends the winds as heralds of good news before His Mercy. We send down pure
water from the sky, so that We can revive a dead land with it, and We give it as a drink to many animals and
people We have created. And He is the One who sends the winds bearing glad tidings before His mercy. Thus do
we send down, from the sky, purifying water, that We may give life thereby to a lifeless habitation, and [from
which] We give drink to some of what We have createdincluding cattle and many people.); Quran 32:27
(Have they not seen that it is We who drive the water to the barren land, bringing forth thereby crops from which
their cattle and they themselves eat?); Quran 79:27-33 (Are you humankind amore prodigious creation than the
heaven? He [alone] built it. He raised its height and leveled it. And Hedarkened its night and brought out its
morning light. And the earth, after this, He [alone] spread. He brough tfrom it its water and its pasturage. And the
mountains, He [alone] anchored [themall as] enjoyment for you and for your cattle [for a time].).

equilibrium of all systems, be they geological, physiological, or even spiritual;

balance considered to be the original state of both the spiritual and natural world:
As for the earth, We have spread it out, set firm mountains upon it, and made
everything grow there in due balance.
[Qur'an: 15:19]
Islam posits the apportioning of such balance as serving the key mandate of justice:
and measure with a just balance (al-qiss al-mustaqm).
[Qur'an 26:182]
If in contradistinction to seeing nature as separate, it is instead seen as being
permeated with the signs of God, essentially being the unfolding Creative Act of God
Himself, then accordingly the maintenance of such harmonious balance becomes the
imperative of faith based stewardship:
And the heavens He has lifted and placed the Balance; that you not exceed the
Balance. So establish just measure and do not upset the Balance.
[Qur'an55:7-9]
As the command "do not upset the Balance" implies, Islam states that the intricate
balance within nature is inherently disruptable, which is where the key responsibility
(amnah) of stewardship (khilfah) to maintain it arises. Stewardship in Islam is
determined in order of ranks of responsibility, with accountability being
commensurate to what God has given:
It is He Who has made you Stewards of the Earth: He has raised you in ranks,
some above others: that He may try you in the gifts He has given you.
[Qur'an6:165]
In this light, if the service of just stewardship is to maintain a divinely disposed
balance, then accordingly, to transgress the balance is to do injustice; the outcome
being corruption:
Corruption has appeared on the land and in the sea because of what the hands
of men have wrought. This is in order that we give them a taste of the
consequences of their misdeeds, that perhaps they will return (to God).
[Qur'an30:41]
As the Qur'an indicates, crisis serves a redemptive purpose, wherein calamities imply
a deeper wisdom: that we return back to God. Thus Islams message is that crisis
followed all the way through, and mindfully taken heed of, reveals itself to be nothing
other than the hidden grace of God redirecting one to the One. Given this
framework, the myriad crises of the modern age instead of heralding deepening
misery against the physical and social limits of growth, reveal themselves to have
potentially another purpose; that of propelling us collectively into a new direction, the
way of the "Return".
Age of Return and Development

If collectively we may be said to have arrived at an Age of Return, then opportunity

exists for our creative energies to be realigned to that of souls journeying to God. In
such direction, mercy becomes the operative basis of being, humility the way of
action and greater symbiosis with the earth and its life systems the resultant effect.
The energy of such activism is that of redemptive love, evidenced by the word
Rahma22, throwing connotations that may concur with the ecofeminism of activists
such as Vandana Shiva, a divine analogy of the feminine love that a mother embodies
for her child. An energy of engagement that does not seek to victimize the
victimizers, does not want to turn oppressors into the oppressed, but instead arises out
of love, seeking a peaceful reconciliation with all, both inner and outer.
The servants of the Merciful are those who walk humbly on the earth, and who,
when the foolish address them, reply, Peace;
[Qur'an 25:63]
Facilitating the Age of Return
It is hoped that in such a spirit of mercy, humility and peace, solutions can be
facilitated through the shift to a different kind of development. A development that is
qualitative rather than quantitative, complementary instead of confrontational. In such
a system, poverty can be addressed by encouraging resiliency and independence from
global markets through local food autonomy, local control of resources, decentralized
political institutions, and a decentralized infrastructure that isn't predicated on
generating foreign exchange. Decentralization is essential, because as long as the
underlying driver debt that causes the compulsion to monetize remains, then the
autonomy that allows for a new pattern of degrowth and alternative economic modes
of sustainability cannot emerge. SDGs, laudably, make mention of debt reduction.
The question becomes not how to maintain the growth model, but how to live more
sustainably and equitably without it. Once the correct mindset and energy is engaged,
then a new model for sustainable development can be engaged. Some of these
measures include:
1 - Opposing Usury: This would require the creation of alternative monetary systems
that structurally eliminate the role of interest. Measures include the revitalization of
Zakt, use of negative-interest currencies, local exchange trading systems (LETS23),
22

The Arabic word "Rahma" often translated as 'Mercy' in English is arguably better expressed as a type of
'maternal love'. This is evidenced by two seminal hadeeths of the Prophet wherein he drew a physical analogy of
God's mercy as being that of a mother for her young. On the authority of Abu Huraira who reported that the
Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: Allah has made mercy into one hundred parts. He
kept with Himself ninety-nine parts and sent down one part to the earth, so because of the creation is
merciful such that a mother-horse raises its hoof over its child for fear of hurting it [Bukhari and Muslim].
Likewise Umar Al Khattab narrates that when some prisoners were brought to Allah's Messenger, amongst them
was a woman who was searching for her child and when she found it, she took hold of it and pressed it against her
chest, providing it to suck, upon which the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "Do you think this
woman would ever throw her child into the fire?" We responded: "By Allah, so far as it lies within her power,
she would never throw the child into the fire. Thereupon Allah's Messenger said: "Allah is more kind to His
servants than this woman is to her child." [Bukhari and Muslim].
23

Initially conceived of in 1983 by Michael Linton, hundreds of local exchange trading systems (LETS) have taken
root around the world. Rather than issue commercial paper or seek short-term loans from banks, participating
businesses and individuals create their own credit on the basis that each produce something that the other needs, all
of which are kept tally of by a local credit-clearing cooperative. Such systems could use something as a simply as a

mutual credit systems, time-based currencies24, public-banking initiatives alongside

other complementary initiatives that help create resilient local economies.
2- Facilitating Community: The eco-activisit Wendell Berry (1992) states that The
answer to the present alignment of political power with wealth is the restoration of
the identity of community and economy. Initiatives rooted in localism can be
supported by community currencies, mutual credit systems, public co-operative
interest-free banking, community land trusts25, community supported agriculture,
localized crowd funding and investing, and open community markets.
3 - Preserving the Commons: Today forms of natural capital barely known to have
existed have become private property as multilateral agreements such as the
International Property Rights (TRIPS26) have effectively forced developing countries
to extend property rights to practically everything, inclusive of indigenous seeds and
plants27, impacting agricultural practices that two-thirds of the world relies upon for
their livelihoods (Shiva &Holla-Bhar, 1996). Islam draws a line between common and
private ownership that prevents the monopolisation of essential community resources.
The Prophet of Islam is reported to have said, three things cannot be denied to
anyone: water, pasture and fire28. Prophetic stipulations on conservation of land
commons by instituting inviolate zones (hima) should be revived. Focussing on
undeveloped lands, reserving them for the purposes of public common benefit; this
would not only allowed for sustainable land management but also enable the creation
of wildlife reserves, afforestation, and aid plant and ecosystem preservation.
Interestingly, Islam also considers open deposits of minerals (i.e. those that do not
require extraction) to be common property (Dutton, 1992), a stance that if enacted in a
form of public royalty, would vastly alter the demographics of wealth in the world
today29.
tally of points or an actual alternative currency. Amongst the latter, the most famous is the Swiss WIR currency
which trades in a volume of over a billion Swiss francs. Economists such as James Stodder (2005) and Bernard
Lietar (2001) highlight how such systems through bypassing the banks allow for greater exchange activity during
times of economic downturns, shielding participants from macroeconomic fluctuations.
24

Time-based currencies (often called time banks) allow for mutual credit systems of labor, energy, and time;
offering great promise without needing huge changes in economic infrastructure.In our contemporary atomized
societies, the traditional ways of knowing who has what to offer have broken down; time banks not only generate
the kind of economic and social resiliency that can sustain in times of turmoil, they can help restore community.
25

These innovative structures alongside Shared Equity ownership can also provide a solution to the current
problem of affordable housing, which too are caused by our interest based financial system (NEF, 2003).
26

For more details on TRIPS, visit: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/trips_e.htm[Accessed 20

September, 2015].
27

See attempts to patent the Neem Tree as a case in point: http://www1.american.edu/ted/neemtree.htm [Accessed
20 September 2015].
28

Sunan Ibn Majah, Vol.1(N.al-Khattab, trans. 2007), Hadth No. 2473, at p.415. This hadith is often cited as
evidence in favor of water, land and energy (fire) preservation for future generations.
29

If a similar model was adopted in Africa, considering the rich minerals (bauxite, aluminum and precious metals)
that have been mined and exported at practically zero benefit to the continents residents, it is clear that the
disastrous consequences of third-world debt could be reversed. This however would be unlikely to happen when
the potential power shifts and ramifications of such a concept become readily apparent.

4- Reassigning Land- The flexibility of the Islamic framework30 in land preservation

can be evidenced through institutions such as the reclamation of mewat (unworked)
land or the establishment of conservation zones in the form of musha (communal
land)
5- Facilitating Degrowth Todays information technology, specifically the internet,
offers tremendous potential for a degrowth revolution by reducing the role of
centralized intermediaries. Facilitating a peer-to-peer (P2P) movement through
disintermediation and open-source software, businesses and individuals can now
bypass banks through P2P lending websites and crowdfunding. Additionally the
existence of commercial credit-clearing rings, mutual factoring systems, and
commercial barter networks allow for almost complete autonomy from the
mainstream financial system.
6- Encouraging permaculture With 80 percent of the world's arable (read Europeanstyle plowed) agricultural land now in the hands of multinational agribusiness
corporations; subsistence, design sciences of agriculture like permaculture need to be
engaged and popularized. If even a small portion of people start to utilize garden-size
plots for subsistence growth, whole regions could be self-sufficient in foods.
The above factors are just some of the many ways humanity can be re-engaged with
in an Age of Return. It is hoped that through the broadening of our horizons and realignment of our spirit, we will all be better positioned in seeking the same goal: to
discover and enact our role as stewards in the dynamic balance of nature.

30

Putting this into practise during the Middle Ages, at the time of the dissolution of Ottoman Empire,
approximately three-fourths of its land and buildings were awqaf, with most Muslim countries during the same era
seeing awqaf reach one-third or more of cultivable land. Illustratively, at the beginning of 20 th century in Palestine,
233 waqf deeds were recorded (owning 890 properties)in contrast to only 92 private ownership deeds (with only
108 properties), thereby indicating the focus of the Muslim medieval economy as being an endowed one
(Ahmed, 2010).

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