Islam and the Environment

Abstract

It has often been observed that Islam cannot ordinarily be described as a religion and that it prescribes a way of life that goes beyond the performance of rituals. The word for religion (dın) is found in the Qur’an (anglicized spelling: Koran; this is Islam’s sacred text on which much of this essay is based). The word dın, which appears in 90 different places, often in contexts that place it outside the purely ritual. Dın in essence describes an integrated code of behavior which deals with personal hygiene, at one end of the spectrum, to our relationships with the natural order at the other. It provides a holistic approach to existence, it does not differentiate between the sacred and the secular and neither does it place a distinction between the world of mankind and the world of nature. However, this Islamic mode of expression is now severely