Islamic Perspectives on Sustainable Development

Abstract

Economic progress in the twentieth century has been spectacular bycommon Statistical standards. Along with this enviable record have cometwo important realizations: the immense material wealth has not madepeople happier than they were before,' and it has resulted in a gradual depledonand, in some cases, an outright destruction of scarce ecologicaland other resources. This has forced many social scientists to rethjnk thenecessity-even the desirability-of indiscriminate economic progress. Noother single topic of discussion seems to manifest these concerns morethan that of sustainable development.This paper looks at sustainable development from an Islamic perspective.Its theoretical arguments proceed as follows: Islam means peaceand harmony and, therefore, the Islamic way of life entails living in peaceand harmony. An active promotion of the harmonization of indi-vidual,social, and ecological intensts would ensure sustainable development.The discussion is then framed in the context of the ordained role ofhuman beings as God's trustees. Under this arrangement, God is the realowner of all resources, and humanity is allowed to use them to itsadvantage as long as this trust is not violated. The paper concludes thatin a truly Islamic society, sustainable development is a logical outcomeof a normal life and that there is thus no need for a separate strategy ofsustainable development. The rest of the paper deals with the concept ofsustainable development and highlights its multifaceted nature, explainsthe endogeneity of sustainable development in Islam, examines theIslamic characterization of the role of human beings and shows how sucha role conforms to the requirements of sustainable development, and endswith some concluding remarks ...