Islamic Perspectives on Sustainable Development

Abstract

Economic progress in the twentieth century has been spectacular by common Statistical standards. Along with this enviable record have come two important realizations: the immense material wealth has not made people happier than they were before,' and it has resulted in a gradual depledon and, in some cases, an outright destruction of scarce ecological and other resources. This has forced many social scientists to rethjnk the necessity-even the desirability-of indiscriminate economic progress. No other single topic of discussion seems to manifest these concerns more than that of sustainable development. This paper looks at sustainable development from an Islamic perspective. Its theoretical arguments proceed as follows: Islam means peace and harmony and, therefore, the Islamic way of life entails living in peace and 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 of human beings as God's trustees. Under this arrangement, God is the real owner of all resources, and humanity is allowed to use them to its advantage as long as this trust is not violated. The paper concludes that in a truly Islamic society, sustainable development is a logical outcome of a normal life and that there is thus no need for a separate strategy of sustainable development. The rest of the paper deals with the concept of sustainable development and highlights its multifaceted nature, explains the endogeneity of sustainable development in Islam, examines the Islamic characterization of the role of human beings and shows how such a role conforms to the requirements of sustainable development, and ends with some concluding remarks ...