And When Knowledge is Replaced with Ignorance...

The crises occurring within the Muslim world glares into the face of a tradition twisted by a century and a half of neglect and hubris.  The vacuum triggered by the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate ushered in what has become an era of unprecedented degradation to a system of law rooted in 1400 years of scholarship and consensus.  The magisterium class in Islam, despite its often nonlinear approach, upheld the established methods of evaluation and ruling, has been largely replaced by haphazard individuals who openly disdain the legitimacy of the recognized schools of legal thought.  Interestingly, those largely responsible for the destruction of the caliphate were, and in many quarters continue to be, in collaboration with those forces generally hostile to Islam, while simultaneously, deriving legal opinions from fringe elements that exist within Western ideologies.  This has resulted in a climate of anti-intellectualism and contempt for those striving to maintain the classical institution of teaching and learning established by contemporaries of the Prophet (عليه السلام‎), ultimately culminating in a loss of direction for those seeking his path and the continued decay of the ummah itself.       

The Obligation of Environmental Stewardship in the Shari‘a

‘We offered the Trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains, yet they refused to undertake it and were afraid of it; mankind undertook it–they have always been inept and foolish.’ (33:72)[1]

Among the innumerable mercies Allah ta'ala has bestowed upon His creation in the Shari’a is the relationship between humanity and the natural environment. The Qur’anic narrative establishing a khalifat Allah fi’l-ard or vicegerent is fundamentally unique within the monotheistic tradition in which humanity’s relationship to earth is described as steward rather than an owner. Both in the passages of the sacred text and the prophetic traditions pertaining to creation demonstrate an inherent harmony ingrained within the core dimensions of Islam. As with many Qur’anic injunctions, there is an infinite revealing of knowledge taking place with the unfolding of time and our increased understanding of creation through the evolution of the sciences. As modernity illustrates, however, it is only by the Grace of Allah that the seeker of knowledge strives to comprehend revelation utilizing the blessing of the intellect. Dismissing the Divine element in the quest for understanding is to our spiritual peril as environmental degradation is to our existence.