Signs on the Earth: Islam, Modernity and the Climate Crisis

Description

A major study of environmentalism and Islam in practice and theory, with an historical overview that sets out future challenges, including reformulating the fiqh or Islamic legal tradition to take the ecological dimension seriously. In addressing this book to the one billion Muslims in the world it has the potential to reinvigorate the desire for environmental change in a community that is ignored at the planets peril. In arguing that modernity, consumerism and industrialisation need to be rethought, alongside an appeal to reconnect man and woman with creation in the divine order, this book has the potential to transform a generation. In the same way that Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything presented the argument for environmental action in a Capitalist framework, Fazlun Khalid has written a book that demands action from those whose primary orientation is towards the Islamic faith. About the Book Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Foreword and Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 A House of Cards Hegemony Encirclement Consolidation Humiliation Brains, black holes and the Enlightenment Knowledge overload Science to the fore The Bridge The middle nation The sacred and the secular A Lethal Cocktail Makings of a monoculture The colonies revolt Democracy and the nature of money Endnotes Chapter 2 A Ravished Earth A Disconnected People Are we culpable? A closed system A wake up call The Pollution Boomerang The hole in the sky People, poison and plastic Rape of the Forests Plantations and cash crops Carbon sink Ecocide Bio diversity Extinction The Nectar of Life In space and time Deep oceans and biodiversity A Delayed Reaction Global responses Abusing abundance Endnotes Chapter 3 Prosperity in Perspective Happiness and the Good Life Happiness and GDP Happiness and GNH The Progress Trap Lifestyle change Progress has a price Development and Delusions Corralling the world Colonized psyches Ideology Hope and sustainable development A cautionary tale Feedback loop The Fantasy of Growth The ‘Holy Grail’ Planetary overload Endnotes Chapter 4 How History Accelerated All the Time in the World Transactions Gifts or barter? Keeping accounts Trade evolves Enter the Greeks The Venetian connection Signs of Impatience Enter the Portuguese Chinese in the fray A new world in the making A Spurt Wealth flows one way Revolutions Acceleration Fast forward Enter the banks Fantasy land Endnotes Chapter 5 Islam and The Natural World Mobilizing Faith Biodegradable Earth A vital alliance Pushed by climate change The Muslim contribution Rediscovering the Natural World A holistic approach The sacred Ethics Political economy Producing Results Exploring the legacy ‘Ilm’ul-Khalq (Knowledge of Creation) Fiqh al-Bi’ah (Jurisprudence of the Environment) The Shariah in perspective A way forward Endnotes Chapter 6 Surviving the Anthropocene Collapse The human epoch Heads in the sand What Now? Connectedness Search for a better life Growth without limits? Capitalism: A debtocracy Hope Springs Eternal The turning Working together The Islamic contribution Endnotes Appendix: Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change List of Acronyms Glossary of Arabic terms List of quotations from the Qur’an Bibliography Index