Green Deen - Ibrahim Abdul-Matin
Suddenly the Qur’an is bubbling with ecological insights and environmental sensitivity:
Islam teaches a deep love of the planet, because loving the planet means loving ourselves and loving our Creator.
-Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet (2010): 2-3.
So it seems that the Qur’an is Green and, what’s more, it is far Greener than thou. Which reminds me of that other rich resource of ecological wisdom (circa 2011), the Bible:
In my lifetime I have seen, among evangelical Christians, a new emphasis on environmental awareness, on physical fitness, on community formation, and changes in gender ideology. All of these changes reflected trends in the larger cultural environment, but all were incorporated into evangelical Christians’ authoritative discourse by being expounded from the Bible, as what the Bible had always said.
– Brian Malley, “Understanding the Bible’s Influence,” pages 194-204 in James S. Bielo, ed., The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism (Rutgers, 2009), 202-203.
I wonder if the Qur’an possibly contains an unparalleled critique of colonialism and empire, too? Wouldn’t that be something?
