Islamic Informed Environmental Governance

Abstract

This article examines the contribution of Islamic legal thought to the
formulation of a Islamic informed environmental governance framework amid
the increasingly complex global ecological crisis. Employing a normative
critical qualitative approach and trans-disciplinary analysis, the study
integrates classical and contemporary Islamic legal literature with theories of
environmental governance and environmental ethics, as well as findings from
modern ecological science. The findings demonstrate that Islamic legal
principles can be reconstructed into environmental governance through two
interrelated mechanisms. First, mutual critical reconstruction enables
ecological science to expand juristic understandings of environmental harm
and interdependence, while Islamic legal reasoning provides normative criteria
for evaluating the justice and legitimacy of environmental responses. Second,
these reconstructed principles are operationalized through a recursive
governance cycle linking Islamic based normative sources, ethical translation,
institutional mediation, policy implementation, and evaluative feedback.
Based on these mechanisms, this study proposes a Islamic informed
environmental governance model that moves beyond the normative integration
of Islamic environmental values by providing a systematic pathway for
translating Islamic legal norms into governance practices. Instruments such as
fatwas, fiqh doctrines, and waqf mechanisms can thereby inform institutional
deliberation, community action, and policy development. The model’s
distinctive contribution lies in combining mutual epistemological
reconstruction with an institutionally mediated and continuously revisable
governance process.