Islam and the Environment- Part 2 of 2

This two part series of talks presents a contemporary view in relation to the modern world context regarding emergent issues on the environment, ecology, sustainability and the growing awareness of human systems and our collective encroachment on natural systems. The series reflects on the spiritual dynamics related to the global environmental crisis through the lens of the Muhammadi tradition. The speaker reflects upon themes of nature and nurture; freedom and determinism; responsibility and rights interweaving the dilemmas of modernity with the indications reflected in the original Islamic vision. Then more particular references to the Qur’an, prophetic teaching regarding the building blocks of life, elements, human cosmology and our inseparability from the variant modes in which life manifests itself and natural laws that govern the world of matter. The speaker presents a view of re-orientating a view based on the crisis of the environment as a crisis of consciousness. Regular reference and analysis of the essential linguistic dynamics built in to the classical qur’anic Arabic are made in presentation of a contemporary yet cosmic understanding of the interplay and seamlessness between matter and energy or spirit and the necessity to live by the timeless accord of man’s duty to discover and live by the essence of life.