The twentieth century and especially its latter half abound with rapid unprecedented ecological developments world over. Man’s influence on nature through human activities has reached a global level and has unfortunately been so fast. No natural ecosystem or living place anywhere on this globe could escape this influence at least partly. But the positive fact here is that it is in the present age alone that man’s attention has been focused on this phenomenon and world community has come to express worries mingled with cynicism about it though it seems to be too late. Man’s faculty of thinking and reasoning inspired an expectation in people especially in the eighteenth century Europe that he will one day acquire such a huge power that enables him to control nature and preserve his environment of life. But the actual progress of technology took a different course; man is increasingly changing the natural environment in a manner endangering life and jeopardizing his very existence. The picture is so vivid that no one asks any reason for the assumption that the planet earth is going from bad to worse heading to ultimate ruin but the opposite assumption needs be substantiated by arguments that can justify it. At any rate, most ecological problems have now developed to the stage of universal calamities no more confined in a region or nation. This is in addition to the fact that even ecological bottlenecks of local character are also general and global in another sense; each one of them usually involves so many economical, cultural, political, ethical, philosophical, even mystical and in a sense, geopolitical dimensions that hardly remain confined to a particular location. The material and spiritual aspects of human life are so interwoven that even the smallest abnormality in one area leave far reaching repercussions world over thanks to the phenomenon of globalization. So, a problem one nation suffers from is indeed the problem of humanity. In this prologue we try to explain the relation of geopolitical issues particularly the challenges poverty rises to ecological issues and draw the attention of leaders, socio-cultural policy makers and thinkers to this global fundamental challenge;

Abstract: Environmental crises threaten the entire nature. While present debates in international forums, conventions, and organizations as well as national ones the world over are centered around environment and how to sustain it, destructing the environment through rapid increase in energy consumption on global scale, the extinction of natural species and devastation of forests continue. Many international conventions address strategies and solutions for environmental problems, and states are dedicated to work them out. Now, the question is: why noticeable improvement in patterns of environment protection such as change of the consumption pattern, replacement of fossil fuel by renewable energy sources and economy in utilization of natural resources is not seen despite the more appropriate patterns of sustaining environment in all respects being available and recommended? Maybe several answers to this question are conceivable but if we delve into the issue more profoundly, we will reach a very fundamental point that causes all these troubles and that is neglect of the spiritual aspect of man’s relation to his environment. This paper investigates the reasons why present civilization overlooks spiritual aspects of ecology and tries to highlight the role religion can play in environmental policy making, emphasizing the necessity to throw light on man- environment relation as a prelude to controlling and solving present crises. The case study here is focused on the essential dichotomy of humanism stemming from Divine religions and humanism based on modern philosophies with emphasis on Islam as an ideology.

Abstract: Social industrial developments in different societies have given rise to various new issues including a new set of crimes known today as ecological crimes. Although man has ever been thoughtful of the importance of and respect for environment, the advance of science and technology gave man control over nature and the ability to exploit it. As a result, a fundamental change in human beings view towards nature and environment paved the way for increasing utilization of nature. However following the industrial revolution and the ensuing problems caused by technology, man’s attention was again drawn to environment. Consequently, preservation of environment and how to protect it from pollution emerged as one of the very important issues in the latter part of the 20th century. One important question here is how Islam looks at protection of environment. Keywords: environment, religious teachings, public participation, subject matter based interpretation

It is now more than three decades that experts in environment and experts in religion have carried out valuable researches about the relation between religion and environment. The best and more complete works in this field will be discussed here. We shall steady in this article research works on world religions and their teachings about the environment. Directors of this project aim to start a new project in religion studies that can help improve contemporary ecological ethics. The works we shall study here or the results of research carried out in the center for world religions studies affiliated to Harvard University during the years 1996 to 1998. This project was headed by Mary Tucker and john Grim and joined by a group of specialists. Over 600 researchers, express in ecology and religious leaders vault over contributed to this huge project. Several conferences were held in which the results of these researches were introduced to public. Harvard University is collaboration of Becknell University and the American Center for Research of life and Environment of human Society of the United States . In the series of the books titled world religions and environment nine great religions of the world have been a steadied. We introduce this series in the order of publication date.

Abstract: Intellectual, philosophical, and cosmological foundations of any school of thought constitute the fountain spring of principles and rules that govern the themes and topics dealt with in that school of thought and play a pivotal role in the integrity and soundness of the notions it proposes. From this departure point, this paper tries, as much as the limits of the author’s expertise allow, to introduce the outline of the pattern of sustainable utilization of natural resources as the Quran prescribes in terms of the following principles: the right to utilize common heritage being shared by all people, man’s responsibility to construct and build the earth, man’s obligation to observe his responsibilities both in production and consumption, understanding bounties as a means of test man undergoes, guaranteeing that human efforts remain consistent with norms of creation and finally, the right to utilization as a central right of man.

Abstract: Due to stresses laid in Islamic laws on preservation and protection of environment and several religious advices to keep it clean such as the tradition saying:” faith requires cleanness”, the Islamic world has always witnessed clean environments private, social, industrial and otherwise. But in recent decades, rapid population growth, infiltration of profit seeking tendencies and practical neglect of Islamic precepts regarding the relationship between man and environment has created challenges in Muslim communities. This article sketches a general picture of environment in Islamic countries and tries to study the challenges these societies face proposing solutions for these challenges paving the way for emergence of the environment ideal for man as vicegerent of God the Compassionate on the earth. Key terms: environment, Islamic countries, challenges

The environmental movement might be said to have begun centuries ago as a response to industrialization. In the nineteenth century, the British Romantic Poets extolled the beauties of nature while American writer Henry David Thoreau praised the return to a simpler life, guided by the values implicit in nature. It was a dichotomy that continued well into the twentieth century. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the rise of the nuclear age introduced fears of a new kind of pollution from deadly radiation. The environmental movement gained new momentum in 1962 with the publication of Rachel Carson’s book “The Silent Spring”, which warned about the agricultural use of synthetic chemical pesticides. Ms. Carson, a scientist and writer, stressed the need to respect the ecosystem in which we live, in order to protect human health as well as the environment