An Islamic case for climate action

Can the Earth testify against us?

Photo taken by Zayna Syed on a hike in South Mountain, Phoenix

A few weeks ago, I asked Afsan Redwan, author of the Yaqeen Institute’s seminal paper “When the Earth Speaks Against You,” about how he might convince Muslims to care about climate change.

“What is the single most convincing piece of evidence you would present?” I probed him.

It’s a question that I have often thought about personally, having spent the past few years writing about climate change as a journalist and then studying it in graduate school.

In a world of competing crises, and shortening attention spans, how can we make the climate crisis a topic of purchase across vastly different segments of society?

After returning from umrah at the beginning of the year, and fasting during Ramadan in March, I wanted to know what might make Muslims care about the climate crisis, at least enough to be willing to change some parts of their lifestyles.

I also wanted to know, what ideas from the rich Islamic tradition can we offer to a largely secular climate movement?

Climate as a risk multiplier

Climate action can be somewhat of an awkward pitch right now. Muslim communities throughout the world are suffering from much more immediate and existential concerns, whether the genocide in Gaza, the war in Sudan, the occupation in Kashmir, or the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and Uighurs.

There is no equating these issues. But to ignore climate change to focus only on more immediate concerns is to misunderstand it.

In fact, in my years thinking about the climate crisis, I often feel that it is misunderstood: the climate crisis will not swallow us whole, ceasing humanity’s existence; instead, it will make every existing issue worse, a “risk multiplier” of sorts.

Lebanese farmers, particularly those that rely on rain from the skies to water their crops, have said that the weather has behaved unusually for the past few years, affecting their ability to produce food that’s competitive on the market.

Electricity prices in the United States have soared, in part because power lines were not built to withstand the type of severe and fluctuating weather we currently witness. 1 in 4 Americans couldn't pay their energy bills in 2024.

Flooding in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Somalia have caused thousands of people to die and millions to be displaced, with the effects of climate change adding up to make the floods more likely. The 2022 floods in Pakistan put an astounding one third of the country underwater.

If people are poor or live in poor countries, the climate crisis’ effects multiply: farmers cannot rely on the government to provide even a meager social safety net, poor Americans cut back on medicine to pay their electricity bills, and corruption or conflict mean that essential protective infrastructure never gets built.

How much worse the climate crisis will make these existing issues, whether poverty, conflict, food and water insecurity, corruption, gender and ethnic oppression, or national debt, depends on both the particulars of the situation, and also how much humanity can collectively reduce its emissions.

Any serious observer of the situation will say that we are long past meeting the landmark climate negotiation, the 2015 Paris Agreement’s, goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Some reports indicate that we are at 1.5 degrees Celsius right now.

The difference between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius of warming, however, is drastic. At 2 degrees of warming, climate change can be managed to some extent. At 4 degrees, the consequences are much more existential. To avoid the worst, we must move urgently.

Religion drives behavior change

Despite important debates about corporate vs. government vs. individual responsibility, the reality is that almost every climate plan requires individuals to change their behavior. About 55% of the leading International Energy Agency’s roadmap to net zero emissions is linked to consumer choices.

These plans say that the responsibility of governments is to make it easy and cheap to make a climate-friendly choice.

For example, transportation from gas-powered cars and trucks is one of the largest sources of emissions in the developed world. The government’s responsibility is thus to invest in infrastructure, so that people can choose to take the train without an unsafe or 3-hour commute, or purchase an EV without putting themselves in a difficult position financially.

But ultimately, people still have to choose to take the train or buy an EV, even if governments are able to make those choices realistic and economically competitive.

And of course, these choices must all be within reason. Modern inventions such as cars, air conditioning, refrigeration, and lights have saved countless lives and improved quality of life considerably. The point is to reduce energy demand, and for what energy is necessary, to fuel it with renewable sources like solar and wind.

We have enough resources for everyone to enjoy a sustainable amount of energy. But right now, some people use far too much, while others go without entirely.

Some of the highest emitters are Gulf countries where Muslims make up the vast majority of citizens. Six out of 10 of the top emitters per capita in 2022 include Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia, all oil dominant states.

So what might convince people to take the train instead of their gas-powered car? To turn down the A/C and eat less meat? To buy less fast fashion and waste less food? To build, manufacture and farm in sustainable ways?

An Islamic Covenant for the Earth

One of the first prominent leaders to make the case for religion as a driving force for behavior change was the late Pope Francis. In 2015, he published Laudato si’, which described in detail how the climate crisis would affect the poor the most, and helped curry support for the Paris Agreement.

Pope Francis inspired other religious groups, and the seeds for an Islamic sister document were planted in 2019. Islamic groups worked with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Faith for Earth Coalition to publish Al-Mizan, an 88-page document and website that outlines the Islamic responsibility to protect the Earth.

The project’s name is significant. Al-mizan, which means balance in Arabic, is also “the core concept of the Qur’an,” Ibrahim Ozdemir, one of the document’s authors, told me. “The natural creation ‘is so coherently interconnected and integrated, and works with such regularity and order, that it is God’s prime miraculous wonder: if good is done to it or in it, good will return; if evil is wrought to it or in it, what accrues is sheer terror,’” the 88-page document reads.

Balance is a valuable concept to understand the climate crisis. To explain the crisis in simple terms, I have often drawn on how climate change disrupts nature’s very delicate balance.

If the temperature is just a few degrees warmer, more soil fungi will grow. This in turn increases cases of Valley Fever, a fungal disease that affects the lungs.

And aside from providing an ethical basis for climate action, the political and financial capital of religions might also be considered. Faith-based organizations own 8% of the habitable land on Earth. “That’s the power that we’re trying to institutionalize to advance pro-environmental behavior,” Azmaira Alibhai, a coordinator for UNEP’s Faith for Earth Coalition, told me in an interview.

Religion can also transcend national boundaries. When negotiators meet to discuss climate goals, they focus on their country’s interests first and foremost. Thus, cooperation that surpasses borders can prove incredibly valuable.

In Tanzania, the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences tested how religion can be a force for behavior change. They used Islamic scholars to convince fishermen to switch from dynamite to more sustainable methods. Then, they showed them sustainable fishing practices and gave them the resources to do it.

“The fishermen had previously resisted bans from the government, but were persuaded once they were told that they were acting un-Islamically. One fisherman said: ‘This side of conservation isn’t from the mzungu [‘white man’ in Swahili], it’s from the Quran,’” Ozdemir, of Al-Mizan, wrote in an op-ed.

Complicating behavioral change efforts is the perception that climate change is a Western cause. That doesn’t mean that people aren’t observing its effects, such as irregular weather patterns, longer droughts and more intense disasters. They just might not associate it with ‘climate change.’

“Generally, they see it from the Western point of view, not from the Islamic obligation,” Labeeb Bsoul, a professor at Khalifa University in the UAE, who researches Islam and the environment, told me. “The voice of Islam in global climate change activities – it’s missing.”

Can the Earth testify against us?

Let’s circle back to my interrogation of Afsan Redwan, in my quest to find the most convincing Islamic argument for climate action. After I posed my question, Redwan paused and briefly reflected. Then he spoke about how the Earth presents signs of God.

He spoke of the anthropocene, or the very recent geologic era in which humans have dealt with the Earth so crudely so as to significantly alter it. It’s in opposition to what the Qur’an describes as true servants, who “tread lightly on the Earth” (25:63).

We are “diminishing those signs,” Redwan said. “How much reflection will future generations really have in being able to connect themselves to a Creator, to something spiritual, beyond what it is that we see?”

Redwan’s answer also made me reflect on one of the most powerful paintings I’ve seen. It’s by Safia Latif, whose work focuses on Islamic magical realism. In the painting, an old man prays outside. He bows down in ruku’ alongside a tree, which also bows in prayer.

The painting is titled “Imitation” and speaks to both the divinity of nature and the interdependence of creation. A hadith from Sahih Muslim states, “Wherever you may be at the time of prayer, you may pray, for [the Earth] is all a mosque.”

Then there is the matter of accountability. Islam is a religion that focuses heavily on rights, whether it is the rights of orphans, parents, animals, or property owners.

The title of Redwan’s Yaqeen article, “When the Earth Speaks Against Us,” is provocative in this sense. I asked him, do you really think the Earth could testify against us on the Day of Judgement? Will the trees speak about how climate change has killed them? Will animals complain that we destroyed their habitats?

There’s precedent for this. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) has said that animals who people have treated cruelly or hunted for sport will testify against them: “He warned that, if anyone kills a sparrow or anything smaller, it will cry out to God … on the Day of Resurrection,” (Al-Mizan, 37).

Redwan said the Earth specifically testifying against people is not really discussed in Islamic scholarship. Human-induced climate change is also a new concept, having occurred only since the West’s Industrial Revolution in the 1700s.

Instead, Redwan hoped to draw on the principle of responsibility. Humans are commanded to protect the Earth as stewards or khalifa. The Earth is also a divine trust, amanah, meaning it’s on loan. We cannot do with it simply as we please, because it is not our property, and future generations have rights upon us.

Additionally, the Qur’an repeatedly and very forcefully warns humans not to wreak corruption. One of the most visible signs of corruption may actually come from the environment.

One verse of the Qur’an says, “Corruption has appeared on the land and in the sea because of what the hands of humans have wrought” (30:41). Islamic scholarship cites the drying up of the rains (drought) and disappearance of the harvest of the sea (biodiversity loss) to explain this verse.

Greenwashing and just transitions

There is also the dangers of greenwashing, and the urgency of just transitions. Some people in the climate movement will push for technological innovation to solve every issue, which can often create “sacrifice zones”.

Many of the minerals needed for green technologies, such as batteries for electric vehicles, are sourced from exploited regions, whether it is cobalt mined from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or lithium from Native American reservations.

But Islam commands us to think not just of solving problems, but the ethics in solving them. The onus then is to pay attention to how the climate crisis is fought, and applying core Islamic principles of al-mizan (balance) and ‘adl (justice).

Palestine and Syria present a compelling case study. Israel intends to source much of its wind energy from the Golan Heights, land that is considered occupied Syrian territory under international law. Additionally, Israel’s national water company Mekorot has billed itself a climate champion, seeking out contracts in the developing world. At the same time, the company has played an active role in restricting water access to Palestinians and facilitating settlements.

Saudi Arabia’s Neom, a futuristic “eco-city,” will displace Bedouin tribes. Al Maktoum, the UAE company selling carbon credits, or ways companies can offset their emissions through protecting forests, will wrest forest control from indigenous communities in Liberia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia.

Climate solutions from the Islamic tradition

The Islamic tradition is rich in scholarship, much of which concerns the natural world. It can be a source for strategizing climate policy. The following examples are not policy proposals per se, but suggestions to think more creatively, as times of crisis deserve.

Many countries in the Global South spend more money paying off debt to development banks than they do on basic services for their citizens. Additionally, U.S. sanctions restrict access to these development banks and other supply chains.

The same countries burdened by debt and crippled by sanctions are some of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change

They will need huge amounts of money to finance climate projects, whether developing clean energy or building levees to protect from climate-induced flash floods.

But what if Muslim communities and Islamic organizations set up a waqf for these efforts instead? A waqf is an endowment that is used to raise money for certain charitable projects. It has historically been used for education, healthcare and infrastructure, such as building hospitals.

There is some scholarship about how a waqf might be repurposed to support climate resilience projects. For example, Turkey has established a green waqf to fund sustainable agriculture and afforestation. Malaysia and Indonesia are exploring similar possibilities.

There is also the matter of zakat, the fifth pillar of Islam, which commands Muslims to spend 2.5% of their wealth on charity as a means of creating a social safety net and purifying their earnings. The Islamic Fiqh Academy has already debated making climate resilience projects zakat-eligible, “given that climate change disproportionately affects the poor,” Bsoul, of Khalifa University, said.

To be very clear, everyone should care about climate change. This essay is intended to serve as just one specific appeal to Muslim communities to embrace climate as a cause that is personal to us, and a call to generate solutions from our many diverse traditions.

The climate crisis is too vast, and too interconnected. It must be approached from every avenue possible, including Islam.

Zayna Syed studied, researched and reported on a range of environmental issues around the world. She wrote for the Arizona Republic, Popular Science, Sierra Magazine, L’Orient Today and Public Health Watch. You can follow her work on LinkedIn, X, or Instagram.

Narges Rasouli is an activist and researcher from Mazar, Afghanistan, passionate about sustainable development, women’s empowerment, and community building. You can follow her on LinkedIn or Instragram.