Ecocriticism and Sustainable-Conscious Perspectives Fostered in the Holy Qur’an

المؤلف

Cairo Higher Institute for Languages, Simultaneous Interpretation and Administrative Science, Egypt

المستخلص

Prior to the recent decisions adopted and the initiatives undertaken by top world organizations since 2015 to protect individuals and communities from the negative impact of human anthropocentricism, numerous verses of the Holy Qur’an can be interpreted as drawing man’s attention to realize his responsibility for achieving environmental justice. Literary theory was also contributive to the reconstruction of man’s interaction with nature. Ecocriticism emerged in the 1980s and 1990s due to the human interest in environmentalism. It is the critical approach that calls literature to represent contemporary environmental crises as well as to make use of literature to reconstruct human environmentally-conscious attributes to life. The objective of this paper is to prove that the ecocritical reading of the Holy Qur’an reveals its embodiment of environmentally-conscious perspectives that were ahead of their time and which can be approached through the analysis of their literary construction. Thus, the contribution of both literary theory and religion to tackling environmental crises is illustrated. This paper uses the interdisciplinary approach to illuminate selected arguments raised by the forerunners of ecocriticism. In parallel, it scrutinizes the literary representation of identical or similar Islamic precepts whether explicitly or implicitly stated in the Holy Qur’an. The comparative analysis has shown shared advocacy of biospherical egalitarianism, condemnation of man’s misuse of his sense of supremacy, and promulgation of environmentally philosophical and political thought. 

الكلمات الرئيسية

الموضوعات الرئيسية