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This work examines the relevance of traditional Islamic thought and practices for a lasting solution to the current environmental crisis. Quadir describes how Seyyed Hossein Nasr challenges Muslims to reclaim their traditional intellectual and Sufi heritage as powerful means toward a most thoughtful approach to the crisis. In so doing, Nasr urges us to take a critical look at the consequences of the worldviews generated by modern science and technology and offers bold solutions for a more caring relationship between man and nature. The book argues that only a revival of the traditional worldview which perceives all entities of nature as signs of God can effectively respond to the crisis our planet faces.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. A Historical Overview of the Philosophical of the Environmental Crisis
Chapter 2. The Perennial Principles and the Metaphysics of Nature within Islam
Chapter 3. Metaphysics, Sufism, and Islamic Ethics
Chapter 4. The Advent of Scientific Progressivism and the Marginalization of Sufism
Chapter 5. The Perennial Principles and the Traditional Islamic Sciences
Chapter 6. Nasr’s Critique of Modern Science and Scientism
Chapter 7. Technology Is Not Value-Neutral
Chapter 8. Towards an Islamic Science
Chapter 9. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Tarik M. Quadir, PhD, studied at Swarthmore College, George Washington University, Harvard University, and the University of Birmingham, UK. He currently teaches at the Necmettin Erbakan University in Turkey. Quadir’s research interests include Sufism, the history of science, Islamic thought, environmentalism, peace-making, and South Asian religions.
"Dr. Tarik Quadir's present work on environmentalism is perhaps one of the best studies on the subject to have appeared in recent years. Through his thorough exposition of the environmental philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr [...] and his spiritual approach to the contemporary environmental crisis, Dr. Quadir has succeeded in articulating a veritable alternative to mainstream approaches to environmentalism."
– Osman Bakar, chair professor and director, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre of Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam
"Quadir has produced a brilliant work of research far transcending the book's focus on technology, science, and environmentalism [...] Accompanied by a plethora of notes [from] diverse sources, Quadir offers us a highly nuanced, intricately crafted investigation of the philosophical and ethical thinking underlying the environmentalist issue in modern Islam and the contemporary West."
– Leonard Lewisohn, PhD, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
"[Regarding] the disclosure of the spiritual roots of the environmental crisis, it is no exaggeration to say that Seyyed Hossein Nasr is a visionary: for over half a century, he has been calling out on behalf of Mother Nature, articulating a vision of ecological harmony, and eliciting from many who share that vision a spiritual change of direction, a metanoia [...] [R]ecommended reading for those wishing to know what they can do, at the deepest level, about the environmental crisis."
– Reza Shah-Kazemi, PhD, author of The Other in the Light of the One and Paths to Transcendence
