Revisiting Khilāfah (Stewardship) in the Age of Environmentalism

The revival of the Qur’anic concept of khilāfah first came as an attempt to provide an Islamic response to the global environmental crisis. Shortly after, the blame for the environmental crisis was starting to be placed on the claimed anthropocentric nature of Christianity and by extension, the other monotheistic religions of Judaism and Islam. This blame ignited a debate fuelled by burgeoning scholarship defending the position of each religious tradition. Khilāfah, which aligns with an environmental stewardship model where humans are responsible for the care of the natural environment, thus rose to a place of prominence within the Islamic discourse on environmentalism. But how does the Qur’anic concept of khilāfah as outlined by Muslim religious scholars and intellectuals, contribute to the contemporary field of environmentalism? In this study we found that the existing Islamic scholarship has successfully built a thin understanding of the concept of khilāfah as pertained in the Qur’an. Yet, while this thin understanding has delivered such theoretically complex levels of the concept, it necessitates a thick understanding with practical dimensions to prove successful in the fight against the environmental crisis. This study demonstrates that a specifically designed two-step approach in revisiting the concept through an applied Qur’anic lens could be utilized to this end. Firstly, through a closer look at the historical developments of the Qur’anic concept of khilāfah, the evaluative descriptions deduced from its political application could be disqualified to rebut the anthropocentric claims raised against it and against the wider Islamic environmental ethic in general. Secondly, by approaching Qur’anic narratives that speak of human dealings with environmental disasters that are rich with applied ethical teachings, such as that of Prophet Yūsuf and the king’s dream, numerous descriptions could be derived to help build a think understanding of the concept. The study concludes that such an exercise could allow a drastic reduction in the level of subjectivity over the point where a certain action is deemed unethical, as it does not pertain to the responsibility of a khilāfah as pertained in the Qur’an.