Signs in the Earth ― Islam, Modernity and the Natural World

A major study of environmentalism and Islam in practice and theory, with an historical overview that sets out future challenges, including reformulating the fiqh or Islamic legal tradition to take the ecological dimension seriously.

In addressing this book to the one billion Muslims in the world it has the potential to reinvigorate the desire for environmental change in a community that is ignored at the planets peril. In arguing that modernity, consumerism and industrialisation need to be rethought, alongside an appeal to reconnect man and woman with creation in the divine order, this book has the potential to transform a generation.

In the same way that Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything presented the argument for environmental action in a Capitalist framework, Fazlun Khalid has written a book that demands action from those whose primary orientation is towards the Islamic faith.

Fazlun Khalid is of Sri Lankan origin. He traces his ancestry to the Hadramut in Yemen and is a descendent of the intrepid sailors who pioneered the spice routes to the Far East in times gone by. Accompanied by a colleague of what was then known as the Ceylon Air Academy, he landed in New Haven on the south coast of England in 1953, from Dieppe in France. Fazlun Khalid has a worldwide reputation as an advocate of environmental protection rooted in religious traditions and is now recognised as one of fifteen leading eco-theologians in the world. He appeared on the Independent on Sunday list of the top 100 environmentalists in the UK in 2008 and is also listed amongst the “500 Most Influential Muslims in the World” by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan. He founded the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES) which is now established as the world’s leading Islamic environmental NGO.