A wholesome environment is, on the one hand, a principal human right and, on the other, a human obligation. Thus, it is of importance to define the environment, to underscore the necessity of maintaining its health, to study the ways by which a healthy environment can be achieved, and, finally, to examine the genuine purposes of striving for such an environment all of which must be sought from the foundational humanistic disciplines and by tapping into human potentialities.

This requires a careful study of the orderly constitution of the human being and the cosmos and the interaction among human beings and their relation to the cosmos, so as to bring to light the necessity of striving for and maintaining a wholesome environment.

The Beauty Of Creation As Manifest In The Human Being And The Cosmos

The Noble Qur'an the most sacred religious scripture portrays creation as a screen of silk tapestry on which God's beauty and magnificence are displayed; the arrangement of the order of creation is seen as a source of peace for the human being; the expanse of the earth and the firmament is revered for its beauty. God created the world in the most beautiful fashion possible:

الَّذِي أَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقَهُ

[God] made excellent all that which He created. (32:7).

He likewise created the human being in the most excellent condition:

لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ

Verily We created the human being in the most excellent constitution. (95:4)1.

All creatures are by nature excellent. The human being, however, possesses additional excellence by virtue of the potential in him to attain to the status of God's viceroyalty. It is this distinctive quality that other creatures lack. It is in this light that the Qur'an, after enumerating the phases of human creation, proclaims,

فَتَبَارَكَ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنُ الْخَالِقِينَ

So blessed is God, the best of creators. (23:14).

If there were another creature that exceeded the human being in excellence, this praise would have been said in reference to it. But since ultimate excellence lies in the fusion of intellectual perfection and sensuous beauty, no other creature can contend with the human being.

The excellence and beauty of creation consists in its orderliness. Every creature that comes into being possesses internal harmony, a specific end, a specific path, and a specific guide. Thus, its efficient causality is grounded on knowledge; its final causality on wisdom; its internal arrangement on intelligence. The Noble Qur'an asserts,

قَالَ رَبُّنَا الَّذِي أَعْطَىٰ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلْقَهُ ثُمَّ هَدَىٰ

Our Lord is He Who gave everything its creation and then guided if. (20:50).

That is, our Lord molded the constitution of every creature in proportion to its inherent capacity and purpose and then set it on the Right Path, guiding it to its appropriate end.

This blessed trio-efficient causality, final causality, internal harmony­ guarantees the beauty in everything so long as the scientific and empiric principles observed conform to it. The lack of this conformity damages a creature's constitution, hindering its progress toward its genuine end and depriving other creatures of its fruits.

Such hindrance and deprivation distort the beautiful face of creation, and any distortion of creation detrimental to the health and safety of humankind is the work of Satan. For, he works his stealthy devilry within the framework of existential elements, one of which is the purposive constitution of the human being or any creature, for that matter:

وَمَنْ يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًا مُبِينًا

and I (Satan) will prompt them (humankind) to alter God's creation. (4:119).

Those deceived by Satan-who through enticements, false embellishments, and diminishing the intelligence leads human beings astray and incites them to rebel have, with the excuse of safeguarding industry, spoiled the beauty in nature's norm by introducing deviations, deranging the graceful system of create on with chaos and pollution. The Quran's message to those who thus fail to appreciate the natural environment in which they dwell is,

ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ لِيُذِيقَهُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

Corruption has appeared in land and sea because of the doings of people's hands that He may make them taste a portion of what they have done, so that they may come back. (30:41).

The heavenly instructions of the Qur'an affirm that the beautiful tableau of creation has been entrusted to us by God. As such, the industries are duty­ bound to direct their efforts at securing the felicity and health of all humanity, even as they must honor the natural rights of all creatures, never acquiescing in the destruction of the progeny of humankind or the fruits of the earth. The Qur'an denounces those who harm humankind socially, economically, or politically:

وَإِذَا تَوَلَّىٰ سَعَىٰ فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيُفْسِدَ فِيهَا وَيُهْلِكَ الْحَرْثَ وَالنَّسْلَ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَسَادَ 

And should the [disbeliever] yield authority, he would try to cause corruption in the land and to ruin the crop and the [human] stock, and God does not like corruption. (2:205).

A person's value is contingent on his deeds; when corruption is despised, one who corrupts is despised as well.

The Human Being's Spiritual Nobility And Divine Viceroyalty

The beauty of the human being lies in besides the element of harmonious constitution, which is true of all creatures-his nobility (kiramat). The heavenly scriptures, particularly the Qur'an, glorify the human being's existence as a noble creature. In this regard the Qur'an says,

وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُمْ مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا

Certainly We have acknowledged the nobility2 of the children of Adam, and carried them over land and sea, and provided them with all the good things, and given them an advantage over many of those We have created with a complete preference. (17:70).

The human being's nobility is, in turn, due to his status as God's viceroy; the representative of a noble authority must be noble. This nobility is the exclusive honor that the human being alone enjoys. It is on account of this distinction that the following well-known hadith addresses the human being:

Whosoever comprehends his self certainly comprehends his Lord.3

Knowledge of the human soul as God's viceroy-which is an existential, not contractual, status-will certainly result in knowing God. If the latter does not come about, it is an indication that an adequate knowledge of the human soul has not been realized.

It is true, of course, that we may come to realize the existence of God or one of His attributes by reflecting on other creatures in so far as they are contingent in their essence4 or in their existence5, or in so far as they are temporal, moving, orderly, etc. But this is different from knowing God immediately, which can be acquired only by way of self-knowledge.

Thus, the human being's nobility rests on his status as the divine viceroy. To be a proper viceroy is to follow the king in all practical and theoretic issues: to perceive as he perceives and to will as he wills. To claim divine viceroyalty without conforming in perception and will to God is, in essence, to usurp that office while really obeying another authority

أَفَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَٰهَهُ هَوَاهُ وَأَضَلَّهُ اللَّهُ

Have you seen him who takes his ego to be his god. (45:23).

Such an egoistic and hedonistic individual cannot attain to the lofty status of divine viceroyalty and consequently remains bereft of the nobility it confers.

• 1. In this regard see also 40:64 and 64:3.
• 2. Karramna in the Arabic of the verse is commonly, and correctly, translated into English as "honored." I, however, changed that to "acknowledge the nobility" so as to underline the meaning of kiramah or nobility. [Tr.]
• 3. Ghurar al-Hikam vol. 5, p. 194.
• 4. This is based on the Peripatetic school of Islamic philosophy, which upholds the objectivity of essence. [Tr.]
• 5. This is based on the Sadrian metaphysical system, which postulates the objectivity of existence. [Tr.]