Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Vol. 6 No. 3 (2021)

Articles

Eco-Religious Teachings and Environmental Sustainability: An Analysis of Workability of Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s ‘Eco-Spirituality’ in the Context of Bangladesh

https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v6i3.357

Published 22.11.2021

  • Md. Abu Sayem
Md. Abu Sayem
Associate Professor, Dhaka University, Bangladesh

Abstract

The present research project aims to make Bangladeshi people more aware of human-nature relationship so that they can work from their own levels for the environmental sustainability. This study focuses why eco-religious understanding is necessary to work for environmental sustainability and how it can contribute as an alternative approach to reducing the present ecological crisis. Here Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s eco-spiritual approach is used as a tool to do so. This research investigates why Nasr’s eco-Islamic understanding and prescription seem significant for Bangladeshi people and how these can be implemented to reduce the environmental issues in Bangladesh. In terms of methodology, it is an analytical study based on reviewing Nasr’s eco-religious vision and examining its applicability in Bangladesh. As a result of this study, readers can instill a deeper awareness of human-nature inseparable relationship in their mind, which convince them to manifest its essentiality in their practical behaviors with the natural world. As the project connects Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s eco-religious teaching with the present environmental problems of Bangladesh, its prime result will be motivating Bangladeshi people from grassroots levels to maintain ecological equilibrium by diverting their attention from the mechanistical and materialistic view to an organic view of the environment. Alongside these, the project will enrich the current discussions on the role of religions in environmental sustainability from a Bangladeshi perspective.

Keywords

Eco-religion, Eco-ethics, Eco-Islam, Ecology, Environment, Sustainability, Nasr

PDF

References

  1. Ahmed, M. Feroze, Saleh A. Tanveer and Ahmed Tanveer (Eds.). Urbanization, Traffic Jam and Bangladesh Environment. Dhaka: Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon and Bangladesh Environment Network, 2010.
  2. Alauddin, Mohammad, and Samiul Hasan (Eds.). Development, Governance and the Environment in South Asia: A Focus on Bangladesh. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
  3. Aminrazabi, Mehdi, and Zailan Moris (Eds.). A Complete Bibliography of the Works of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Malaysia: Islamic Academic of Science, 1994.
  4. Asian Development Bank. Country Environmental Analysis-Bangladesh. Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2004.
  5. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Population and Housing Census-2011. Dhaka: Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2011.
  6. Beringer, Almut. “Reclaiming a Sacred Cosmology: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the Perennial Philosophy and Sustainability Education.” Canadian Journal of Environmental Education 11, no. 1 (2006): 26-42.
  7. Bhattacharya, Dipen, M. Feroze Ahmed, Nazrul Islam and Mohd. Abdul Matin (Eds.). Climate Change and the Tasks for Bangladesh. Dhaka: Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon and Bangladesh Environment Network, 2009.
  8. Department of Environment. Bangladesh Environment and Climate Change Outlook 2012. Dhaka: Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2012.
  9. Hahn, Lewis Edwin, Randall E. Auxier and Lucian W. Stone, Jr. (Eds.). The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Chicago and La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 2001.
  10. Islam, Md. Nazrul, and Andre van Amstel (Eds.). Bangladesh I: Climate Change Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation in Developing Countries. New York: Springer, 2017.
  11. Islam, Naznin. “Environmental Issues in Bangladesh: An Overview.” Pakistan Journal of Social Science 3, no. 4 (2005): 671-679.
  12. Islam, Nazrul. Protecting Bangladesh’s Environment: The Role of the Civil Society. Dhaka: Bangladesh Environmental Network, 1999. Accessed June 15, 2017. http://www.eng- consult.com/ben/papers/paper-nislam.pdf.
  13. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. “Islam and the Environmental Crisis.” In Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment is a Religious Issue—An Interfaith Dialogue, edited by Stephen C. Rockefeller and John C. Elder, 83-108. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.
  14. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. “Islam and the Environmental Crisis.” In Islam and the Environment, edited by A. R. Agwan. New Delhi: Institute of Objective Studies, 1997.
  15. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islam and the Plight of Modern Man, revised ed. Chicago: ABC International Group, Inc., 2001.
  16. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man. London, Boston, Sydney: Unwin Paperbacks, 1990.
  17. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. The Need for a Sacred Science. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.
  18. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Religion and the Order of Nature. New York: Oxford Universe Press, 1996.
  19. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. “The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of the Environmental Crisis.” The Ecologist 30 (2000): 18-20.
  20. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, and Muzaffar Iqbal. “The Islamic Perspective on the Environmental Crisis: Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Conversation with Muzaffar Iqbal.” Islam & Science 5, no. 1 (2007): 75-96.
  21. Rahman, A. Atiq, Rana Haider, Saleemul Huq and Eirik G. Jansen (Eds.). Environment and Development in Bangladesh, 2 vols. Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 1994.
  22. Sayem, Md. Abu. “Islamic Teaching and Practice of Environmental Ethics in Bangladesh: A Case Study.” Quest: Studies on Religion and Cultures in Asia 3 (2018): 1-28.
  23. Wersal, Liza. “Islam and Environmental Ethics: Tradition Responds to Contemporary Challenges.” Zygon 30, no. 3 (1995): 451-459.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.