The events of Islam in Converation 2009 continue, with a lecture by Faraz Khan on environmental ethics in Islam:
On Friday February 20, at 4:30 PM in PAC 001, Faraz Khan will deliver a lecture entitled, “Environmental Ethics and Islam: Providing a Pragmatic Model.”
Khan is now a senior wetland scientist for the State of New Jersey, but he started his professional career as a teacher of Islamic Studies. He obtained a degree in Quranic Recitation (Qira’at) from the University of Damascus before then earning his B.A. in Environmental Geology at Rutgers University. Khan later became certified in wetland science through a program at Cook College – Rutgers University, and he taught as an adjunct professor of environmental science at Passaic County College. In addition to his wetlands work, he currently serves as an advisor to the Muslim Student Associations at both Rutgers University and Princeton University.
Khan will discuss the Islamic concept of khalifa, or “stewardship” over nature, as a potential remedy to our modern-day “waste culture.” …“Secular” environmental ethics, according to Khan, assumes a dichotomy between humans and other living organisms and therefore frames all ethical questions in either biocentric or anthropocentric terms. Khan compares this approach to the holistic “sacred ethics” of sharia (Islamic law): “In essence, the nature or environment is a creation of God and any deviation from natural way (fitra) is a divergence from the way of God. This natural way or fitra is a Qur’anic concept that takes into an account the harmony in creation and the balance that exists between living and nonliving creatures.”
Come to the lecture and find out more!
Date: Friday February 20
Time: 4:30 PM
Place: PAC 001