The Earth as New Margins: Towards an Islamic Ecoliberation Theology of the Earth

What is the earth in the Qur’an? How have Muslims historically and conceptually interpreted it? What are contemporary Muslim eco-theological approaches to understanding the earth in relation to environmental violence, injustice, and the margins? The earth has always been humanity's home and return. It is at once our source of origin in material reality and our departure point for the Afterlife. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of scholarship on the earth concept in Islam from a systematic perspective. The environmentalist concept of the earth is still a nascent and emerging category in Islamic theology, law, and ecotheologies. This paper first introduces the historical and theoretical foundations of the earth concept in Islam by briefly examining its meaning in the Qur’an, Islamic law, theology and mysticism. However, the main aim of this paper is to argue for an ecoliberation theology reading of the earth.