The Ambivalence of Stewardship: A Critical Reconstruction of Qur’anic Environmental Ethics and Climate Justice

Abstract

Contemporary Islamic environmental discourse frequently presents stewardship as the primary Qur’anic foundation for ecological responsibility, yet this formulation often leaves unresolved questions concerning anthropocentrism, unequal climate burdens, nonhuman value, and institutional accountability. This study critically reconstructs Qur’anic environmental ethics in relation to climate justice and develops a framework capable of addressing these limitations. It employs a qualitative document-based design combining content analysis, critical hermeneutics, and normative conceptual reconstruction. The corpus includes selected Qur’anic passages, representative classical and modern exegetical works, contemporary Muslim environmental declarations, international climate-governance instruments, and authoritative scientific assessments. The findings show, first, that stewardship is not a self-contained Qur’anic environmental doctrine but a modern interpretive reconstruction whose legitimacy depends on subordinating human authority to accountability and moral limits. Second, passages concerning animal communities, cosmic glorification, and balance provide a stronger basis for decentring human moral sovereignty and recognizing nonhuman forms of life as ethically significant. Third, general appeals to shared responsibility are inadequate for climate justice unless obligations are differentiated according to historical contribution, present capacity, vulnerability, and exclusion from decision-making. These findings support a critical Islamicate climate-justice framework composed of five interdependent dimensions: limited authority, creaturely recognition, differentiated responsibility, participatory governance, and restorative transformation. The study contributes theoretically by integrating Qur’anic interpretation, multidimensional climate-justice theory, and Islamicate institutional analysis. It argues that Qur’anic environmental ethics becomes publicly consequential not by claiming scriptural completeness, but by providing a critical vocabulary for evaluating power, distributing obligations, recognizing ecological plurality, and holding institutions accountable for environmental harm.