Essay Four Prompts -Islam
Requirements:
1. Your essay should be word-processed, double-spaced, one-inch to one and one-half inch margins. It should be spell-checked. Pages Numbered.
2. You should have a cover page with title, date, and your name.
3. Each paragraph should be numbered. Bold the thesis. After the end of the essay, attach an outline of the essay with the thesis clearly stated and at minimum a line for each paragraph.
4. Each essay should be approximately 3 pages long (not including the Works Consulted or cover pages).
5. You must include a Works Consulted/Cited Page. I will assume that you have read and understood Harvey, Writing with Sources on when and how to cite sources. CAREFUL AND CORRECT CITATION IS REQUIRED. WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE. Remember that simply paraphrasing or changing every third word is not OK. Quote and cite or radically summarize and cite. Use quotation marks when quoting or indent if quote is five lines or longer. Guessing at where your information comes from is not OK. Use page numbers in your in-text citations, footnotes or endnotes. Book or journal titles are italicized or underlined.
6. Your essay should define any key terms used, use examples to illustrate and support your argument where appropriate, and discuss likely alternatives or respond to objections.
Essays will be graded for both form and content as indicated in Points to Consider in Evaluating an Essay.
Choose One of the following questions/prompts:
1. Argument analysis. Pick a main conclusion of any of the authors we read for the section of the course focusing on Islam. Charitably, show how the author reached this conclusion (presuppositions, reasons, etc.) and offer an assessment of the argument.
2. How does the stewardship model of Islam as described by Haq compare and contrast with that put forward by Ehrenfeld and Bentley for Judaism? What is the place and ethical responsibility of human beings in relation to nature? On what is it grounded?
3. Haq notes the importance of morality for Islamic views of nature? How does this compare and contrast with Kay's and/or Schwarzschild's discussion of the importance of morality in relation to nature in Judaism?
4. Haq, Afrasiabi, and Ammar all mention the complex relationships between the Islamic world and the West. Choose two and explain how they see the implications of this in relation to developing or retrieving an Islamic environmental ethic. What do you see as the significance of this issue?
5. Many of the pieces we have read this semester note that the modern environmental crisis did not exist at the time key documents, traditions, and practices of a particular religion were formed. (and this process often involved centuries). Thus early materials do not directly address the modern environmental crisis. However, there are concepts of nature, the human, the divine, animals, morality, etc. in those materials. Some also argue that various philosophical or theological positions in the tradition reflect the material and environmental conditions in which they developed. Write an essay explaining comparing how two of the authors we read on Islam see themselves as recovering/retrieving and/or constructing an environmental ethic or theology from tradition.
6. There is a strong monotheism and emphasis on the transcendence of God in Islam. How does this effect the structure and content of an environmental ethic for Islam? Refer to at least one of the pieces we read in your essay.
7. Why does Haq say that the phrase "In everything that lives there is a reward" "may be considered a broad central principle of Islam’s environmental ethics"? (par. 69-70) Does this indeed summarize a key points he developed in his essay?
8. The concept of "signs’ plays an important part in Islamic theology. How do both nature and revelation serve as "signs"and why is this significant according to Haq? (See also Wescoat, p. 22)
9. Haq argues that Qur'anic and other Muslim traditions are non-anthropocentric? How does he support this view? Would Afrasiabi agree? Do you agree? Be sure to define your terms.
10. What is the doctrine of self-injury and why does Haq say this "embodies the seeds of a comprehensive ecological philosophy"? (par. 36) Does this sound at all like Naess’ concept of self-realization? Be sure to define your terms.
11. What roles do or might traditions about creation and paradise play in an Islamic ecotheology? Refer to at least one of the pieces we read in your essay.
12. Wescoat looks at garden imagery/symbolism in the Qur’an and looks at how various historical sites do or do not reflect this symbolism. Although originally published in a landscape architecture journal, this article was reprinted in Islam and Ecology: A Bestowed Trust edited by Folz. What significance does this sort of exercise have for exploring environmental ethics or ecotheology?
13. How does Ammar "revive" the concept of hay’a in the service of an ethic to address "the ecological crisis" ? (134) Be sure to define the term in your essay. Another way to talk about her essay is to ask, What is her diagnosis and what are her prescriptions? Discuss what you see as one strength and one weakness.
14. What are the "three defining characteristics of nature’ according to Haq? (par. 32, immediately following the heading, "Qur’anic Naturalism and the Nature-Prophecy Parallel) Pick one of these characteristics. Explain why Haq sees one of these concepts as significant and evaluate from your own perspective its likely usefulness in developing an Islamic eco-ethic.
15. ***Wild Card. Topic of your choice, but get approval of instructor first.