Fathin Shu's Blog

       For this week, we explored the International Framework of Sustainable Development which started in 1972 when the governments gathered in Stockholm to address the issue of global environmental needs, as well as to take part in the UN conference on the human environment. The major events such as the Kyoto Protocol and Rio de Janeiro Conference point to the growth of global awareness to balance environmental protection.       The interesting part that caught my attention is the political differences between developed and developing countries. Every country has its own challenges to environmental issues and not all of them have equal abilities to address them properly. For instance, wealthier or more developed countries tend to cause more pollution because of industrial activities and overconsumption. Malaysia, as a developing country, still struggles to adopt green practices due to limited resources.       Sejahtera, Malays...

       In week 3, we learned about Maqasid Shariah and sustainable development. Maqasid Shariah involves realizing human well-being by enhancing the welfare, or benefit of the people on one hand and preventing harm on the other. Maqasih means “objective” of the Shariah which promotes and protects the well-being of people and nature. There are five objectives of Islamic Law which are the protection of religion, wealth, life, intellect, and lineage. All of these five objectives aim to protect mankind of their rights and blessings. These needs are a basic human right and aligned with the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDG), as Islam also does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.       Furthermore, we also learned about other religions and sustainable development. For Buddhism, they believed in their scripture (sutras) that they should regard animals, grass, and trees as their home thus they need to ...

      For week 2, we explored sustainable development through the lens of Islam. Islam has been emphasizing the importance of taking care of our environment in the Quran and Hadith as there are numerous examples from the Prophet Muhammad’s life and his sayings that talk about this. The relationship with the environment (surrounding) is one of the fundamentals of Islam and development which shows that Islam also encourages its followers to love mother nature as we love our own self.       Furthermore, Allah has created the cosmos or nature for us to ponder upon his other creatures in this world. The trees have their own purposes as well as the wind, water, and soil. Humans need to realize that the conservation of the environment is a religious duty demanded by God and thus needs to be followed by certain actions and not to make chaos out of it. Allah said in Surah Al-Qasas verse 77, which means “And do good as Allah has been good to you. And do not...

       In week 1, Prof Suhaimi shared with us the recorded lecture on the first topic, which is the Introduction to Sustainable Development. Sustainable development refers to how we live today for a better tomorrow. It starts with us humans to meet our present needs without compromising the needs of future generations ahead of us. The survival of our planet and societies depends on a sustainable world.       In the video, we learned about systems thinking, which refers to a new paradigm of analysis that encourages and enables us to understand complex and often hidden dynamics in our world. In today’s world, many things happen every day, such as the admission of 60 million tons of carbon dioxide, the extinction of 100 species, and the destruction of 50,000 hectares of forests. These cases are really concerning to our planet and they are mostly coming from human activities. To be fair, we all need to sustain our mother nature as the creatures living...