Mawil Y. Izzi Dien (born 1948, also known as Izzi Deen) is an Iraqi

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic scholar and eminent Islamic ecotheologian. He is currently serving as a professor of Islamic Studies at the

University of Wales Trinity Saint David , image = Crest of TSD.png , image_size = 200px , caption = Coat of armsUniversity of Wales Trinity Saint David , established = 2010 (Saint David's College, Lampeter founded 1822 and opened 1827; royal charter 1828) , ...

in the UK, and a Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at

Qatar University Qatar University ( ar, جامعة قطر; transliterated: Jami'at Qatar) is a public research university located on the northern outskirts of Doha, Qatar. It is the only public university in the country. The university hosts ten colleges – Arts ...

Biography

Mawil Izzi Dien was born in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, Iraq in 1948. He studied

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

in Baghdad and at Manchester Universities. In 1983, when he was at the Faculty of Law at

King Abdul Aziz University King Abdulaziz University (KAU) ( ar, جامعة الملك عبد العزيز) is a public university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. With over 117,096 students in 2022, it is the largest university in the country. Located in south Jeddah, the uni ...

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

, Izzi Dien helped prepare the first contemporary declaration on conservation from an Islamic point of view. It was later published by the

International Union for the Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

. Izzi Dien served as an adviser to the Saudi government. During the 1980s, he helped construct the

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

framework for Meteorology and Environmental Protection Administration in Saudi Arabia. As a consequence of being reproduced in various anthologies in the 1990s, Izzi Dien's 1990 article, "Islamic Environmental Ethics, Law and Society," came to be considered as reflecting the normative Islamic stance by many Western environmentalists. Izzi Dien stresses on the moral responsibilities that Islam places on humans in this article, concentrating on the key elements of Islam's classical legal tradition and their sources in the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

and

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...

that refer to the preservation and protection of natural resources. The article later received a book length treatment and was published in 2000 as ''Environmental Dimensions of Islam''.

Works

* ''The Theory and the Practice of Market Law in Medieval Islam: A Study of Kitāb Niṣāb Al-Iḥtisāb of ʻUmar B. Muḥammad Al-Sunāmī'' (1998) * ''Environmental Dimensions of Islam'' (2000) * ''Islamic Law: From Historical Foundations to Contemporary Practice'' (2004)Reviews of ''Islamic Law: From Historical Foundations to Contemporary Practice'': * * * ''Islamic Theology in the Contemporary World: An Introduction'' (2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Izzi Dien, Mawil Living people 20th-century Muslim theologians Qatar University faculty 1948 births 21st-century Muslim theologians Islamic environmentalists

Biography

Works

See also

References