Abstract
In 1973, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) produced a groundbreaking work on religious dimensions of water management in its two-volume survey of Water Laws in Moslem Countries. Subsequent studies have compiled selected references to water from the Qur’an, hadiths of the prophet Muhammad, Sufi texts, and modern legislative codes. After reviewing these materials, this chapter goes back to the Qur’an as the primary source for Islamic inspiration and guidance on water and rereads its references to water in systematic and contextual ways. This approach gives insights into the close relationship between water in the creation of all things; the abundance and blessings of all places on earth; the promise, and perils, of the resurrection; and the implications of these insights for sustainable lifeways.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Muslim colleagues who have generously shared their ideas on this topic over the years. I alone am responsible for errors in this study of water verses in the Qur’an. Translations are mainly from Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1990).
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L. Wescoat, J. (2021). Water Law in Muslim Countries Revisited: A Study of the Qur’an. In: Silvern, S.E., Davis, E.H. (eds) Religion, Sustainability, and Place. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7646-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7646-1_4
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