A Look at Animal's Rights in the Islamic Environmental Ethics from Nahj al-Balagha Viewpoint

Some of the contemporary western thinkers believe that religions, including Islam, are the main factor of destructing environment and create the environmental crisis. The present article rejects this claim, proving that environmental ethics, which contemporary westerners have thought of observing, have been already dealt with in religious and Islamic sources and teachings. Among these, the most subtle points of environmental ethics have been widely presented in Imam Ali's way of life, especially in Nahj al-Balagha. Some of these points are as follows: paying attention and attempting to improvement of land and the whole nature, pieces of advice on the rights pertaining to agriculture and animal husbandry, observing justice in treating animals and their offspring, avoiding unlimited use of natural resources, and refraining from harassing living creatures, etc. Besides, Imam Ali has presented objective methods for preserving environment. In Nahj al- Balagha, Imam Ali has precisely dealt with regulating the behaviors of hisagents in using animals. The present article has investigated those points presented in Nahj al-Balagha.