The scientific meeting “Obligatory, state and criminal rules of destruction and pollution of the environment” was held in the contemporary jurisprudence research institute with the presence of Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Dr. Yaqub Ali Borji.

In this meeting, while referring to some articles that have been published in this field, Dr. Burji examined the sources of environmental pollution and destruction decrees.

Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Burji emphasized: We must save nature and the planet, and if we don’t save it, we will be destroyed in the near future.

He enumerated the five principles that are the background of these rulings as follows: the first principle;  All the components of nature and the universe posses intelligence and holiness in some way.  They are interwoven, related and well-ordered.  This is used from verse 164 of Chapter Al-Baqarah.  The second principle;  This is that nature is created and governed by the management and lordship based on the wisdom of the wise and God, the all-kowing.  This is also used from verses 116 and 117 of Chapter al-Baqarah.  The third principle;  It is that in this system every being is considered valuable in its place and nothing is created in vain.  The fourth principle;  It is that all the creatures of the universe are glorifying God Almighty.  This is mentioned in Chapter al-Jum’ah, verse 1.  The fifth principle;  This is that man is introduced as God’s caliph on earth.

He concluded that the result of this caliphate and succession is that the caliph, who is a human being, performs the duties of God on earth.

The professor of the field and university added: “In the field of homework, we have many proofs from the Qur’an, Sunnah, reason and consensus that it is forbidden to destroy and pollute the environment in terms of homework.  Of course, we are now telling the whole story.  There may be thousands of examples of destruction, or thousands of examples of pollution, but we cannot go into the details now.  In general, the principle of sanctity can be deduced from the Holy Qur’an, Hadith, Sunnah, reason and consensus.

Referring to the need to impose punishment for environmental destruction,Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Burji said: We have a correct narration in al-Kafi, volume 4, page 254, that Imam Ali (‘a) says: Eating and usurping the property of an orphan deserves imprisonment.  So what does this have to do with the environment?  If you said, what does it have to do with the environment?  The environment belongs to everyone, some of them are orphans.  If you destroy the environment, you have destroyed the property of orphans along with the property of other people.  Consequently, it can be used as an example of the saying that the property of an orphan is punishable by imprisonment, because the entire environment belongs to all members of society, including orphans.

It is worth mentioning that this meeting was held at the Research Institute of Contemporary Jurisprudence on Tuesday, Tue. 21 Nov. 2023, and its secretariat was Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Jushqani.