Note: The conduct of the Infallibles (PBUTh) with regard to various jurisprudential topics is beneficial both because it is instructive and must be emulated, and because it constitutes a jurisprudential proof that can influence the process of deduction. The question therefore arises: Did the Ahl al-Bayt (ʿa) have any specific practice or approach concerning natural resources and their preservation? Can one deduce from their narrations the obligation to protect natural resources and the impermissibility of their excessive exploitation? Hujjat al-Islam wal-Muslimin Yāser Amīniyān, director of the project “Lifestyle of the Ahl al-Bayt (ʿa)” at the Contemporary Jurisprudence Studies Research Institute, believes that attention to natural resources and the environment is clearly visible in the conduct of the Ahl al-Bayt (ʿa), but one must bear in mind that the environmental conditions of their lives were entirely different from those of today. The full text of the exclusive interview of Contemporary Jurisprudence with this professor and hadith scholar of the Qom Islamic Seminary is presented below:

Contemporary Jurisprudence: Are there instances in the practical conduct of the Infallibles (PBUTh) that relate to the necessity of preserving natural resources?

Amīniyān: The phrase “preservation of natural resources” today evokes a specific meaning: protecting forests, seas, and the like from threats to the environment, such as cutting trees for timber, industrial or domestic wastewater polluting the seas, and so forth. In that precise sense, we probably do not have any concrete example or precedent in the conduct of the Ahl al-Bayt. For instance, there is no report of the Noble Prophet or the other Infallibles (ʿalayhim al-salām) expressing concern about forests or seas and issuing instructions for their protection.

However, if we do not restrict the expression “preservation of natural resources” to this narrow technical meaning and instead understand it in its broader sense—so as to include any form of attention to the environment—then yes, we can point to several instances in the conduct of the Infallibles (ʿalayhim al-salām):

Numerous historical reports describe Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī (PBUTh) personally creating gardens and palm groves, digging wells, and similar activities. The fruit of his labors—palm groves and endowments—remained in existence until the time of Imam al-Ṣādiq (ʿa). His emphasis on land development and cultivation was extremely prominent.

Reports that clearly indicate Imam al-Bāqir and Imam al-Ṣādiq (ʿalayhimā al-salām) engaged in agriculture.

Reports of Imam al-Kāẓim and Imam al-Riḍā (ʿalayhimā al-salām) frequently visiting gardens and farms, which suggests that those Imams owned gardens and orchards, were “men of property and trees” as the saying goes, and either personally or through hired workers and laborers engaged in farming and horticulture.
And similar cases.

Contemporary Jurisprudence: Can the apparent lack of serious attention by the Infallibles (ʿa) to the issue of preserving natural resources be attributed to the absence of any natural-resource crisis in their time?

Amīniyān: Certainly, that is the reason. Because of their special status and responsibility in society, the Infallibles (ʿalayhim al-salām) were consulted and asked about the problems and afflictions that affected the community and would issue rulings accordingly. But the lifestyle of people in that era had not yet disrupted ecological balance or placed natural resources under serious threat. Hence this issue was not a pressing concern for the Muslim community, and the Infallibles (PBUTh) did not need to make explicit pronouncements about it—although from their general instructions one can infer the desirability of cultivation and development and the undesirability of harming the environment.

Contemporary Jurisprudence: Given the particular geographical conditions of the Infallibles’ lives—aridity, small population, absence of fossil-fuel use, etc.—can their positive practices and their silences be taken as a model for contemporary man who lives in a completely different geographical reality?

Amīniyān: Precisely because of the point mentioned in the previous answer, we cannot argue that “since no specific instruction or practice regarding the protection of natural resources has reached us from them, therefore protecting natural resources is not desirable.” For example, suppose a report states that someone was cutting down a tree and an Infallible Imam saw it but did not forbid it. We cannot conclude that cutting trees or deforestation is therefore permissible, because in the time of the Imams (PBUTh), tree-cutting was not carried out industrially or on a massive scale; when someone cut a tree, it was an isolated, minor act.

Contemporary Jurisprudence: How do you evaluate the conduct of the Infallibles (PBUTh) regarding preservation of natural resources in comparison with the ruling authorities and other scholarly figures of their era?

Amīniyān: Among their contemporaries, Mālik ibn Anas—one of the four imams of the Sunni schools—is described with the words: “He was not known to have any occupation, trade, travel for business, or craft”; meaning he had no profession and devoted all his efforts to seeking knowledge. Yet Imam al-Bāqir and Imam al-Ṣādiq (ʿalayhimā al-salām), who lived at the same time as Mālik, despite their abundant scholarly occupations, also engaged in trade and agriculture. For the other Sunni imams I have not seen any mention of engagement in agriculture.