Ecofeminist Qur’anic Hermeneutics
Synthesizing Amina Wadud and Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Responding to Anthropocentric Crisis in Asian Muslim Societies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63120/jise.v5i1.168Keywords:
Ecofeminist Qur’anic Hermeneutics, Amina Wadud and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Anthropocentric Crisis, Gender and Ecological JusticeAbstract
The escalating global ecological crisis is deeply rooted in anthropocentric paradigms and exploitative patriarchal hierarchies, in which domination over nature often intersects with the marginalization of vulnerable groups, particularly women. Yet contemporary Qur’anic interpretation frequently addresses gender injustice and environmental degradation as separate concerns, limiting its capacity to confront their shared structural foundations. This article develops an ecofeminist Qur’anic hermeneutical framework as an alternative theological response to anthropocentric crisis in Asian Muslim societies, focusing on the Qur’anic concepts of khalīfah, amānah, and mīzān. Employing a qualitative library-based study and a hermeneutic-synthetic approach, the article integrates Amina Wadud’s feminist hermeneutics with Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s spiritual ecotheology. The methodological tension between Wadud’s emancipatory critique of patriarchal interpretation and Nasr’s perennialist cosmology is mediated through an adapted Ricoeurian dialectic, combining egalitarian critique with a de-anthropocentrized understanding of cosmic sacredness. The analysis demonstrates that this synthesis produces an “egalitarian-theocentric” paradigm of Qur’anic interpretation. Wadud’s tawhidic hermeneutics destabilizes hierarchical relations among human beings, while Nasr’s conception of nature as a manifestation of divine signs challenges assumptions of human supremacy over the non-human world. Their integration reconstructs khalīfah not as a mandate of domination, but as a form of entrusted responsibility grounded in care, restraint, and accountability toward both human and ecological communities. The article argues that women’s liberation and ecological preservation should be understood as interconnected expressions of tawḥīd. It contributes to contemporary Qur’anic studies by proposing a holistic interpretive framework in which gender justice and ecological justice constitute mutually reinforcing dimensions of ethical and social transformation.
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