Volume II: Law, Policy, and Ecological Justice

Reconstructing Istikhlāf for Natural Resource Governance: An Islamic Legal Framework for a Sharia-Based Green Economy

  • Agus Rojak Samsudin Al-Zaytun Islamic Institute of Indonesia (IAI AL-AZIS), Indramayu, Indonesia
  • Ahmad Hasan Ridwan UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia
  • Tajul Arifin UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia
  • Muhammad Hasanuddin UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia

Keywords

Istikhlāf; natural resource governance; Sharia-based green economy; Islamic environmental law; Islamic green finance.

Abstract

Ecological degradation and extractive natural resource governance have intensified the need for a legal framework that connects environmental protection, social justice, and intergenerational responsibility. Although prior studies have established the relevance of Islamic environmental ethics, maqāṣid al-Sharia, fiqh al-bī’ah, and Islamic green finance, the translation of istikhlāf into a governance architecture that is operational, sectorally adaptive, and substantively accountable remains limited. This study reconstructs istikhlāf as a legal-ethical foundation for natural resource governance within a Sharia-based green economy. The normative legal research integrates doctrinal, conceptual, maqāṣid-oriented, policy-oriented, and reconstructive approaches. Islamic legal materials, scholarly literature, regulations, and policy reports were analysed through content analysis, thematic legal coding, conceptual synthesis, normative reconstruction, and sectoral conceptual demonstration. The analysis positions istikhlāf as an overarching principle under which the state, corporations, financial institutions, communities, and individuals exercise delegated authority. The principles of amānah, mīzān, ḥifẓ, wasatiyyah, maṣlaḥah, and lā ḍarar wa lā ḍirār provide standards for transparency, ecological balance, protection, moderation, public welfare, and harm prevention. The study develops a four-layer framework and demonstrates its adaptive logic through a normative comparison of mining and waste management. It also proposes dual compliance review—administrative and substantive—through a Sharia–environmental audit mechanism, together with outcome indicators combining ecological-technical measures with community participation, distributive justice, grievance resolution, and intergenerational protection. These contributions advance Islamic environmental discourse from moral affirmation toward a more operational legal-ethical reconstruction without claiming empirical validation of the proposed mechanisms.

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