Reconstructing an Environmental-Ethical Outlook in the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Pouria Abbasalinejad
Abstract
This paper offers a reconstructive account of an environmental-ethical outlook in the thought of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, a tenth- (or possibly ninth-) century group of Islamic philosophers known as the Brethren of Purity. Drawing on selected epistles from the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa Khullān al-Wafāʾ, we argue that their Neoplatonic inspired cosmology, anthropology, and educational vision can be systematically organized into a four-principle model of hierarchical stewardship. Methodologically, the study adopts a textual–conceptual reconstruction. Contemporary categories from environmental ethics, such as intrinsic value, anthropocentrism, and ecocentrism, are used as analytical tools, without attributing these concepts anachronistically to the Ikhwān themselves. On this basis, we identify four core principles: (1) the intrinsic value of all living beings; (2) the higher yet responsibility-laden value of human beings; (3) the moral significance of ecological wholes within an organic cosmology centered on the Universal Soul (al-nafs al-kulliyya); and (4) an educational response to environmental disorder, understood as a crisis of both knowledge and character. The paper then considers several objections, including concerns about anthropo-centrism, the limits of pre-modern metaphysics, questions of practical applicability, historical distance, and environmental justice. In response, we argue that the Ikhwānian framework is best understood as a resource for critical adaptation rather than direct replication. We conclude that, despite being historically situated within a robust metaphysical system, the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ offer a distinctive Islamic contribution to contemporary environmental ethics, one that integrates a holistic ontology, a graded conception of intrinsic value, and a sustained emphasis on moral and spiritual formation as the foundation of responsible stewardship of the natural world.
Keywords: Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ; Environmental Ethics; Environmental Philosophy; Intrinsic Value.
Keywords
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Philosophy
Intrinsic Value
Metaphysical Research
Volume 7, English Special Issue
June 2026
Pages 213-236