Ayatollah Prof. Mohaghegh Damad said in an interview with Public Relations Office:
We can use theological issues to organize global bioethics
On Monday, October 4, 2021, Pope Francis, in a great and unique act, invited the representatives of the major religions of the world, who are also proficient in the field of environmental theology, to discuss and exchange views on this issue in a meeting. During this meeting, a document was signed to be read at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow in November 2021. This meeting has been considered the most important meeting of world political leaders to face climate problems following the Paris 2016 conference.
Ayatollah Prof. Mohaghegh Damad, a distinguished professor emeritus of the Faculty of Law of Shahid Beheshti University, attended this meeting as the only representative of the Shia religion and gave a lecture, which you can read below:
The environmental catastrophe that we are facing today that has made life insufferable for many is essentially a moral and intellectual crisis and faith leaders can play a pivotal role in tackling it. Humans have two different ways to view the world. For some, nature is there to be exploited by and for the benefit of humans. Some, however, have a divine view towards nature. For them, everything in the world, human beings, animals, mountains and oceans are all parts of one existence, representing and manifesting the Creator. To them, nature is the worthy of utmost respect. In their eyes, all human beings are indeed part of nature. In the Holy Qur’an, nature talks to God, to Allah, just like humans, and worship the nature, worship the sky, worship the seas, worship the jungles, worship everything and trees; it glorifies and exalts Him. For the faithful, therefore, nature is sacred and the believers never transgress it. We also read in the Holy Qur’an and other scriptures that at the beginning, God compelled humans to two things: not to murder each other and to be at peace with the nature and to protect it. Today, unfortunately, humanity has broken this divine covenant, leading to killing innocents and destruction of nature. To this end, the mission of all the faithful in the world is to unite towards conveying this message and fulfilling this divine obligation.
In this regard, we arranged an interview with Ayatollah Prof. Mohaghegh Damad, part of which you can read below:
It seems that before this meeting that was held in the Vatican, you had other correspondences with His Excellency the Pope. What was the reason behind your entry into the field of interfaith dialogue?
Let me mention the history of this issue. Around 1986 or 1987, when Khatami was the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, he invited several people including me, Dr. Jalali, who later became Iran's representative in UNESCO, Dr. Soroush, who was a member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution at that time, and Dr. Pourjavadi, who was also a member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. At that time, the cultural consultations, which were previously with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Of course, today this responsibility has been taken over by the Communications Organization, and I'm still a member of that commission. When the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance assumed this task, it attempted to create a dialogue between religions. The first interfaith dialogue took place in Athens, Greece, the topic of which is that of the book that I have currently under publication in English, titled Ecotheology, and in fact, is about nature and man from the point of view of Islam and Christianity. I presented a detailed article in that meeting in English, which is one of the articles of the foregoing book that will be published soon. After we returned to Iran, a group from Germany came to Iran. This group consisted of very great professors of German theology. I remember there was an old man with them called Professor Kong who had a position in his country like Allameh Tabatabaei in Iran and had many works in theology. The place of our conversation was in the former Society of Philosophy where I was a member. In this meeting, we talked about various topics from the point of view of Christianity and Islam and engaged in dialogue. Then they invited us to Germany and these visits continued several times. At that time, we found out that the Vatican ambassador in Iran had invited us to participate in an interfaith dialogue. It turned out that an interfaith dialogue had also been formed in the Vatican. But it seems that Iran was a pioneer in this regard. The then Pope had considered a special vice-chair to follow up dialogue between religions. In that meeting, my discussions received a lot of attention, because I paid attention to the fact that these meetings are not a place for arguments and insults, and I had studied about the meaning of dialogue. Dialogue means understanding each other. From then on, we became a member of an inter-religious dialogue, and the communication continued between our group and other groups. A few years ago, a meeting was held called "Synod". In this meeting, the Pope invited all the leaders of the Middle East churches and me as a Shia scholar. Dr. Samak was also invited to this meeting as a Sunni scholar. I gave a detailed speech in English and emphasized that we have common points and we must unite against atheism. Of course, the then Pope has another history with me that I have to tell you. In a speech, he said an insulting sentence about Islam with the theme that Islam has grown with swords. This statement made a lot of controversy and angered many Muslims. I wrote a very detailed letter to him in English, and its Persian translation was published in Ettelaat Newspaper. In this letter, I wrote that many great scholars have become interested in Islam, including philosophers, sages, jurists, and Corbin in our time. Did they convert to Islam with swords?! The Pope sent his adviser on Middle East affairs to Iran, apologized and admitted that he should further his studies in Islam. Of course, my letter was not the only influential element, and Muslim protests in Pakistan and other parts of the world were also effective in the Pope's decision. I was invited to Synod after this letter. At Synod, the Pope invited me to his room, shook my hand and said that since the day your letter reached me, I have renewed my studies in Islam and studied the history of Islam. Thereafter, the Pope resigned and Pope Francis came to office. Francis is a very humble person and completely different from previous popes. For example, his office is not where it used to be and is very public. Since I am one of the few clerics who have written in the field of environment, and my book "Environmental Theology" has won an award, he invited me to the series of meetings he holds in this field. These series of meetings are supposed to be held in eight sessions; we talk about various environmental issues; and all eight sessions have not been completed yet. The recent meeting, however, was separate from those series of meetings. The reason for holding this meeting was that in Glasgow the heads of the countries of the world are going to reach a decision on climate change. You know that the danger that threatens the planet is the emission of carbon dioxide, and it is not clear whether there will be life for you for years to come. Since the day when mankind was able to extract oil, the carbon dioxide that normally goes into the air has multiplied, and this has caused a roof to be formed on the sky from carbon dioxide, and therefore human life is in danger. I was the first person who said that we can use the power of religions to solve this problem. I have also written this point in my book. The Pope has also read it and has now included in his message the text of my speech to send it to the Glasgow meeting. All the heads of religions were invited in this meeting. I was from the Shia religion. Ahmed El-Tayeb was from the Sunnis. Representatives from Different sects of Christianity, Jewism, Buddhism, and in a word, all the religions and sects of the world attended this meeting. Finally, we all signed a text and the Pope gave this text and signatures to the representative of the World Environment Organization so that when the Glasgow meeting is held, the message of the heads of religions will be read there. This was the philosophy behind this year's meeting.
As you mentioned, you have written in the field of environment, including "Environmental Ethics" and "Environmental Theology". As a religious scholar, how did you feel a need to enter the field of environment?
Unfortunately, if we play down our jurisprudential and religious views, we have to argue to the extent that I am only responsible if I harm you, people around me, and my neighbor. However, despite the current human communications, the religious scholar should know that God has assigned a task for him in this regard as well, because today one can harm all humanity by burning oil in their house. We can use theological issues to organize global bioethics. We should not limit ethics to the area of a neighborhood or city. Once upon a time, humans were Bedouins, then they became urban dwellers and achieved civilization, but today they have achieved globalization and have become a family. Fourteen centuries ago, the Holy Qur'an introduced humanity as a single family, where it says, "O mankind! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you nations and tribes".
Islam has two brotherhoods: one is the brotherhood of believers with each other and the other is universal brotherhood, which I have also proposed in my book. We have brotherhood and sisterhood with all human beings. Therefore, we can use the power and leverage of religions and say that consuming too much is haram; polluting water is haram; cutting down forest trees is haram; consuming more than necessary gasoline is haram and so on. I also said in the foregoing meeting that it is stated in the Holy Quran that man should not “corrupt in the earth”. There should not be a narrow interpretation of “corrupt in the earth”. It means that today humans are doing things that have caused problems for life on earth. We are guilty in Qur’anic terms, because we have not been able to introduce it to the world as we should. After my speech at this recent meeting, all the heads of religions came and shook hands with me and said that we should study the Qur’an twice, because I had pointed out what contents exist in the Qur’an in this regard.
As you mentioned, you looked at the issue from the perspective of the Holy Qur’an and your statements were mainly centered on this holy book. As a scholar of Imami jurisprudence, would you explain the view of Imami jurisprudence and existing hadiths in this regard?
In our hadiths, many things have been mentioned on this topic, such as the fact that polluting water was forbidden by the Prophet. The Prophet says that the earth is a mosque and purifier for me. We should not pollute this purifier. The reason why I referred to the Qur'an more in this meeting was that the Qur'an is a definite document. On the other hand, the heads of other religions also referred to their holy books. I also referred to our own holy book, with which many of the audience were also familiar. The hadiths might not be definitive. Due to the limited time available, I preferred to introduce the Qur’an.