Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

Environmental crises are one of the major challenges that human community is facing. Different schools have expressed different solutions to solve these crises, for example: Conservationism, Preservationism, Social Ecology, Animal Rights, Land Ethic, Ecofeminism, Stwardship, Sustainable Development etc. Sustainable development is a recent solution of human society proposed in response to inappropriate human exploitation of the environment. Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report: «Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world›s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment›s ability to meet present and future needs.»

All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a system that connects space; and a system that connects time. In the extensive discussion and use of the concept since then, there has generally been a recognition of three aspects of sustainable development: Economic: An economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and to avoid extreme sectoral imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production. Environmental: An environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base, avoiding over-exploitation of renewable resource systems or environmental sink functions, and depleting non-renewable resources only to the extent that investment is made in adequate substitutes. This includes maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability, and other ecosystem functions not ordinarily classed as economic resources. Social: A socially sustainable system must achieve distributional equity, adequate provision of social services including health and education, gender equity, and political accountability and participation.

However, there are still environmental crises and pollutions in the world, and failure to fulfill its goals would be owing to the roots and fundamental view of this approach to the human and environment as well as the relationship between human and the environment. Therefore «Human» should be studied in Western Philosophy.

Islam Religion has also recommended specific procedures for the use of nature and human relationships with it. The Holy Quran, The Sunnah, wisdom and Consensus are four fundamental sources of rules and laws. They contain provisions on how to best handle the environment and ensure sustainable development. God Almighty made all other creatures and blessings in the universe (e.g., water, air, animals, plants, inanimate creatures, the earth, sun, moon) accessible to human beings. That means that human beings are entitled to utilize and search for these resources to build their own lives and the universe, in accordance with God’s instructions.

Methodology

This article compares these two thoughts (Sustainable Development of Islamic religion) through a descriptive-analytical method. The methodology of this research is descriptive-analytical. The present article first investigates the relationship between human and the environment during classic era (Ancient) and Middle Ages and also its evolution to the Modern Ages and then, implies to the Sustainable development and its characteristics. Next, human and the environment are defined in Islamic philosophy and texts, and the relationship between them will be also explained. Finally, the relationship between human and the environment will be compared under these two thoughts.

Results

It has been shown in the present research that changing in the concept of human and the replacement of human with God in the Universe is one of the causes of environmental crises. The solution to overcome this problem is changing the people’s attitude to the concept and position of modern human. Sustainable development accepts the so called definition of Human during Renaissance, and then focuses on the sketchy concepts regardless of the causes of these crises. Sustainable development wants to fight against the pollution and environmental degradation through those ruling patterns causes such environment for human, and wants to get the help of the same methods and procedures of destructive development.

Thus, From the perspective of Islam, nature is a living existent, intelligent with reason; although it has been created for human, but human is not allowed to use it all that wish, because it is trusted to human and human, as the “Steward of God” must be trustee to the other creations of God and do all its assignments. While the focus of sustainable development is regarding the fact that nature is a place for the growth and development of human and it must be also used by the next generations. Meaning that, nature is not respectable by itself, but also it is important due to its function. This is why it is not clear how to use it and human community has different interpretations of exploitation of the nature, since there are different views on the human prosperity and development. The results show that there is a need to the revolution and changing conceptions of human and also re-illustrate nature and human relationships to resolve these crises. The place of nature and human within the universe must also be revised.

Urban development plans define the process of planning for urban improvement based on both Islamic regulations and substantial principals of urbanism. The rights of private ownership are basically emphasized in Iranian constitution. Attempts of urban redevelopment plans are inherently in contrast with the private rights of ownership. 

Rules and regulations governing the urban systems are considered as a common point of Legal Studies and Planning. On the other hand, urban system as one of key elements of the relationship between the state and the nation regulates the proportionality between people and public based on private low and public low.

In this sense explaining the precise view of private ownership and public interest in the process of planning for urban re-development is the necessity that needs the interaction of these two main aspects of urban studies.

In order to understand the structural and substantial aspects of public interest and private ownership is in parallel with the questioning about the balance between private and public rights in the urban planning process. The right to the city is in no conflict with other civil rights in its truss sense, but there are some constraints and weaknesses in the definition of the nature and explanation of this right on the one hand, and its interaction with other, which has some consequences for urban development plans and programs on public scale and in the contax of urban regeneration measures on particular scale.

This research applied the qualitative approach and the analytical-interpretative methods. The methodology is based on the process that analysis and interpret the regulations of acquisition under the logical strategy.

These regulations are measured regarding seven elements of “constitution, civic laws, public interest, private ownership right, urban rights, justice and performance”.There are 76 indicators derived from these 7 elements among them the most compatible, conflicting and ambiguous ones are selected. In this analysis the weaknesses and constraints of these regulations are explained.

This output guides the researchers to propose the new approach in studying the urban regulations which could meet the needs of multiple interests and could lead to compatibility of interests in public and private sphere which is one of the critical goals of urban planning systems

The indicators of ownership and public interest are the most compatible ones in the regulative contexts. Also, the indicators of regulative process, administrative systems and implementation costs, are the most ambiguous ones.

For the most important conflicts between the goals of the right to the city and process of “Urban regeneration measures, we can refer to neglect to” private property rights. Rights to private space is the right that gives meaning to the living of residents in city. But the right to the city may not only be achieved, but injustice also manifests itself more in urban spaces when measure for urban regeneration forbids residents from the right to space with an aim to realize the right to the city, let the property right the residents remain at the periphery.

The rights of ownership, social participation, public interests and private ownership right are the most conflicting ones which challenge the redevelopment actions in urban planning systems

The result of the research ends in the mechanisms analyzing the procedural and regulative aspects of acquisition regulation. The research aims to enrich the concept and position of the right to the city by probing into imam Ali highway project from two aspects, property right and the right to city and parallel with it, it aims to define property on the hand and balance the existing conflict between property right and the right to the city, thus the research has a qualitative nature and approach and mainly rests on a critical analysis, in that using logical argumentation it analysis and investigates the position of the two concepts”the righto the city” and “property right” in the process of urban regeneration measures, both in terms of a case study(imam Ali highway in Atabak and Minaee neighborhoods) and documentary studies.

To recognize the structure of public and private law in the urban system of the country it is necessary to answer the question “what is the entity of the urban rules and regulations of country in the light of Islamic laws and regulations?” the methodology of research based on the system interpretation of the urbanization of the country is in order of governing on the legal sources.

This analysis is qualitative and determined using Logical reasoning technique and documentary studies method. Analysis of the actors of the private and public spaces of cities on the one hand and the redefinition of the public and private rights in the legal order of country on the other hand, guides us to the new pattern and approach regarding the rights of urban studies. This approach, by providing multiple needs and Compatibility varied interests between the private and public spheres, leads to the manifestation of civil rights ideals.With the applicable proposals, the balance between public and private interests is facilitated and these findings could lead to the sustainable interaction between these two critical and conflicting aspects of urban redevelopment actions.