BUILDING SPIRITUAL RESILIENCE FOR MUSLIMS AMID ECOLOGICAL DESTRUCTION:RE-READING OF SURAH AR-RUM VERSE 41 THROUGH ENGAGEMENT WITH ECO-THEOLOGY

Abstract

The escalating ecological crisis of the twenty first century poses a profound challenge not only to the natural world but to the spiritual and psychological wellbeing of Muslim communities disproportionately concentrated in climate vulnerable regions This paper argues that al Rum 30 41 long read by classical exegetes as a diagnosis of moral corruption and its material consequences constitutes a remarkably coherent theological framework for engaging the contemporary ecological crisis Through a qualitative approach combining tafsir mawdui and contextual hermeneutics the paper pursues three objectives reinterpreting the verse as a theological diagnosis of anthropogenic ecological destruction placing this reinterpretation in dialogue with Islamic eco theology and deriving from this dialogue a framework of spiritual resilience for contemporary Muslims The analysis demonstrates that the verses four part structure acknowledgement of fasad attribution of causality to human agency experience of consequence and the divine summons of yarjiun maps with precision onto the core concepts of Islamic eco theology tawhid khalifah mizan and amanah The resulting framework of spiritual resilience encompasses honest acknowledgement ecological tawbah the virtues of sabr and tawakkul and collective action rooted in communal institutions This framework equips Muslims to confront ecological destruction not with fatalism or despair but with theologically grounded hope and purposeful agency Keywords eco theology al Rum 41 spiritual resilience ecological crisis