Developing the earth:
First: the linguistic meaning of development.
Ibn Faris (d. 395 AH) said under the root ‘-m-r in Maqayis al-Lughah: “The letters ayn, mim and ra’ have two sound roots. One denotes remaining and extension in time; the other denotes something rising, whether a sound or something else. The first includes umr, life, also pronounced amr… It is said: amira al-nas, meaning that people’s lives became long, and that God, glorious is His praise, prolonged their lives. This root includes the development of the earth: one says that people developed the earth, that they inhabit and develop it, and that it is inhabited and developed. Their expression amirah is based on the intransitive form ‘the earth became inhabited’, and ma‘murah on the passive ‘it was inhabited’. The noun and verbal noun are umran. God settled people on the earth so that they would develop it. This whole branch returns to that meaning. The other branch is awmarah: shouting and clamour. A man is said to have i‘tamara when he raises his voice to enter the minor pilgrimage, that is, raises his voice with its devotional call.”
Second: the technical meaning of developing the earth.
Scholars in the past and present have used this term, and it has spread widely in contemporary Islamic discourse. Its meaning must therefore be established according to what its user intends. A single term may be used with different meanings. This is the case here: by tracing its use among scholars, thinkers and contemporary writers, we have identified the following meanings.
First: developing the earth means agriculture, industry, building, and everything else people need to ease their lives and improve their livelihoods. Al-Jassas (370 AH) used the expression in this sense in Ahkam al-Qur’an [Surah Hud: 62], as did many scholars. It is a correct usage and presents no difficulty. Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baz (d. 1420 AH), explaining the wisdom of prohibiting usury, said: “Because owners of wealth rely on usury to increase it and leave idle many useful, beneficial projects, including various industries, development of the earth and other beneficial kinds of work.”
Second: developing the earth may be synonymous with the juristic term “reviving dead land”: cultivating, reclaiming and inhabiting it. This meaning is close to the first. Al-Razi (d. 606 AH) said in his Exegesis [al-Baqarah: 255]: “Developing ruined land is called reviving dead land.” Ibn Ashur said in his Exegesis [al-Rum: 9]: “Developing the earth means making it inhabited rather than empty, through building, planting and cultivation.”
Third: developing the earth may exceed the level of need mentioned in the first and second meanings, through excessive building, industrial expansion, attachment to luxuries, and extravagance in pleasures and desires. It thus becomes a race for material gains, urban development, progress in modern inventions, services and means of comfort and luxury. This conception predominates in Western civilisation; indeed, it is among its most important characteristics, governing its concerns and priorities. The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “It is not poverty that I fear for you. Rather, I fear that worldly abundance will be opened to you as it was opened to those before you, that you will compete for it as they competed for it, and that it will destroy you as it destroyed them.” Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
Fourth: developing the earth may mean the presence of living creatures upon it. God populated the highest heavens with angels and the earth with humans and jinn; the absence of life is incompatible with habitation. This meaning can be derived from Ibn Ajibah’s (d. 1224 AH) usage in his Exegesis [Surah al-Baqarah: 30]. It also appears in the statement of Mahmud al-Naysaburi, who died after 550 AH, in Ijaz al-Bayan an Ma‘ani al-Qur’an concerning God’s words, “He settled you upon it” [Hud: 61]: “He made you its inhabitants. This indicates that God desires habitation of the earth, not celibate withdrawal.” That is because celibacy cuts off reproduction, leading to the extinction of the human species.
Fifth: developing the earth may mean worshipping God, obeying His command, following His law and establishing His religion. This is the meaning intended by those who interpret God’s appointment of Adam as a successor on earth as a vicegerency on behalf of God. Al-Baydawi (d. 685 AH) said in his commentary on al-Baqarah, verse 30: “A khalifah is one who succeeds another and acts in his place; its final ha’ is intensive. Adam, peace and blessings be upon him, is intended, because he was God’s vicegerent on His earth. Likewise, God appointed every prophet to develop the earth, govern people, perfect their souls and carry out His command among them.” Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi (d. 745 AH), commenting on the same verse, also said: “There are two opinions about the task in which Adam was appointed successor. The first is judgement with truth and justice. The second is developing the earth: cultivating, harvesting, building and making rivers flow.”
The usage of some contemporary scholars is close to this. Having heard the term frequently, they understood it in light of what was established for them concerning the purpose of creation, without noticing what those popularising it in this age intended. For example, Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Ghunayman, a contemporary scholar, says in his Commentary on Fath al-Majid, recorded lessons: “Developing the earth consists in worshipping God, glorious and exalted is He, following His revelation and avoiding His prohibitions.” In the usage of contemporary philosophers and thinkers, however, this meaning is either not intended at all or not intended primarily and in its own right.
Sixth: developing the earth may mean that which opposes injustice, corruption, destruction and ruin. God says: “When it is said to them, ‘Do not spread corruption on the earth’, they say, ‘We are only reformers’” [al-Baqarah: 11]; “Do not spread corruption on the earth after it has been put right” [al-A‘raf: 56 and 85]; “Would you then, if you turned away, spread corruption on the earth and sever your family ties?” [Muhammad: 22]; and “Among people is one whose speech about worldly life pleases you, and who calls God to witness what is in his heart, though he is the fiercest of adversaries. When he turns away, he strives throughout the land to spread corruption and destroy crops and offspring, and God does not love corruption” [al-Baqarah: 204-205]. These conditions, which God forbade and whose perpetrators He condemned, are opposed by developing the earth through monotheism, obedience, righteousness, excellence, goodness, rectitude and reform. God says: “O you who believe, bow, prostrate, worship your Lord and do good, so that you may prosper” [al-Hajj: 77]; and “Let there be among you a community calling to goodness” [Al Imran: 104]. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “If the Hour arrives while one of you holds a sapling, and he can plant it before it comes, let him plant it.” Reported by al-Bukhari in Al-Adab al-Mufrad, no. 479.
Seventh: maintaining mosques, mentioned in God’s words, “Only those who believe in God and the Last Day, establish prayer, give the obligatory alms and fear none but God maintain God’s mosques. It is they who may be among the rightly guided” [al-Tawbah: 18], means both physical maintenance through foundation and construction and spiritual maintenance through attending for worship. Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH) said in Zad al-Masir: “There are two opinions about the intended meaning of maintenance: first, entering and sitting in it; second, building and repairing it.”
The relationship of this term to studies of the interpretation of Islam:
There is nothing objectionable in the form or meaning of this term itself. Caution is required, however, regarding its use by many contemporary thinkers and writers for either of the following purposes.
First: using it in the third sense mentioned above, the Western material conception. By this they mean that material progress, urban development and industrial expansion are the objective and end of human activity, and the measure of the development of individuals, society and the state, and their advancement through the stages of urbanity and civilisation.
Among the consequences is condemning Muslims’ circumstances, denouncing and disparaging them, and pronouncing woe and ruin upon them. Some may even prefer unbelievers and atheists to Muslims and admire their circumstances and ways of life. This contradicts the explicit condemnation of unbelievers and polytheists in God’s Book, and its censure of them despite their material capabilities. God says: “Have they not travelled through the earth and seen the fate of those before them? They were stronger than them, tilled the earth and developed it more than these have developed it. Their messengers came to them with clear proofs. God did not wrong them, but they wronged themselves” [al-Rum: 9]. In contrast, God praises believers even when they are poor, needy, oppressed and detached from the world and its adornment. In the account of Noah, peace be upon him, and his people, they mocked his oppressed followers, saying: “We see that none have followed you but the lowest among us, without reflection.” God reports his answer: “O my people, I ask you for no wealth for it. My reward is only with God. I will not drive away those who believe; they will meet their Lord, but I see that you are an ignorant people. O my people, who would protect me from God if I drove them away? Will you not take heed? I do not tell you that I possess God’s treasuries, nor do I know the unseen, nor do I say that I am an angel. Nor do I say of those whom your eyes despise that God will never grant them good. God knows best what is within them. If I did, I would certainly be among the wrongdoers” [Hud: 29-31].
God, mighty and majestic, addressed His noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: “Keep yourself patiently with those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His face. Do not let your eyes pass beyond them, seeking the adornment of worldly life. Do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance, who follows his desire and whose affairs are in excess” [al-Kahf: 28].
Note: Islamic writers, thinkers and preachers differ in the degree to which this idea and tendency influence them. Many do not fully adopt or adhere to this Western approach and may even criticise it. Yet they have taken and approved something of its substance, so that they incline towards parts of it in some statements and interpretations of religious questions. The intention is not to equate someone affected by material and worldly interpretations in a few or many questions with someone who has made this world his chief concern, the limit of his knowledge and his ultimate pursuit. God has assigned every thing its proper measure.
Second: making development of the earth, whether in the sense of meeting needs or in the Western material sense, the latter being more common and widespread, the purpose of creation, prophethood, the prophetic message, Islamic law and worship; and claiming that whoever neglects or falls short in developing the earth has neglected or fallen short in God’s religion. This is the usage that is wholly blameworthy: the political interpretation of Islam. In its reality, it converges with the creed of extremist esoteric philosophers such as al-Farabi and Ibn Sina. It radically distorts the reality of Islam and its overarching objectives, misdirects the Muslim concerning the intention and purpose of his faith and worship, embellishes competition and struggle for worldly life and destruction in its valleys, and presents this deviation and misguidance as working for Islam, succession on earth and establishing God’s religion: “Say: shall We tell you whose deeds entail the greatest loss? Those whose efforts go astray in worldly life while they suppose that they are doing good. They are those who disbelieve in their Lord’s signs and in meeting Him; their deeds come to nothing, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall assign them no weight.” God is the guide to truth and correctness.