Bridging the Existential Gap Toward an Islamic Eco-Spiritual Synthesis of Phenomenology and Deep Ecology

Abstract

The ecological crisis is commonly described through technical vocabularies of emissions, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and conservation policy. This article argues that such a description is necessary but philosophically insufficient, because ecological breakdown also discloses an existential dislocation: the loss of dwelling, the erosion of ecological identity, and the desacralization of nature as a meaningful cosmos. Using a philosophical-hermeneutic method, the study analyzes selected texts in phenomenology, deep ecology, contemporary eco-anxiety research, and Islamic philosophical-spiritual thought. The article develops an integrated relational ontology that connects three levels of diagnosis: modern enframing turns nature into standing-reserve; anthropocentrism narrows moral community and ecological selfhood; and secular-immanent ethics often lacks a transcendent ground for restraint, responsibility, and reverence. Islamic eco-spirituality, especially the concepts of āyāh, amānah, khilāfah, mīzān, tazkiyah, and the metaphysics of tajallī and tashkīk al-wujūd, is then proposed as a normative-metaphysical grammar for ecological recovery. The study also critically notes that Islamic concepts do not automatically produce ecological transformation without pedagogy, institutions, and social practice. By engaging in recent studies on climate emotion, ecological literacy, eco-pesantren, and religious environmental education, the article shows how metaphysical vision can be translated into communal formation. It concludes that ecological restoration requires more than policy correction. It requires existential conversion toward relational dwelling, moral humility, and spiritually grounded responsibility for the more-than-human community.

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