A Prophetic Model of Sustainable Urbanism for an Ideal Islamic State like Pakistan: Perspectives from Non-Muslim Western Scholars

Abstract

The Islamic concept of an ideal state emphasizes sustainable urbanism as an essential component of societal well-being. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), in his governance of Medina, championed principles of sustainable urbanism, urging Muslims to adopt measures such as equitable resource distribution, environmental preservation and social cohesion, while highlighting the significance of planting trees, conserving water and maintaining public welfare. By referencing Surah Al-Baqarah (2:205) and Surah AlA’raf (7:31), this study investigates the premise that the modern terminology surrounding “sustainable urbanism”, claimed to have been inaugurated by Susan Owens of Cambridge University (UK), has, in fact, been inherited from the Quran and the clear Prophetic examples demonstrated during his governance of Medina.

Not only Muslims, but numerous non-Muslim Western scholars, such as Markus Daechsel (2015), Stefan Maneval (2019) and Francois Gauthier & Birgit Krawietz (2024), have also acknowledged this historical fact. Hence, by utilizing David Harvey’s Theory of Urban Justice and postmodernism as theoretical frameworks, this study examines how occidentalist concepts of Ideal or Welfare state such as Brusselization, Californication, Hyper-Cognitive Urbanism and Vancouverism reflect pure Islamic urban philosophy, specifically as addressed by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Simultaneously, this study also identifies the roots of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the Prophetic model, as derived from the Quran, for an ideal Muslim state like Pakistan.