Every Muslim is called upon to protect and deal with nature in a way that will lead to its own protection, as well as to benefit from it.

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It is He Who hath made You (His) agents, inheritors of the Earth,” reads the Qur’an (6:165), in a passage that is interpreted as referring to stewardship. Humans are also cautioned to “Do no mischief on the earth, after it hath been set in order” (7:56)—an order that is divine in nature: “And the earth We have spread out (like a carpet); set thereon mountains firm and immovable; and produced therein all kinds of things in due balance” (15:19).

In consideration of these and other such Qur’anic injunctions, Muhammad’s establishment of the first Muslim hima for the use of his cavalry in the wadi of al-Naqi, near Madinah, set the precedent for all subsequent himas as institutions that are ultimately derived from God. “There is no hima save for God and His Apostle,” reads a famous hadith (saying), often quoted in the literature on the history and practical applicability of himas.

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