LIVING BEINGS IN ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS BIOETHICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Islamic view of bioethics rests on the religious proposition that all creatures have rights, given to them by God, and which humans are obliged to respect. Based on this religious and ethical postulate, Islamic normative and interpretative sources contain many grounds for a compassionate treatment of animals. In Islamic ethical and legal tradition animal rights are better protected than is suggested by the reality of Muslim societies. Although the starting point of the Islamic worldview is a cosmic hierarchy and the gradation of being in which humans hold a superior position in relation to nature and other living beings, their relationship with other creatures is not anthropocentric, but theocentric.