LA DARARA WA LA DIRAR: ISLAMIC ENVIRONMENTAL JURISPRUDENCE AND SANITATION IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Abstract

Environmental degradation in Southwest Nigeria, driven by rapid urbanisation, industrial effluents, and deteriorating sanitation infrastructure, demands frameworks that resonate with the cultural and religious values of affected communities. While policy and technological interventions have received sustained scholarly attention, the jurisprudential resources of Islamic legal thought remain largely unexplored in environmental discourse. This paper appraises the Islamic legal maxim La Darara wa La Dirar (“no harm shall be inflicted or reciprocated”) as a foundational framework for environmental sanitation and protection in Muslim communities in Southwest Nigeria. Employing a qualitative doctrinal methodology, the study undertakes a systematic textual analysis of primary Islamic sources, the Quran, authenticated Hadith literature, and classical Fiqh scholarship, to establish the maxim's normative scope and environmental applicability. The paper argues that La Darara wa La Dirar, one of the five foundational principles of Islamic legal theory, provides a robust theological and ethical basis for environmental responsibility, rendering any act of environmental degradation a form of darar (harm) expressly prohibited under Islamic law. The study further demonstrates how this maxim intersects with the Quranic concept of Khilafah, humanity's stewardship of the earth, to generate a comprehensive Islamic environmental ethics applicable to contemporary sanitation challenges in the region. The paper concludes that integrating Islamic jurisprudential principles into environmental policy and community sanitation frameworks in Muslim-majority societies in Southwest Nigeria can yield outcomes that are more culturally resonant and sustained than purely secular approaches.