Investigating the role of religious beliefs of people interacting with the environment: A case of Iranian students at Muslim universities

Nature and the environment are two domains that have an essential relationship with the human worldly life. These two domains, which have always been in the daily lives of people, with wonder, spectacle and marvel, have absorbed human beings to either adore and admire or attempt voraciously to halter them. In the perspective of Islam, environments, which include animals, plants and objects, have specific rights and respect. To faithful and believing humans, it is advised to observe and respect these rights. In addition, Islam’s viewpoint of the universe is that human beings are the best creation of the world with an intimate relationship with other creations of the cosmos, and the sole way to grasp God’s glory is to observe the rights of all creations. So, many spiritual and divine growth and positions have been eliminated just by a bit of tyranny. It is acceptable and accurate that the Almighty subdued nature for humankind who is God’s representative in this world, but it does not mean that humans have the freedom to behave in any way. Humankind is responsible for interacting with all creations and with God as well. He or she must accept and respect the Almighty’s willingness to live peacefully with other parts of nature. In other words, humanity as the successor of the Lord on earth must invariably protect and save nature and the environment. With a look at the different forms of destructions and detriments to the environment, which are caused by humans and have endured various losses of life and environmental and economic damages, such as famine, drought, desertification, decrease of water reserves and endangered plant and animal species, one can realise the significance of this research which is an attempt to seek a solution to such problems from religious Undoubtedly, environmental damage is one of the most important challenges facing contemporary human beings. This is important because the signs that threaten this damage have now become apparent, threatening humans with widespread environmental pollution. On the other hand, humanity will not be able to live a normal life without a safe and healthy environment. Therefore, preservation and protection of the environment, as the most important basic needs of survival, are considered by everyone, including researchers. As a consequence, various studies aim to identify the factors that play a role in how humans and the environment interact. To this end, the present study considered the comprehensiveness of Islam and paid attention to all human needs, and intended to examine the role of religious beliefs on how to interact with the environment. It is worth mentioning that the statistical population of this study comprised 387 Iranian Muslim students (from different Islamic religions) from different universities in Iran. After the distribution of standardised research questionnaires whose validity and reliability was confirmed, the collected data were analysed by statistical software. Finally, the results concluded the following: (1) The investigated statistical population pledged and bonded to religious instructions, (2) the investigated statistical population had an appropriate interaction with the environment and (3) the obligation and pledge to religious beliefs had a positive and significant role in people interacting with the environment so that people with strong religious beliefs had a more appropriate interaction with the environment, in opposition to people with less religious beliefs whose interaction with the environment was not apt.