By Dr. Spahic Omer
Islam is a comprehensive religion and a way of life. It came to raze people’s erring living patterns and furnish them with such as are based upon the heavenly paradigm instead. The Islamic theory of urban planning and development is as old as the Muslim community. Its fundamental principles have been comprehensively laid in the Holy Qur’an as well as in the sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) . Certainly, the best manifestation of the earliest planning and urbanization in Islam was the establishment of the Muslim community in the Prophet’s city of Madinah in the wake of the migration from Makkah in 622 A.C.
In this paper, I shall identify and examine the most relevant lessons in urban planning and development which Prophet Muhammad under the aegis of revelation has bequeathed to us. Since Muhammad was the last Messenger of God to mankind, such lessons Muslims regard as universal and timeless. Central to the paper will be the following issues: (1) the philosophy of the city, (2) the necessity of providing adequate social amenities for all, (3) peaceful and accountable co-existence with the natural environment, (4) housing, (5) the idea of the market (economy). By exploring these subjects, the strength and soundness of the fundamentals of Islam, as well as of the first Muslim community, will clearly come into sight, as will the visionary disposition of Prophet Muhammad to sustainable development and urbanization, which can benefit not only Muslims but also non-Muslims, especially at the present when beleaguered man readily searches for any source, kind and degree of inspiration so as to save what could be saved of the ravaged planet earth.
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