Religion and life
Islamic Studies · GCSE · The School
Stewardship, not ownership
In 2:30 Allah tells the angels He is placing a KHALIFAH — a successor, or steward — on the earth. Islamic ethics builds the idea of accountability for the earth on that placing together with the wider teaching that people answer for what they are given. 55:7–9 adds the MIZAN: Allah raised the sky and set the balance, and tells people not to exceed it but to weigh with justice. The Prophet ﷺ taught that planting a tree from which a person, bird or animal eats counts as charity, and warned against wasting water even at a flowing river. Environmental care is therefore a religious duty in Islam, not a modern add-on to it.
Animals
Animals are described in the Quran as communities like ourselves (6:38). The Prophet ﷺ told of a woman punished over a cat she confined until it died, and of a man forgiven for giving water to a thirsty dog. Slaughter for food is permitted but regulated — the animal must not see the blade sharpened or another animal killed, and the act must be swift. Muslims differ on modern practices such as stunning, and on whether some scientific testing on animals can be justified by the benefit.
The sanctity of life
The Quran states that saving one life is like saving all of humanity (5:32), and life is one of the five things the higher aims of the law exist to protect. From that starting point Muslims reason about difficult cases: the great majority hold abortion to be prohibited except where the mother's life is endangered, with scholars differing on other circumstances and on timing; euthanasia is rejected by the overwhelming majority, while withdrawing futile treatment is widely accepted as different from ending a life. These are questions for a qualified scholar and a doctor together, not for a lesson page — what a lesson can do is set out the reasoning accurately.
A woman was punished over a cat she confined until it died, having neither fed it nor let it find food for itself. And a man who found a thirsty dog at a well filled his shoe with water for it and was forgiven. Put them side by side: the same principle in both directions, and neither animal was of any use to the person involved. That is what khalifah as a TRUST means, made concrete.