Wudu in the Anthropocene: Reclaiming Ṭahārah–Najāsah as an Islamic Epistemology of Pollution in Indonesia's Environmental Fatwas, 2011–2023

Supriyanto Supriyanto; Kholid Mawardi; Zein Muchamad Masykur

doi:10.55927/eajmr.v5i9.314

Authors

Supriyanto Supriyanto Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Prof. K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri Purwokerto
Kholid Mawardi Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Prof. K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri Purwokerto
Zein Muchamad Masykur Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Prof. K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri Purwokerto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55927/eajmr.v5i9.314

Keywords:

Sustainable Development Goals, Islamic philosophy, Environment, Ṭahārah–Najāsah Epistemology, Indonesian Fatwa Discourse

Abstract

This study asks whether an older, more granular epistemic resource within classical fiqh — the doctrine of ṭahārah–najāsah (ritual purity and impurity), with its finely graded taxonomy of contamination (najis mukhaffafah, mutawassiṭah, and mughallaẓah) — has likewise been mobilised. Using directed qualitative content analysis of the complete corpus of MUI's five national environmental fatwas issued between 2011 and 2023 (on environmentally sound mining, endangered-species conservation, waste management, forest and land fires, and general environmental protection), this study finds that all five rely exclusively on maqāṣid-based reasoning (khalīfah, amānah, maṣlaḥa, darʾ al-mafāsid) and that none invokes technical ṭahārah–najāsah vocabulary, despite its structural affinity with the graded, threshold-based logic of contemporary pollution governance. Building on this empirical finding, the study proposes fiqh al-ṭahārah al-bīʿiyyah (environmental purity jurisprudence) as a complementary, embodied register that could translate abstract maqāṣid principles into graded, everyday ritual practice aligned with SDG 6, 12, 13, 14, and 15.

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