ABSTRACT
Ethics is a “normative science of the conduct of human beings,” one that judges their “conduct to be right or wrong, to be good or bad or in some similar way” [32,36].
e word ethics is derived from the Greek and Latin to mean character and customs, or a “way of life.” Islam instructs Muslims to “live by” God’s commands in everything that they do; hence, Islam is intended to reach beyond the individual person and the mosque to guide and inform everything pious Muslims do whether they are political, economic, environmental, social, or other activities. Islamic water ethics can be dened as those direct and indirect interactions people have with actual
or virtual water resources that are consistent with the teachings of Islam and humans’ role on Earth as a khalifah or vicegerent, and masters on Earth, not of Earth [5,6]. Because ethics is part of culture and shapes society’s values and principles, especially when it comes to human’s relationship with water and nature at large, decision makers should incorporate local cultural values when craing water policy, whether it pertains to pollution or conservation of freshwater or reuse of wastewater.
