Accounting Forum 30 (2006) 245–265 Islam, nature and accounting: Islamic principles and the notion of accounting for the environment Rania Kamla a,* , Sonja Gallhofer b , Jim Haslam b a University of Aberdeen Business School, Edward Wright Building, Dunbar Street, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3QY, Scotland, UK b Department of Accountancy and Business Finance, 1 Perth Road, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK Abstract Islamic principles are suggestive of a variety of implications for governance and accounting. Reflecting upon Islamic principles, we here engage with the notion of accounting for the environment. Drawing from key Islamic texts and relevant prior literature, we elaborate and discuss key Islamic principles of relevance and delineate what they suggest for accounting. Our endeavours here are consistent with a concern to contribute to a critical theoretical project seeking to develop a progressive and emancipatory universalism that is respectful of difference, a project with its accounting implications. In concluding, we point, among other things, to the irony whereby Western transnational corporations have sought to promote their particular brand of corporate social (and environmental) responsibility accounting in Arab countries, variously influenced by Islam, with little to no mention of a notion of accounting for the environment integral to and deeply rooted in Islam. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction ‘Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day, are Signs for people of inward understanding who remember Allah, standing and seated, and upon their sides, and ponder as to the creation of the heavens and the earth: Our Lord! Not for naught didst thou create this ...’ (Quran 3: 190-191). 1 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: r.kamla@abdn.ac.uk (R. Kamla), s.gallhofer@dundee.ac.uk (S. Gallhofer), j.haslam@dundee.ac.uk (J. Haslam). 1 We use a number of translations of the Quran and Islamic texts in the paper so as to convey the best sense of the Arabic in English for our purposes. Details are available on request. 0155-9982/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.accfor.2006.05.003