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Environmental law is not a science merely related to the experimental sciences and engineering. Ideology and the way to describe ‘man’s relationship with the universe’ possess a fundamental role in policy-making for the environment. All possible measures towards the environment fall into three areas: values (policymaking principles), requirements (rights and duties), and methods (executive methods, technical engineering measures). Values and requirements are mainly discussed in Islamic environmental law. Methods are also explained in Islam to some extent; however, the nature of methods is the scientific and experimental measures. The present study was conducted using a descriptive-analytical method with a library data collection procedure. Through examining the foundations of monotheistic ontology and relying on the principle of the substantive movement, this study investigated ideological bases, policy-making principles, and jurisprudential rules and regulations concerning the protection and exploitation of the environment. They constitute the three structural layers of the general theory of Islamic environmental law. According to the monotheistic worldview, man is a part of the creation system as well as God’s vicegerent on the earth. For the good of man’s succession, a coordinated and network-like set of rights and duties have been established. God has ordered the balance in the environment and the whole system of creation as a sign of His wisdom and blessing, and any action disturbing this balance is a violation of divine commands and the rights of other creatures and human beings. It is from this principle that one finds the obligation of maintaining environmental health and preventing its pollution. The principle of policy-making is the second layer of Islamic environmental law. It determines guidelines for developing regulations and executive guarantees of Islamic environmental law whose most important ones are the following: ‘the environment and natural resources are trusts at the disposal of human beings’, the entitlement of inhuman elements, the purposefulness of development based on the principle of human succession, environmental justice, sovereignty and universality of the environment, limitation of human power, the principle of environmental caution, and network priority. The third layer of Islamic law is the environment, rules, and regulations. The decrees of jurisprudence are those macro-rules that determine some do's and don'ts in environmental laws and possess a superstructure relationship with foundations and principles. The most important of them include forbiddance of extravagance, forbiddance of oppression over other creatures, observance of expediency, the obligation of environmental commanding to good and forbiddance of evil, and forbiddance of disrupting the social system in the whole system of creation. These rules form the indispensable laws. It is noteworthy that some of these rules or principles such as the principle of precaution or the rights of other creatures to a healthy environment are being planned in international environmental or human rights documents and treaties, such as the Rio or Stockholm Declaration, while these concepts are present in the bases of Islamic environmental laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]