EP: 101 - ENVIRONMENT

SEASON 3: Environmental Series

FEBUARARY 5th, 2020

Music: Bensound

Images: Canva.com

Environment and its issues from an Islamic Perspective

There is a lot of discussion on environment and its issues in the West and it seems as if Muslims are no where to be found in the discussion of environment and environmental issues in the current situation.

What is the Muslim community doing in the US and world wide?

Do you think that we face any problems related to the environment? Any at planetary level, national, local and personal level?

I want to start this year 2020 with the topic of Environment and bring multiple perspectives. First is the Muslim Perspective that is crucially needed to be included in our discussions, debates and conversations on this topic.

A well known professor, brahim Özdemir, one of Turkey's most prominent environmentalists, believes that the growing number of Muslim environmentalists can find inspiration for their aggressive campaign against global warming from Islam itself.

He is the  author of The Ethical Dimension of Human Attitude Towards Nature: A Muslim Perspective - I plan to read this and in the process of reading his work published in a journal Acta Via Serica - Vol 2, No. 2, December 2017: 87- 110. Titled Muhammad Iqbal And Environmental Ethics.

He has signed the Premable on Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change according to him, if I correctly recall. I had the opportunity to speak to him last week and planning to have him on this podcast soon. Where we will talk about environment, his work in this area from an Islamic Perspective.

Also, in the meantime, I am in talks with other scholars who will speak on this topic. As you might have gathered from my work in interfaith area, I plan to bring various perspectives on this subject. Hope to include the Native American perspective as well. Let us see if I will be successful in talking to some Native American tribe in the US on this topic.

Coming back to Prof. Ozdemir, “Özdemir notes that the Quran and other religious texts call on Muslims to defend the natural environment, a job more critical now than ever”

"As a village boy, I witnessed with amazement the daily cycle of collecting water from the fountain," recounted Özdemir.

From the article I would like to share a little more about Prof. Ozdemir believes:

While Özdemir left Karapolat to pursue higher education, getting a bachelor’s degree in theology from Ankara University in 1985, he returned to his poverty-stricken hometown after obtaining a doctorate in philosophy from the Middle East Technical University in 1996.

There, he cooperated with Turkish authorities to bring water to Karapolat, fulfilling what he viewed as a responsibility to his people.

As time passed, Özdemir came to hold that all Muslims had a similar duty not only to their peers but also to the natural environment, which he saw as a divine creation.

“From an Islamic perspective, the natural world has value in and of itself and does not exist solely to serve human needs." 

We need to pay closer attention to our environment today not only for us but for our future generations. Our home environment is equally important. Conscious living and conscious parenting is connected to everything we do. Our home, community, school, and food, all are related to how we treat our environment.

Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change is what I will talk about in this podcast and discuss with you.

I believe that equilibrium (mizan) Arabic for this word,  in  our individual lives has everything to do with the equilibrium of our planet. We all are connected and everything has an effect on the other.

We note that the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (UNEP, 2005), backed by over 1300 scientists from 95 countries, found that “overall, people have made greater changes to ecosystems in the last half of the 20th century than at any time in human history... these changes have enhanced human well-being, but have been accompanied by ever increasing degradation (of our environment).”

There are warnings from various scientific communities around the world and we need to pay attention to how we have used and are using natural resources.

So, We affirm that – (in the declaration)=

• God created the earth in perfect equilibrium (mīzān);
• By His immense mercy we have been given fertile land, fresh air, clean water and all the good things on Earth that make our lives here viable and delightful;
• The earth functions in natural seasonal rhythms and cycles: a climate in which living beings – including humans – thrive;
• The present climate change catastrophe is a result of the human disruption of this balance –

He raised the heaven and established the balance so that you would not transgress the balance. Give just weight – do not skimp in the balance. He laid out the earth for all living creatures.

Qur’an 55: 7-10

———-Moreover, the divine law according to which He maintains such precise balance, mutual discipline and order amongst all heavenly bodies placed in the huge outer space, has been set in a way that it never changes.

(8) Similarly, the Qur’an was bestowed on human beings for the purpose of order and discipline that is essential, and one should not vary it even a little.

(9) You should thus maintain this balance with fairness and justice, without differentiating between anybody’s rights and obligations.

(10-12) The necessity to create scales of justice arose because We have not earmarked for individuals separately the things required for nourishing the human body. For example, the means for producing delicious fruits; date palms with sheathed clusters; grain inside husks; and colourful flowers full of fragrance have been provided for all human beings collectively. We have set the Qur’an as a scale for the distribution of these means, so that everyone obtains sustenance according to his needs. (If these permanent guiding principles were not given from God and everything was left to the will of men, then the stronger would have collected and retained everything for themselves while the weak would have been deprived of the necessities of life. This is happening in the world wherever the divine laws are being ignored.) ————-

In the declaration:

We recognize the corruption (fasād) that humans have caused on Earth in our relentless pursuit of economic growth and consumption. Its consequences have been –

• Global climate change, which is our present concern, in addition to:
• Contamination and befoulment of the atmosphere, land, inland water systems, and seas;
• Soil erosion, deforestation and desertification;
• Destruction, degradation, and fragmentation of the habitats of the earth’s communities of life, with devastation of some of the most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems such as rainforests, freshwater wetlands, and coral reefs;
• Impairment of ecosystem benefits and services;
• Introduction of invasive alien species and genetically modified organisms;
• Damage to human health, including a host of modern-day diseases.

Corruption has appeared on land and sea by what people’s own hands have wrought, that He may let them taste some consequences of their deeds, so that they may turn back. Qur’an 30: 41

WE are accountable for everything:

“Then whoever has done an atom’s weight of good, shall see it, and whoever has done an atom’s weight of evil, shall see it.” Qur’an 99: 7-8

The Islamic Declaration on Climate Change also details what Messenger Muhammad (PBUH) has said:

“In view of these considerations we affirm that our responsibility as Muslims is to act according to the example of the Prophet Muhammad (God’s peace and blessings be upon him), who –

Declared and protected the rights of all living beings, outlawed the custom of burying infant girls alive, prohibited wanton killing of living beings for sport, guided his companions to conserve water even in washing for prayer, forbade the felling of trees in the desert, ordered a man who had taken some nestlings from their nest to return them to their mother, and when he came upon a man who had lit a fire on an

anthill, commanded, “Put it out, put it out!”;

• Established inviolable zones (harams) around Makkah and Al-Madinah (cities in the Saudi Arabia), within which native plants may not be felled or cut and wild animals may not be hunted or disturbed;
• Established protected areas (himās) for the conservation and sustainable use of rangelands, plant cover, and wildlife;
• Lived a frugal life, free of excess, waste, and ostentation;
• Renewed and recycled his meagre possessions by repairing or giving them away;
• Ate simple, healthy food, which only occasionally included meat;
• Took delight in the created world; and
• Was, in the words of the Qur’an, “a mercy to all beings.”

Next time I will talk about how the declaration calls upon various communities to bear in mind the importance of our Environment.

The Call is on Well Off Nations, Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and all nations and their leaders and to corporations, finance, and the business sector And call on all Muslims wherever they maybe.

to tackle habits, mindsets, and the root causes of climate change, environmental degradation, and the loss of biodiversity in their particular spheres of influence, following the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him),and bring about a resolution to the challenges that now face us. Allah says in the Qur’an –

Qur’an 17: 37

Do not strut arrogantly on the earth. You will never split the earth apart nor will you ever rival the mountains’ stature.

We bear in mind the words of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): The world is sweet and verdant, and verily Allah has made you stewards in it, and He

sees how you acquit yourselves. Hadīth related by Muslim from Abū Sa‘īd Al-Khudrī)

Thank you,

--

Shua - شعا ع 

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Links:

https://unfccc.int/news/islamic-declaration-on-climate-change