The Quran Speaks: Protect the Environment- It is Now or...
By Aiman Reyaz, New Age Islam
31 March 2012
“It is He who made you successors on the earth and raises some of you above others in ranks, to test you through what He gives you. O Prophet, your Lord is swift in punishment, yet He is most Forgiving and Merciful.” (The Quran 6:165)
Not only is our planet depleting, it is depleting very fast. In 4,500 million years, our Earth has gone through many changes. Now it is changing once again and the changes are faster than ever. But this time the major push for change is being brought about by us, humans.
We are causing our world to heat up, to get damaged, and to get polluted. If the same rate of change continues for only a few more years then our generation and the generation after us will have to deal with tremendous and catastrophic changes. The ‘lungs of the earth’- the Amazon forests can burn and wither; the vast oceans can turn acid, leading to deaths of billions of living creatures; the Arctic and the Antarctic could melt leading to a dangerous rise in the water level, causing millions to migrate; and their famous and exotic animals could extinct forever.
How perfectly God has described the above situation:
“Corruption doth appear on land and sea because of (the evil) which men’s hands have done, that He may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return”. (The Quran 30:41)
God is telling us that the “evil” which we, humans have done, have to bear the burden of it. The only way to solve the crisis is to make personal changes. God does not love those who go against the set “natural” order.
“Call unto your Sustainer humbly, and in the secrecy of your hearts. Verily, He loves not those who transgress the bounds of what is right: hence, do no spread corruption and mischief on earth after it has been so well ordered.” (The Quran 7:55-56)
Scientists are telling us that our world will warm between 1.4 and 5.8 degree Celsius in the next century. What this means is that the impact of climate change will be somewhere between “severe and catastrophic”, according to David Attenborough.
One of the major reasons for this situation is lavish living and huge amount of waste generated by us. According to John Vogler, “if everyone were to enjoy the current lifestyle of the developed countries, more than three additional plants would be required.”
God does not want us to transgress the limits set by Him. He wants us to follow the “middle-most” path and not the path of “extremes”. If we continue to be extreme in our way of living then the nature, too, will compensate or balance itself by yielding things in an extreme way. In one part of the world there will be massive rain, in some other part there will be forest-fires. We need to change now before it is too late.
“O Children of Adam! Beautify yourselves for every act of worship, and eat and drink freely, but do not waste: verily, He does not love the wasteful!”(And according to Abdel Haleem’s translation the word used is “extravagant” instead of “wasteful”.) (The Quran 7:31)
God says:
“For it is He who has brought wild and the date-palm, and fields bearing multiform produce, and the olive tree, and the pomegranate: all resembling one another and yet so different! Eat of their fruit when it comes to fruition, and give unto the poor their due on harvest day. And do not waste God’s bounties: verily, He does not love the wasteful!” (The Quran 6:141)
Half of carbon dioxide (the main culprit, after humans behind all this) comes from domestic activities. If only we can alter it, and make our lives a little more refined then we will be able to do a great service to our mother nature.
In the developed nations, an average family needs huge amount of electric power, which comes from the energy grid, powered primarily from fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas. The lifestyle of theirs is such that they are the most energy-hungry people of the planet. An average car of theirs emits 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The Prophet said:
“The world is a beautiful and verdant, and verily God, be He exalted, had made you His stewards in it, and He sees how you acquit yourselves.”
According to the theory of the ‘Tragedy of the commons’, given by Garrett Hardin, there is a tussle between self-interest and public benefit. There is a conflict between individual and collective interest. The first law of Hardin’s theory states that you ‘cannot do only one thing’. Ecology is in interconnected field, so nothing happens in exclusion, everything happens at a bigger level. Ecological systems are deeply interconnected; hence one action done at one place may lead to a certain (almost unknown) reaction at another place.
We are the protectors of this earth and we will be asked regarding it.
“And thereupon We made you their successors on earth, so that We might behold how you act”.(The Quran 10:14)
In Islam instead of giving personal attention, if we give more attention to the public welfare then it will be counted as a charity.
“If a Muslim plants a tree or cultivates a crop, then whenever a bird or a man or an animal eats from it, it will be considered as a charity for him”.
And it is also said: “There is a reward for service to every living creature.”
One of the most famous saying of the Prophet is about planting a seed, even if the end is near:
“If the Hour occurs and one of you is holding a seed in his hand, then if he can sow it before the Hour occurs, he should do so.”
All these acts of public welfare have high value in Islam. The best thing we can do to save our planet is to plant trees and the Prophet (pbuh) encouraged us to do it. There are numerous verses in the Quran which says that the earth was dead and with rain He produces life therein.
“And He it is who has caused waters to come down from the sky; and by this means have We brought forth all living growth, and out of this have We brought forth verdure. Out of this do We bring forth close-growing grain; and out of the spathe of the palm tree, dates in thick clusters; and gardens of vines, and the olive tree, and the pomegranate: [all] so alike, and yet so different! Behold their fruit when it comes to fruition and ripens! Verily, in all this there are messages indeed for people who will believe!”(The Quran 6:99)
“For it is He who has brought into being gardens-[both] the cultivated ones and those growing wild -and the date-palm, and fields bearing multiform produce, and the olive tree, and the pomegranate: [all] resembling one another and yet so different! Eat of their fruit when it comes to fruition, and give [unto the poor] their due on harvest day. And do not waste [God's bounties]: verily, He does not love the wasteful!” (The Quran 6:141)
“It is He who sends down water from the skies; you drink thereof, and thereof [drink] the plants upon which you pasture your beasts;[and] by virtue thereof He causes crops to grow for you, and olive trees, and date palms, and grapes, and all [other] kinds of fruit: in this, behold, there is a message indeed for people who think!” (The Quran 16:10-11)
What we can do is to follow 3 R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle. People have heard this kind of talk before, but if only we can apply just one ‘R’, that also would be a great help for our environment. We have to remember that we don’t live alone, we live with others and our actions and their actions produce certain consequences. So, we all should act in a mutually beneficial way and not in a profit-loss way: profit for me and loss for you; and if we continue to act in selfish way then there will be no winners, only losers; no profit for me and loss for you, but only loss for all of us.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-environment/the-quran-speaks-protect-environment/d/10960