swimming—polluted water." But"do not touch the water"!? Something
about that sign, and the reality it pointed to seemed deeply,
irrevocably wrong. The fact that it was the nearest campground to
Disneyland somehow made the whole situation even creepier.
The memory of that toxic waste dump campground remained with me for
years. I gradually realized that the place was not just the perfect
anti-campground, but also an image of anti-paradise: a place where the
flowing water is too filthy to be used to purify ourselves before
prayer, and where the natural plants and creatures are poisoned and
dying. The Quran tells us that the Paradise promised to believers, isa
garden with rivers flowing beneath. It is filled with fruits and
flowers and growing things, offering nectar better than the finest
earthly wine, and beauties and pleasures beyond earthly imagination.
While we can never create such a perfect paradise on earth, Muslim
architects, land-useplanners and artists have sometimes used this
image as a model for their efforts to preserve and celebrate the
natural beauty of creation. Why not? The Quran tells us that all of
nature is a sign of Allaah, reflecting some of His mercy and
magnificence.
Indeed, all of nature, in the Islamic view, is in a state of
continuous worship. Trees and grasses, fish and animals, are all
bending in a sweet, invisible breeze that wafts their worship back
toward their creator. Human beings can learn from thisprocess and seek
harmony with itby joining creation in worship of the Lord of all
worlds and creation. Or else, they can obstinately rebel, imagining
themselves cut off and self-sufficient, and persist in transgressing
the bounds that Allaah has set for them until the inevitable payment
comes due.
In contrast to the prevailing view of nature in the West as a
savage,fallen chaos that must be tamed by conquest, Islam insists that
nature is respected and invites humans to learn from it and join it in
harmonious coexistence.
The polluted-campground experience awakened me to the fact that
something is very wrong with the way of life that produced such a
place, and that Islam holds the keys to understanding the root causes
and solutions of our current environmental dilemma. It convinced me
that we Muslims should be putting Islamic environmental activism at
the very top of our social and personal agenda. Our planet is in a
state of environmental crisis, and as Muslims we are the custodians of
Allaah's last revelation, a revelation that gives humanity the
knowledge and inspiration it needs to live in peace and harmony—in
this life and the next.
The Quranic solution to the problem of environment is, in a word,
holistic and comprehensive. Living a truly Islamic life requires
avoiding the evils of extravagance and the insanity of materialism,
and that we attain harmony with our surroundings and have compassion
for other creatures.
It all begins, however, with the right orientation towards life:
complete submission to Allaah, The One Creator of all, and that this
submission should be marked by pious awe, loving gratitude, inner
peace, the struggle to do good, and the constant awareness that Allaah
isgreater than any aspect of His creation. The Quranic orientation
provides the key to restoring the lost balance between humans, nature,
and The One who created both (i.e .Allaah)
Materialists and atheists say that nothing is sacred, which implies
that there are no limits to what humans can do to gratify their
material desires. Materialist culture, as my wise humanities professor
once said, has two distinguishing characteristics: A tremendous drive
to achieve more and more control over the natural world, and an
equally energetic drive to re-make and perfect human society.
Humans as trustees and keepers of the Earth
Islam teaches that we are the successors and trustees of Allaah on
this beautiful earth, not prisoners in a flawed world that needs to be
radically re-made. As successors, our task is to preserve and
appreciate the beauty and goodness we find, in grateful submission to
its Creator. All of our planet's scientists are needed for a more
obvious and simple task: Taking care of the planet Allaah has given
us, and taking care of our fellow human beings. This meansfinding ways
to live, and live well,while expending far less physical energy, and
making far less obtrusive changes to our physicalenvironment, than is
customary today. It means finding ways to redistribute the planet's
wealth more equitably, in the environment of zero economic growth or
even negative growth that will surely be upon us in justa few short
years, when oil production peaks and starts to decline.
"Allaah loves not the wasters"
So, too, is the Islamic injunction:" Waste not!" Both Quran and Sunnah
make it absolutely clear that avoiding waste and prodigality is a
matter of the highest importance. For example,Allaah Says (what means)
: "Do not be extravagant, for Allaah does not love the wasteful "
[Quran, 6:141]. And He Says (what means): " But waste not by excess,
for Allaah loves not the wasters" [Quran, 7:31]. And (whatmeans):
"Squander not in the manner of a spendthrift. For wasters are the
brothers of the Satan, and the Satan is to his Lordungrateful "
[Quran, 17:26-27]. Here we see that the root of wasting is
ingratitude: those who respond to the marvelous beauty and bounty of
Allaah with gratitude and amazement are happy with a little, while the
ungrateful one is never satisfied no matter how much he has, so he
abandons himself to an ever-increasing cycle of consumption and waste.
If humanity is to survive, it will have to move from the spiritual
state of ingratitude to gratitude and give up its wasteful ways, as
the Quran urges.
Conserving food and water
Along with this Quranic teaching, the Sunnah (prophetic tradition)
provides us with the best example of living in a state of gratitude
and avoiding waste. The Prophet Muhammad was famous for his attention
to conserving and avoiding waste. He was careful not to waste a crumb
of food, licking the last morsel from the utensils so that nothing
would go to waste. He urged believers to avoid using more water than
necessary whenperforming an act of worship likeablution. If we must be
careful not to waste a drop of water in our ablutions, how much more
necessary must it be to avoid waste in less-important activities.
Unfortunately the dominant way of life among well-off people
everywhere, especially in the West, is marked by unbelievable waste
and extravagance. We eat more than what is good for us, buy things we
do not really need,throw away things that either still work or could
be repaired, buy over-sized large vehicles and drive short distances
instead of walking or bicycling, build larger houses than we need and
heat and cool them far beyond minimal comfort standards, waste huge
amounts of water maintaining herbicide-sprinkled lawns and golf
courses, and so on. In perhaps the single most absurd display of
extravagance inall history, we are, at the USA, currently burning up
fossil fuels at a rate that will ensure that oureconomy, our
environment, or both will completely collapse in the near future.
(See: peakoil.comfor details.) This lunatic way of life, whose
seductive pleasures and comfortsdisguise its utter madness, its
complete lack of sustainability, was not developed by Muslims.
To be true to our religion, we must change our ways, and makean effort
to conserve, educate, and build alternative institutions to mitigate
and help cope with the coming economic and environmental meltdown,
preserve and strengthen of our Islamic communities and institutions,
and think about howthey can be of service in the struggle to help
humanity exercise responsible stewardship over our corner of creation.
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