Eco Islam

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Islamic scholars gathered in Istanbul recently to blend those two shades of green with a seven year action plan on global warming. Mahmoud Akef representing non-profit Earth Mates Dialogue Centre, a UK based NGO in cooperation with the Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, organised the action plan. Goals include climate change education, green cities and the grand mufti of Egypt even pledged to make his fatwa-issuing office in Cairo carbon-neutral. Mahmoud Akef says the inspiration comes from Islam's sacred texts, the Koran, and the Hadith, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. According to Akef, "Of course, Koran has a lot of verses with regard to the environment, with regard to working on the Earth, to look what God has created for the human being. And this human being should save and protect and enjoy this creations. And at the same time Prophet Muhammad has also many hadiths, or saying about the environment. There's a hadith [Arabic] means this mountain, Uhud, it is near to Mecca, and this mountain loves us and we love it. So it moves a level of caring about the mountain as a part of the environment from just to enjoy this beautifulness of the mountain to love and it's a symbol for the other parts of the environment. We should love the environment. And when we love the environment, of course, we will take care of it. We will protect it and we will save it" The plan also includes proposals for developing the major Muslim cities as a green city model, which can act as a guidance for greening other Islamic cities. Besides, the plan attempts to develop an Islamic label for environmental friendly goods and services and create the best environmental practices for Islamic businesses. In addition, the plan is proposing to establish Islamic Waqf to finance its implementation. The proposals will be managed through the umbrella organization 'MACCA', the Muslim Associations for Climate Change Action. The proposals have been endorsed by around 200 Muslim scholars, experts and representatives of Islamic civil society organizations, as well as representatives of ministries of environment and Awqaf of many Islamic countries, such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Morocco, Indonesia, Senegal and Turkey.

ISLAM AND ECOLOGY by Marjorie Hope and James Young Seyyed Hossein Nasr sees at the center of Islam a charge to protect the natural world -- a world that reflects the higher reality of the transcendent God. MARJORIE HOPE and JAMES YOUNG are a husband-and-wife writing team who have traveled in more than eighty countries. This article forms part of a book-in-progress on the potential for an effective ecological ethic in several major religions, tentatively entitled The New Alliance: Faith and Ecology. The Qur'an' and the Hadith are rich in proverbs and precepts that speak of the Almighty's design for creation and humanity's responsibility for preserving it. For many Muslims, citing these is enough to prove that Islam has always embraced a complete environmental ethic. Others are more critical. They readily acknowledge that the guidelines are all there in Islamic doctrine. Tawhid (unity), khilafa (trusteeship), and akhirah (accountability, or literally, the hereafter), three central concepts of Islam, are also the pillars of Islam's environmental ethic. But they add that Muslims have strayed from this nexus of values and need to return to it.

Many of the Qur'anic verses cited by Muslims bear a striking resemblance to passages in the Bible, and portray a similar view of creation. "Praise be to Allah who created the heavens and the earth and made light and darkness" (Q.6:1). Later, in Q.6:102, we glimpse the principle of unity: ". . . . There is no God but He, the Creator of all things." The dignity of all creation is proclaimed: "The seven heavens and the earth and all therein declare His glory: there is not a thing but celebrates His praise. . ." (Q. 17:44). To humankind is given the role of khalifa (trustee): "Behold, the Lord said to the angels: 'I will create a vicegerent on earth. . . .' " (Q.2:30). But it is a role that each person must perform wisely and responsibly, fully aware of human accountability to the Almighty. "Do no mischief on the earth after it hath been set in order, but call on him with fear and longing in your hearts: for the Mercy of God is always near to those who do good" (Q.7:56). In other parts of the Qur'an we read that God rejoices in creation; all nature declares God's bounteousness; the variety in creation points to the unity in the divine plan; and God gave humankind spiritual insight so that it should understand nature. Moreover, the principle of balance is fundamental to that plan: "And the earth We have spread out like a carpet; set thereon mountains firm and immobile; and produced therein all kinds of things in due balance" (Q.15:19). Although many Muslims with whom we have talked are familiar with these broad Qur'anic principles, few see any need to move an ecological ethic to the center of their awareness. True, some Muslims have become heads of national and international environmental organizations, but the average citizen is only vaguely aware of the extent of the crisis; most political and educational leaders perceive only a few of the problems, and those in isolation. Moreover, many advance the common argument that "when we catch up with the technological superiority of the West, then we can begin to focus on this issue." Not a few Muslims see environmentalism as still another form of Western control, intended to keep Islam from developing and Muslims from realizing their economic potential. Hence it is hardly surprising that, generally speaking, there is little discussion about actually applying Islamic principles to environmental practice. A few scholars and grassroots leaders, however, have begun to grapple with the question. Seyyed Hossein Nasr While Islamic writing in general lacks the self-criticism that Westerners value, and the study of comparative religion is seldom considered important, the view of the distinguished philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr is wider in scope. Born in Iran, he studied physics and math at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, obtained a doctorate in science and philosophy at Harvard, and then returned to Iran, where he eventually became chancellor of Aryamehr University. After the Khomeini revolution in 1979, he began teaching Islamic studies in the United States. Although most of his twenty-odd books focus on Islamic civilization, some deal with the spiritual crisis facing humanity today, and all evidence his knowledge of Western and Eastern scientific and religious traditions. We met him at George Washington University in his well-ordered office, lined with books in many languages. Dark and slender, with a neat, graying beard, Nasr spoke gravely, in impeccable English. He greeted us cordially, but seemed eager to move to the business at hand. We asked him to comment on the impact of the movement to join the forces of religion and ecology. "Well, in the West, it has certainly made some compelling statements. But one has to ask, 'What power does it have over the political domain?' The politicians may nod and even agree -- but the developers go right ahead, cutting down woods, uprooting endangered species. That's a result of the Western dogma of separating science from the sacred and religion from the secular. In Islamic countries religion is a stronger force. In a true Islamic society, political leadership could act in accordance with the shari'ah as set out by doctors of the law. If they pronounced polluting industries and certain kinds of development in violation of Islamic principles, political leaders would have to take strong measures against transgressors. Remember, I am talking about what would happen in a true Islamic society. Unfortunately, today the West dominates the world economy, so Islam reacts to the West both economically and politically. The West sets the agenda." "From reading your work, we've seen how destructive you feel the separation between religion and the secular domain to be." He nodded. "That is rooted in Western modern science and its domination of our view of nature, a view that separates nature from the sacred. Renaissance humanism gave rise to a world centered on man instead of God. Human reason was no longer bounded by allegiance to anything beyond itself. Before, all civilizations looked beyond themselves to God -- to revelation. I'm not hostile to Western science but to its claim to be the only valid science of the natural world. There are other ways of 'knowing.' Western science has become illegitimate because scientists and the rest of society fail to see the need for a higher knowledge into which it could be integrated. The spiritual value of nature is destroyed. We can't save the natural world except by rediscovering the sacred in nature." "That is what Thomas Berry is talking about," we observed. "Yes. Yes, Berry speaks to the heart of the matter. He brings the urgency of the crisis to the fore. But his 'geologian' concept of religion is limited to the earth, without remembrance of transcendence. The traditional perspective of the Muslim -- and Christian -- is that man comes from a sacred heaven to an earth which is also divine creation. Even the American Indians have a sky father. What I am saying is that the whole of nature is descended from higher spiritual realms. There can be no sacredness of the earth without the sacredness of Heaven. Man is that special creature who transcends the earth. A theology is not valid unless we remember where the sacred comes from."

"What are some other ways your thought differs from Berry's?" "His view also has roots in evolutionism," Nasr said. "But I would say you cannot hold a true ecological philosophy and a belief in Darwinism at the same time. Darwinism has eradicated the sense of the sacred. 'Survival of the fittest' runs counter to the harmony in nature. True, on television we can actually see violence -- like lions eating other animals. But that's what television chooses to focus on -- violence, competition -- rather than the cooperation that is so basic in nature." "Cooperation. Isn't that the emphasis of the Russian scientist Kropotkin, who observed mutual aid among animals in Siberia, then criticized Darwin for stressing competition?" "That's right." He nodded briefly. "The idea that man comes out of the mud, so to speak, is false. It simply provides a way of reducing the higher to the lower." "Your writings suggest that we need to reestablish a metaphysical tradition in the West within the framework of Christianity. This would provide a criterion for judging and regulating the sciences. And for evaluating evolutionary theory, too?" "Yes, we would no longer rely on evolution as dogma. Evolutionary theory gives rise to pseudo-philosophies like the survival of the fittest, picturing man as the inevitable winner of the long struggle, with the right to dominate all things. This destroys the spiritual significance of nature -- which depends on the fact that it reflects a permanent reality beyond itself." "And this sense of the sacred pervaded the world of Islam and the rest of the East until the onslaught of Western science and technology?" "Yes, and eventually the onslaught of Western religion, too." Nasr's smile was ironic. "Western Christianity wed itself to the Western sciences. Missionaries brought modern medicine and technology, and worked hand-in-glove with Western governments for what they called 'progress.' The very idea of unilateral progress disoriented the East. At first it had little meaning for the people. They had always lived close to the cyclical rhythms of nature. In fact, previously nineteenth-century Westerners called Arabs 'naturalists' in a disparaging way. Islam did resist the West until pressure became too great. So even the Arabs and Persians who had once created the glories of Islamic science -- the very foundations of European mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, physics -- proceeded to learn Western science. And to be corrupted by its mechanistic and materialistic worldview. "In the 1960s, Iran was the most advanced Muslim country in the Middle East. While industrializing rapidly, we created nature parks, and in the 1970s we held environmental conferences attended by Ivan Illich and other notables. Yet when the Shah asked for advice about shifting to nuclear power, and I suggested he should rely instead on resources like wind and solar energy, my advice was not followed by the government." He sighed heavily. "It is much more dangerous in the West today. They want to remove problems brought on by destroying the balance between man and nature through further domination of nature. The problem is not really underdevelopment in the Third World, but overdevelopment brought by the West." "Yet you seem to believe that to some degree Islamic societies have resisted Western modes of thought." "Yes, they are the only ones where significant segments of the population, from jurists to villagers, refuse to consider any form of knowledge as secular -- where religion can still function as the foundation of a wholistic approach. Of course, it can be distorted into a parody of itself. Certain countries try to copy the West, mostly because they have to recycle petrodollars and so are forced into this game. Their pretense of being completely Islamic societies is in fact not completely true, especially as far as the environment is concerned. Still, as I say, throughout the world there are many Muslims who are trying to rediscover traditional Islam. Traditional as distinguished from neo-fundamentalist Islam." "Could you tell us a little more about how you see that distinction?" "Certainly. Today there are basically three types of Islam: traditionalism, modernism, and a variety of forms of revivalism usually brought together as fundamentalism. Until two hundred years ago, in spite of the many schools and interpretations, all Muslims lived within the tradition, with its roots in the Qur'an, Hadith, and the shari'ah. It was a living tradition, emphasizing the harmony of law, art, and all forms of knowledge. In the eighteenth century modernism, with its roots in secular humanism, entered this world, in all fields from science and philosophy to art, and traditional Islam began to weaken. Today we also see it struggling against many of the forms of violent revivalism usually called Islamic fundamentalism, which speaks of reviving Islam in opposition to modernism. But most so-called fundamentalists are pseudo-traditional, as can be seen in their attitude toward modern technologies and the destruction of the environment. Many of the so-called fundamentalists, like Christian fundamentalists, pull out a verse from the scriptures and give it a meaning quite contrary to its traditional commentary. Also, even while denouncing modernism as the 'Great Satan,' many fundamentalists accept its foundations, especially science and technology. For traditionalists, there is beauty in nature which must be preserved and beauty in every aspect of traditional life, from chanting the Qur'an to the artisan's fashioning a bowl or everyday pot. Both fundamentalists and modernists, however, could just as easily produce mosques that look like factories. Many fundamentalists even seek a Qur'anic basis for modern

man's domination and destruction of nature by referring to the injunction to 'dominate the earth' -- misconstruing entirely the basic idea of vicegerency: that man is expected to be the perfect servant of God." "To turn to a very tangible environmental problem like overpopulation -- what would traditionalists say about that?" "It is a problem, a major one. But it is not soluble as an entity unto itself; it is connected with other issues. Because of the imbalances in the political situation, many in Muslim countries have felt that power lies in numbers. But in the end, overpopulation is simply too great a burden, and there are now new interpretations among religious scholars who try to interpret the teachings of the Prophet to enable planning for one's family in accordance with one's possibility of supporting them." "Good. But isn't the real question how many can the earth support? And doesn't a just and workable solution involve allowing more women to become Islamic scholars and jurists?" He looked at his watch and stood up quickly. "I would like to be able to discuss these matters with you, but regrettably, I have an appointment. Women do have more power in Islam than most Westerners realize. I regret I must end our conversation now." *** Seyyed Hossein Nasr's writings spell out many of these ideas in greater detail.(*) Running through them is the theme of "man's total disharmony with his environment." He sees the crisis as the externalization of an inner malaise that cannot be solved without "the spiritual rebirth of Western man." The human destiny, says Nasr, entails fulfilling the role of God's vicegerent on earth and protecting the natural order, thus bearing witness to the truth that the whole of nature speaks of God. The Renaissance led to the separation of philosophy from theology, reason from faith, and mysticism from gnosis. (The latter term Nasr uses not to designate a secret knowledge based on mystic revelation but to refer broadly to "illuminated knowledge.") In medieval times Christianity, like Islam, was steeped in tradition. But as the West emphasized the rigid logic of Aristotelian thinking, the sense of the sacred diminished. By the seventeenth century the science of the cosmos was secularized. The scientific revolution mechanized the Western worldview, and, with the appearance of the nineteenth-century sociologist Auguste Comte, led to examining the person and society as elements that could be measured with the aim of manipulation and predictability. Nasr attacks what he calls the "hypothesis" of evolution. He uses the term not to mean modifications within a particular species (which do occur, he says, as a species adapts itself to changed natural conditions) but the belief that through natural processes one species is actually transformed into another. Nasr passionately criticizes this on a wide variety of grounds -- metaphysical, cosmological, religious, logical, mathematical, physical, biological, and paleontological -- building arguments too complex to recapitulate here. His central concern is that what he calls "the deification of historical process" has become so powerful that in many souls it has replaced religion and veils the archetypal realities. Among his arguments is the contention that there is a remarkable unanimity that humankind descends from a celestial archetype but does not ascend from the ape or any other creature. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, and many other traditions do demonstrate awareness that other creatures have preceded humankind on earth and that the earth's geological configuration has changed. For example, over a thousand years ago Muslim scientists knew that sea shells on top of mountains meant that mountains had turned into seas and seas into mountains, and that land animals had preceded humans on earth. But no sacred scriptures, whether they speak of creation in six days or of cosmic cycles enduring over vast expanses of time, speak of higher life forms as evolving from lower ones. A number of scientists have found difficulties with the theory of evolution, Nasr says. For example, the lack of fossils intermediate between the great groups requires explanation. Contrary to Darwinian theory, each new species enters life quite suddenly, over an extended region, and with all its essential characteristics. A truly scientific statement would be that nature produces species that are constant and unchanging, but occasionally disappear. Nasr comes to the rather startling conclusion that as long as humans have lived on earth, they have not evolved at all. Moreover, Nasr says in Man and Nature the same species still live, die, and regenerate themselves -- except for the unfortunate species that modern humanity has made extinct (128). Underlying these developments, Nasr says, was the absence of a higher form of knowledge which encompasses all learning and all phenomena: metaphysics. In the East, this "sacred science" endures to this day. Some early Christian thinkers were metaphysicians -- Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, for example -- and so were such later mystics and theologians as Eckhart, Erigena, and Nicolas of Cusa. For Nasr, Muslims are a kind of "middle people," geographically and metaphysically located between other Oriental traditions and Western Christianity. Islam's elaborate hierarchy of knowledge is integrated by the principle of unity ( tawhid), running as an axis through every mode of knowledge and being. There are juridical, social, theological, gnostic, and metaphysical sciences, their principles all derived from the Qur'an. Within Islamic civilization, too, there have developed philosophical, natural, and mathematical sciences that became integrated with the worldview of Islam. On each level of knowledge, nature is

seen in a particular way. For jurists it is the background for human action, for scientists a domain to be analyzed, and for metaphysicians the object of contemplation. Ultimately, all Islamic sciences affirm the Divine Unity. Nasr finds throughout Islamic history an intimate connection between the metaphysical dimension of the tradition and the study of nature. Muslim scientists were Sufis. In Islamic as in Chinese civilization, observation of nature and even experimentation generally stood on the gnostic and mystic side of the tradition. In Islam the indivisible link between humans and nature and between religion and the sciences lies in the Qur'an itself, the Logos or Word of God. "By refusing to separate man and nature completely, Islam has preserved an integral view of the Universe and sees in the arteries of the cosmic and natural world order the flow of divine grace, or barakah.. . . . Man can learn to contemplate it, not as an independent domain of reality but as a mirror reflecting a higher reality" (Man in Nature, 95). In Islam, then, nature has never been considered profane. Someone like Avicenna could be both a physician and a philosopher who sought knowledge through illumination. That modern science did not develop in the bosom of Islam is a sign not of decadence, but of the Islamic refusal to consider any form of knowledge as purely secular and divorced from the ultimate goal of human existence. Across the centuries, the same principles of the Divine Unity have guided Islamic science, art, and law. Islamic cosmology and cosmography have served as matrix for the Islamic sciences, from geography to alchemy. Maps were based on observation, and remain amazingly accurate. Yet they were also works of art. Islamic medicine produced detailed, accurate anatomical studies, even while following the ancient injunction against dissection. Founded on the doctrines of unity and balance, Islamic medicine is to this day practiced with success in places like the Hamdard Institutes. The plant world was studied with minute care, but with the goal of drawing spiritual lessons from it. Muslim scientists have always recognized that nature is, above all, a reflection of the Paradise whose memories we still bear in the depths of our souls. This symbolic approach to creation can be likened to the Orthodox Christian view that icons are an image of the divine world. Indeed, at one point Nasr observes that Islamic science is in the most profound sense an art, one that enables the human to contemplate the visible cosmos as an icon revealing the spiritual world beyond it. Thus, we humans have studied animals not only for their own sake, but also to know better our own inner reality. This reality is the total reflection of the Divine Names and Qualities, just as animals are the partial, but often more direct reflections. Humans, as central in the terrestrial environment, are better able to exercise responsibility for it. The correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm, and the study of the gradation of beings, form the background for scrutinizing the various forms in nature. Humankind stands at the pinnacle of the hierarchy. But "man cannot gain an awareness of the sacred aspects of nature without discovering the sacred within himself or herself," Nasr once told an interfaith conference on "Spirit and Nature," which was recorded for a program produced by Bill Moyers. The perfect expression of the microcosm opening to the macrocosm lies in Sufism, which Nasr calls the inner dimension of Islam. The author of several books on Jalal al-Din Rumi and other Sufi mystics, he frequently quotes from their works, as in these lines of the Persian poet Hafiz: There is no veil between the lover and the Beloved; Thou art thine own veil, O Hafiz, remove thyself. One should learn to contemplate the world of nature as a mirror reflecting the Divine God, who is both transcendent and immanent. Trees are not only necessary to maintain life, they are a recurring symbol. The Qur'an compares the cosmos to a tree whose roots are firm in the heavens and whose branches spread to the whole of the universe, symbolizing the participation of the whole cosmos in prayer. In Islamic tradition, it is a blessed act to plant a tree even one day before the end of the world. Water has a fundamental reality which symbolizes Divine Mercy. In Islamic law, to pollute the water is a sin, and according to certain jurists, the person who does so can even be called a kafir, a condemnatory term for someone outside the pale of religion. Ranging through a broad spectrum of wisdom traditions, Nasr pays homage not only to the two other Abrahamic faiths, but also to the spiritual traditions of Native Americans and Shintoists, for whom revelation is directly related to natural forms. The American Indian, for example, sees the bear or eagle as a divine presence. All religious traditions, too, posit the hierarchical nature of reality -- as in the orders of angels described by Dionysius, or intermediate worlds in the cosmologies of Mahayana Buddhism. Thus we have many traditions, yet one, the Primordial Tradition, which always is. This lessens neither the authenticity nor the complete originality of each, which emanates as a direct message from Heaven and conforms to a particular archetype. From interfaith dialogue we should not expect the conversion of participants. Rather, we can gain understanding of another world of sacred form and meaning through preservation of our own tradition. The geometric patterns in Islamic art reflect the archetypal world. Traditional Islamic architecture and city planning never sought to convey a sense of defiant human power over nature. Where there were hot deserts, the streets were narrow to prevent the sun from dissipating the cool night air. Slatted wind-towers on housetops caught the breezes that ventilated homes. Even religious architecture reflected harmony with nature. Light and air entered easily into the traditional mosque, and birds often flew around during the most solemn moments of a ceremony. The sun-heated buildings, wind-turned mills, and water provided energy for small technologies. In the Middle East, particularly Persia, the Muslims perfected the ancient system of qanats, elaborate underground channels that stored water and carried it long distances without danger of evaporation. Many are still being used today.

In the traditional Islamic pattern of life, work is not separated from life, but reflects natural rhythms. An artisan's workday, for example, may last from dawn until long after sunset, but the work is done in the bazaar, the bosom of the community, and is interrupted by coffee-drinking with friends, dining at home with family, prayers at the mosque, or quiet meditation. Today, concern for a greater reality in the contemporary world can be observed, Nasr maintains, in the growing interest in ecology and a concomitant urge to rediscover the sacred. If the limitations imposed by a desacralized mode of knowing were removed, the sacred would manifest itself of its own accord, he tells us in Knowledge and the Sacred. "The light has not ceased to exist in itself. The cosmos seems to have become dark, spiritually speaking, only because of the veil of opacity surrounding that particular humanity called modern" (110). Contrasting Perspectives: Thomas Berry and Seyyed Hossein Nasr The two modes of thought represented by Nasr and Berry are both so significant that they reach well beyond conventional boundaries of separate religious and cultural traditions. Comparing their ideas, not all of them mutually exclusive, may clarify their differing approaches and highlight basic intellectual choices that religious believers concerned with ecology will eventually have to make. Berry's starting point is the natural world. For him, as St. Paul indicates in the Epistle to the Romans, the earth itself is divine Scripture, and the universe is the ultimate sacred community. Although Nasr has called Scripture and nature the two grand books of divine knowledge, he starts with the divine world. In another sense, his starting point is revelation, the only means by which the Source can, even partially, be known. It is revelation from a personal God who created the world, watches over the acts of all human beings, and intervenes in their affairs. Although Nasr acknowledges the mode of revelation in religions that center on a nonpersonal Supreme Reality rather than a personal God, and sometimes uses "revelation" simply to refer to the world of faith, he is most concerned with direct revelation, communicated to a human prophet. For Berry, "revelation" is the awakening of the sense of ultimate mystery. The "revelatory import of the natural world" is a recurrent motif; he asks us to listen to the universe. God is a word that Berry rarely uses: it is employed in so many different ways that it is too ambiguous; besides, he is primarily concerned with the larger society, not simply with "religious" people. More often, Berry speaks of "the divine," for it conveys better the ineffable/numinous presence in the world about us. For Nasr, "nature," a symbol of a transcendent reality, teaches human beings about God. His vision seems propelled by an urge to perceive patterns of unity, hierarchy, order. It might be called a mathematical vision; mathematics, an abstraction with respect to the world of the senses, is regarded by Muslims as the gateway leading from the sensible to the intelligible world. Nasr perceives reality through the lens of archetypes. Like the great naturalist writers, Berry takes joy in the wildness of the natural world -- wilderness undisturbed by human interference. He delights in the smells, tastes, sounds, the sight and the touch of the earthscape; they enter the very stuff of his being. On lone walks through the woods he enjoys listening to the trees. Indeed, he has suggested that the salvation of Christianity lies in absorbing the positive elements of paganism, as it has assimilated Greek thought and much of Oriental wisdom. These contrasts seem related to a fundamental difference in emphasis between the religions that nurtured these men. Christianity tends to be a way of love, Islam a way of knowing through illumination. Like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism, Islam has stressed sapiential doctrines. Mainstream Christian thought has tended, in Nasr's words, to limit the "function of intellection to that of a handmaid of faith rather than the means of sanctification, which of course would not exclude the element of faith" (Knowledge and the Sacred, 36). In Christianity caritas is more important. In Berry's vision, this theme extends to the earth, and he even speaks of "falling in love with the universe." Metaphysics is a realm that Berry rarely discusses, while for Nasr it is the scientia sacra. For the latter it is a key to perceiving the hierarchy and humankind's elevated position in it as vicegerent of creation. Berry's perception is closer to the Native American view that we are one among many species, each with its own distinctive grandeur: for flying the birds are infinitely superior; for swimming, the fish. So, too, for producing apples, the apple tree is best. For reflexive thinking, the human. That which is absolutely superior is the integral community of all species, for as St. Thomas says in his Summa Theologica, "The whole universe together participates in and manifests the divine more than any single species, whatsoever" (I, q.1, a.10). The concept of "evolution" holds different meanings for Nasr and Berry. Nasr sees it as a vain attempt to prove that higher biological forms emerge out of lower ones. The idea violates the principle of hierarchy fundamental to Islam and is wrong in the strictly scientific sense, and in its influence on other modes of thought. Berry finds excitement in the idea that there was a time sequence in the very formation of the earth, that earlier life-forms were simpler than later ones, that the earth, especially its life forms, is in a state of continuing transformation. The universe has revealed itself as an emergent evolutionary process. In Berry's perspective, the universe had a beginning; and time is irreversible. In Nasr's complex discussions of different conceptions of time, a recurring theme is that the movement we see in our environment is cyclical rather than evolutionary -witness the seasons. But for Berry this does not mean that the natural world moves only in eternal, unchanging cycles. In fact, the reason we are in trouble is that while the seasons do come round again every year, the life-systems are deteriorating, continually, bringing more dust storms, contaminated water, spoiled harvests, and extinction of species that once made this earth their home.

Berry focuses on cosmogenesis, understanding the universe not as "being" but as always in the process of becoming. We human beings also evolve and our vision evolves; our story and that of the earth are intertwined. We are truly of the earth; our sense of the divine reflects the outer world, and can alter as that world is altered. Such a view violates the very principle of the unchanging nature of sacred realities that is fundamental to Nasr's thought. For him, nature is a reflection of the paradise whose memories we still bear. The Way is the way back, through the revival of traditions as manifested in the great civilizations. Only thus can we rediscover the sacred and dissipate the loneliness of a world from which the spirit has been banished. Each way -- Nasr's and Berry's -- contains wisdom. Although their perspectives differ radically, both philosophers locate the source of our plight less in external conditions than in the way we perceive and approach them. Both suggest that we humble ourselves before the mystery, the awesome forces of creation -- and simplify our lives accordingly. Both remind us of the peril of hubris, forgetfulness of human limits. Four centuries ago the Persian Sufi poet Abd al-Rahman Jami foresaw the predicament of power-driven humanity today: I lost my intellect, soul, religion, and heart In order to know an atom in perfection. But no one can know the essence of the atom perfectly. How often must I repeat that no one shall know it; then farewell! Our brief summary of aspects of Nasr's thought is based on his Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1968); Science and Civilization in Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968); Sufi Essays (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1972); Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study (London: World of Islam Festival Publishing Co. and Thorson Publishers, 1976); Knowledge and the Sacred, the 1981 Gifford Lectures (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989); Traditional Islam and the Modern World (London: Kegan Paul, 1987). Note *[Back to text] Dogen, in Philip Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen, rev. ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1989), 310. Copyright of Cross Currents is the property of Association for Religion & Intellectual Life and its content may not be copied without the copyright holder's express written permission except for the print or download capabilities of the retrieval software used for access. This content is intended solely for the use of the individual user. Cross Currents, Summer94, Vol. 44 Issue 2, p180, 13p

Islam And The Go Green Concept November 29, 2012 By ISWM

By NOR AZARUDDIN HUSNI HAJI NURUDDIN Islam not only calls for environmental protection but also advocates its care. The concept is more comprehensive and not only protects earth from damage but also allows the environment to flourish. ISLAM emphasises the necessity and importance of environmental protection so that man can live in harmony with nature, as well as achieve sustainable development, enrich life on earth, and make best use of available resources. Islam talks not only of the relationship between Allah and man, and between peoples, but also provides guidelines on how to deal with our environment and natural resources. Islam not only calls for environmental protection but also advocates care for the environment. The concept of caring for the environment is more comprehensive and deeper than protection as it involves different aspects such as protection from damage and pollution, as well as allowing for the environment to flourish. In Islam, mans relation to the earth is seen as that of a custodian. It is required that man should work towards the conservation of earth, ensuring sustainability of natural resources for future generations. There are general guidelines to develop the earth.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISLAM Posted by Graham_Land in Climate Change, Green living, Politics, 11 Sep 2010 photo by mrehan (Flickr CC) There has been a lot of controversy about a much-publicized anti-Islam protest by a certain nutty preacher in the US, which was scheduled to take place today, on the anniversary of 9/11. But has anyone stopped to think about the CO2 that would be released if Terry Jones were to burn the Koran? What? Its no dumber than everything else surrounding the planned burning of the Muslim holy book. And since everyone else has already said their piece, isnt it time for a Green perspective? Sorry, its no laughing matter. Someone has actually already died in counter protests leading up to the aborted provocation. It did get me wondering, however and bear with me this is a tenuous connection what some influential Muslims are saying and doing regarding environmental issues specifically in the name of Islam. Is there an ecological Islam? Most religions to some extent preach anti materialism, are against waste and wanton destruction of Gods green Earth, etc., but Im curious about the here and now. As environmentalism has made at least superficial inroads into modern culture, how is the ancient tradition of Islam responding to this current shift in consciousness? Here is a small sampling of what can be gleaned on the subject: In the Philippines, Muslim and Christian clergy have held meetings on climate change, which included Muslim scientists, intellectuals and environmentalists. Islamic Perspective On Going Green by Adi Setia < in pdf > I. Neither in jest nor in vain Among the approaches for nature conservation are renewing resources, eliminating waste altogether and even transforming waste to wealth. Now the last approach is really interesting, not only from the pragmatic technoeconomic point of view, but more importantly, from the intellectual, ontological point of view.

If waste can be transformed into something useful that can generate wealth, then it must mean that the concept of waste is just that, a mental concept that does not cor respond to any physical reality in the real world. Waste is purely a matter of subjective thought not objective fact. In other words, what we call waste is merely a product of an arbitrary judgement on our part. Lets cite a simple example to press home this profound point: I was lecturing about Islamic Science in a hotel in Jakarta last July. In front of me on the table was a glass of water cover by a nice round piece of paper boldly inscribed with the hotels logo, Hotel Shariah, in graceful cursive letterings. So very good, Islamic Science in Hotel Shariah ---what can be better? To illustrate a point I was trying to make, I told my audience that as long as I do not uncover the glass and drink from it, that nice piece of paper will be considered useful because it will continue to be covering the glass. But once the glass is drunk, theres no longer any need to cover the glass and hence that (still very nice) piece of paper will be deemed useless and cast away into the waste paper basket. But is there any physical change in the paper? Is it soiled by the mere action of me removing it from the glass and putting it on the table? No, of course, but the cleaners will come and discard that (still nice) piece of waste-paper, all the same. Another example, when we print on only one side of the paper by not setting the printer or copier on duplex mode, we arbitrarily condemn the other side to waste, though physically theres simply nothing wasteful about that side. It was just unlucky enough to escape being printed on. The computer age which rendered obsolete the old fashioned typewriter was supposed to usher in a brave new world of paper-less office management culture, but it did not reckon with certain problematic aspects of human nature. The computer and the printer allowed people to write carelessly without facing the daunting prospects of retyping the whole thing from scratch. Mistakes are simply considered as just so many drafts and corrections can be easily be keyed in. At least with the typewriter, people get to realise and respect the fact that typing is an artful skill and paper precious, so the typists of yore normally get it right the first time. Today most of the waste-papers produced by efficient offices consist of draft copies of shoddy typing and writing skills. So when something is made too easy for people (overly user-friendly), they take it for granted, and when they take it for granted, they waste it. Another reason, people dont like to read and store stuff in soft copies; they like it hard and solid, so the temptation to go from soft to solid to waste is always there (thats why computers makers are also printers makers). So computers create soft copies which are printed out onto hard copies which use up paper which is discarded as waste. The paper trail doesnt end in the computer age; if anything, it only grows longer and wider. and thats just the downstream problem. If we take the trouble to follow the paper trail upstream to its very source then well see the polluting pulping factories, then the loggers logging in plantation or virgin forests. Wasting paper is good for business because it makes the paper and pulp industry grow in double digit figures annually which lead to the wasting of biodiversified rainforests transformed to monoculturized, chemical intensive plantation forests for making pulp for tissue paper, paper sachets and paper cups and plates, of all things. Cant people learn to do with washable hankerchiefs, sturdy ceramic cups and plates and to take sugar the old-fashioned from proper ceramic bowls of sugar? Now with the ubiquity of the internet, they can also learn to read the news online for free instead of buying newspapers. If they learn to do that, then they will contribute to the eventual scrapping of the Acacia plantation project along the East-West Highway bisecting the Belum-Temengor rainforest in northern Malaysia. So we see how the paper and pulp industry as a whole feed into the vanity and nihilism of consumer society and the economics of prodigal consumption, which in turn is the biggest factor in the desolation of nature and the resulting depletion of its resources. But Muslims arent suppose to be vain or nihilistic or prodigal, but then we find all these in Hotel Shariah of all places. By the way, the concept of the Islamic Hotel is a very good idea, but we need to put real substance into it, then it

will really sell! Maybe someone can organize a conference to explore that idea in detail within the framework of an Islamic philosophy of travel (rihlah). To resume, thats how waste papers (other types of waste included) are created, in hotels (including Shari ones), in offices, in universities (including Islamic ones, I know, Im working in one), in conferences (including Islamic ones), namely, created from a sterile, insensitive imagination that is heedless of the truth that nothing in nature has been created in vain ( ma khalaqta hadha batilan), or in jest (laibin), but everything in truth (bil-haqq) and perfection (ahsana/atqana kulla shay). If that is the reality in nature, then why do we find so much that is in vain and in jest in the reality of our culture? Arent we supposed to imitate the Divine attributes ( natakhallaqu bi khuluqiLlah), that is, harmonize our personal ethics with the divine ethics as manifested in the cosmos, in the biosphere and in our very own selves? So there is a need for the ethics of the psyche to be in tune with the ethics of the cosmos. Not only is the modern economy predicated on prodigal consumption, but also on prodigal flippancy, i.e., on the art of making container loads of money from the creation of ever new ways of having fun, of indulging in multifarious entertainments of heedless abandon. Do you deem then that We had created you in frivolous play, and that you would not be returned to Us? Lets take the multibillion dollar Formula One racing industry. It is supposed to be a sporting industry, but one that thrives by convincing millions of essentially non-sporting spectators that passively watching cars roar about in circles is fun. Lets take the multibillion cell -phone industry which makes billions by brainwashing people into believing that endless chatter is fun, even though the believers are those who shun vain conversation. Lets take the multibillion ad vertising industry without which newspapers, magazines, television stations and even the internet will have to close shop. What do they advertise? Youve got it, a prodigal lifestyle of consumption and vanity with not a thought about the physical and spiritual wasteland left behind. Its just incredible how much money can be made out of a vacuum, the spiritual vacuum in the hearts of people who know only what is manifest of the life of this world, while of the Other Life they are heedless, oblivious, clueless, indifferent. Just take a look at the economic underbelly of Dubai, then youll get the idea. Doha is a much better place, maybe because Shaykh Yusuf Qardawi lives and teaches there. Thus the life of this world for the heedless is nothing but play and vanity, but Muslims are asked to transcend that situation by being remindful of the fact that the world is the seedbed of the Hereafter (al-dunya mazraat al-akhirah). It is the economics of the prodigal and the heedless (the economics of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses writ large generating the disease of affluenza ) which we have slavishly copied from the West that produces so much waste and flippancy in Muslim societies, including in Malaysian society. Muslims should disentangle themselves from that physical and psychological morass. For us, it will have to be a counter-economics of spiritual mindfulness of the fact that the cosmos and the earth were neither created in vain nor in jest. The word economics originally refers to the norms, the standards and the rules of the home and these are meant to preserve the physical and spiritual welfare of the household and all its members. The earth is in a way our household writ large and our duty as stewards of the natural order/norm/standard of the earth is to promote the welfare of ALL its inhabitants, inanimate, animate and human, for the Prophet, sallaLlahu alayhi wassalam, was sent as a mercy to all the worlds (rahmatan lil-alamin), and we are followers of this august Prophet, and not of the nihilistic West. The whole world, including the conscientious of the West, is looking at us for a way out of this maelstorm of self-destruction for we are the nation of the golden mean bearing witness over all mankind, and we shall surely be answerable for our neglect of this civilizational duty.

Only Only Only Only

after the last tree has been cut down after the last river has been poisoned after the last fish has been caught then will man find that money cannot be eaten.

Cree Indian prophecy II. Stewards, guardians and trustees of the earth In the third part of Professor J. R. R. Tolkiens engrossing trilogy The Lords of the Rings, we are brought to the realm of Gondor ruled by a long line of stewards who could only govern in the name of the true heir to the throne, awaiting the eventual return of the king to his rightful rule over the land of the free. Now, the last Steward of Gondor was overtaken by a false sense of superiority to lay claim to a royal right that was not his to claim. He could not bring himself to accept and submit to the iminent return of the king and hence doomed himself to a fiery death from a lofty height. Though the author himself had denied it, yet in many ways the Lord of the Rings can be read as an eloquent and captivating allegory of the sorry state of western civilization in the world war decades of the 20th century, rendered compellingly real to readers imagination by one who had himself fought deep in the foul, muddy trenches of the Western Front and survived to express his experience of those dark and bloody years in the novel of the century, but we shall not go further into that. What concerns us here is the twin notions of stewardship (khilafah) and trusteeship (amanah) and the manner of creative as oppose to dogmatic understanding of their meaning and significance in a way that can have real immediate impact on improving our private and public interaction with nature. If man is considered the vicegerent of God on earth, then it should follow that he is not only a steward responsible for safeguarding the rights of man but also the rights of nature, and especially so if preserving nature impacts, either directly or indirectly, on human welfare. Human stewardship of earth cannot only be about rendering judgement of truth (al-hukm bil-haqq = to judge by the truth) to humans but it is also, by extension, about being just to all inhabitants of earth, for the earth He has spread out for His creatures (al -anam). Therefore the earth is not only for man but also for nature, and hence true stewardship means to maintain an equilibrium between the needs of man and the rights of other creatures to live their life on this earth, for He has set the balance that you exceed not the balance, and therefore observe the balance strictly and do not fall short thereof. To press home this point, one can cite, for instance, the example of Sayyidina Umar, may God be pleased with him. He certainly did not see himself as the steward (khalifah) responsible only for implementing the divine law with regard to human interactions with humans (muamalah al-nas anfusahum) but also with regard to human interactions with animals ( mu amalat al-nas al-anam): Caliph Omar, one of the most distinguished of the Prophet's (p.b.u.h) companions demonstrated exceptional compassion towards animals. In fact he would deal strongly with those who overloaded their 'beasts of burden'. He would actually go to the extent of concealing himself from view and check that people were treating animals well. On one occasion he passed his hand over the wound of a camel intending to help heal the beast, saying, "I fear God may seek retributions from me for the pain you suffer. How many kings, presidents, ministers and high officials of the countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference today can claim to have shown such heart-felt personal concern for animal welfare as an integral part of their public duties as stewards ( khalaif) over the inhabitants, both humans and non-humans, of their realms? If there is among them even one, then he should straight away write about it that others may learn from him and set aside more lands as inviolable wildlife refuges, and thus revive the traditional Islamic environmental conservation institutions of hima and haram. Thats definitely one of the more effective ways to upgrade from the maqam of Oh, I see, to the maqam of Yes, I do, at least in the domain of conservation of the natural heritage of

member countries. One of the great paradoxes of the modern age is that in many instances peace and war are not what they seem. In war nature is left in peace, in peace nature is attacked. During the fight against the communists, the Belum-Temengor region was a security area off-limits to all forms of encroachment and the wildlife and the indigenous Orang Asli were left alone. But now, with the communists defeated for good, the area is exposed to all manners of encroachment in the name of development and economic progress. As an unexpected consequence of of war, the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia has now become a refuge for tigers and elephants and Koreas demilitarized zone a sanctuary for flora and fauna not found elsewhere on the peninsular. Because of years of civil war resulting in the depopulation of the region, southern Sudan is now teeming with antelopes, eland, gazelles, giraffes, elephants, lions and leopards so much so that the country could turn out to be Africas new Serengeti. I believe that the OIC have a role to play to encourage and help the Sudanese people to appreciate, conserve and manage this invaluable natural heritage in a naturally and culturally sustainable manner based on the Islamic concept of hima. To resume, one has to say that the desolation of the natural world is a clear indication that man has failed in his stewardship of the earth and its inanimate, animate and human inhabitants. He has clearly betrayed the divine trust (amanah) which has been placed upon him and which he has freely accepted by virtue of being endowed with a rational soul (nafs natiqah) capable of choice (ikhtiyar), i.e., capable of seeing in advance the consequences of his actions and hence capable of acting accordingly and being responsible for them before God. The word amanah is intricately connected with notion of aman = security, in both its physical and spiritual sense. By betraying the duties of trusteeship, man not only endander the security of those entrusted to his care, but he also forfeits the right to his own physical and spiritual security in this world and in the next. So is it any wonder that the age of economic prosperity coincides so nicely with the age of insecurity and anxiety? Now this is one reason why a secular Gaian ethics of the environment is going to fail to compel true heartfelt caring for nature, at least among the majority of mankind, for to whom shall the mortal transgressing man be answerable? To abstract, impotent history? To his children and grandchildren though he be long gone? To his own dead non-existent self? Does it really matter how history or posterity will judge him when he is long dead and gone and not very likely to return to personally face the music? One answer is that man can be answerable to his conscience while alive in this world, but the fact is that man simply does not fear his conscience. What is his astral conscience going to do? Whack his body? Shut down his brain? and anyhow, the pull of the immaterial conscience is not very strong in most people, hence it can be ignored, for the attraction of the sensual pleasures of the material body is stronger still. Hence we find the general tendency in Gaian ethics (as in the think Gaia approach of multinational corporations like Sanyo) for superficial techno-fixes in order to sustain the economics of indulgent consumption (only now coloured green with recycleable consumer goods) instead of truly aiming to restore and sustain environmental health by means of a thorough, radical rethinking of political economics, social culture and personal attitude. Most businesses hop onto the green bandwagon simply because they see it as a growing social trend that could generate new markets for new products. So it is still business as usual but now under the banner of green or ecocapitalism, of which natural capitalism is a rather compelling, and, I would say, even fruitful, offs hoot. But suppose going green turns out to be seeing red, instead improving the bottom line, then what happens? Sack the CEO and get a new one who can go all the way back to pitch black. Without digging deeper into the soul, the greening of the world will be less than skin deep. The rise of ecological psychology in the West is in recognition that the superficial, even hypocritical, market economics and techno-scientific approaches (such as carbon trading) are not going to work. The solution is to be found at a deeper level by rekindling the innate human affinity and respect for nature that has been suppressed by two centuries of consumerist industrial civilization premised on indefinite growth, development and progress. Instead of the present-day dogmatic economic mantra

of limited resources chasing after unlimited wants, a new economics of the future will have to be formulated, namely, one that is premised on the unlimited bounties of nature more than fulfilling the very limited needs of man, for if you count the blessings of Allah, you will not exhaust them. For man by nature (fitrah) is inclined to gratitude, to giving thanks for favors shown, but how can he be grateful and hence be contented if he is brainwashed by the economics of consumerism to believe that his material needs, wants and desires shall always grow and outgrow ever diminishing resources? If all his time is spent on material growth how can there be time for spiritual growth, and how can nature be given time to regenerate its resources for itself and for man? If this material growth is realised at the expense of nature, how can he be a true steward, a true guardian of the natural, fitri order? How can he keep and fulfill his solemn oath of trusteeship? and if he betrays his trust, how can he be secure in his conscience and in his spirit, and hence be at peace with himself, with fellow humans, with nature and with God? Ecopsychology is in a way a deep-level perspective on going green by transforming peoples outlook toward the meaning of life and happiness through reconnecting them with nature. But unless it involves a heartfelt notion of personal responsibility before a personal God of justice and mercy, the Creator of both man and nature (as exemplified in the case of Umar above), it is unlikely to be truly transformative for most people over the long term. It will be too abstract, too speculative or too emotive and sentimental rather than cognitive, intellectual and spiritual. It will go the way of other forms of modern holistic psychology like gestalt, humanistic and transpersonal psychologies. Already it is reported that Ken Wilber, a prominent proponent of transpersoanl psychology, has detached himself from the field to move on to what he thinks to be a more integral psychological appro ach. It certainly will not be compelling to Muslims who sincerely believe in personal responsibility before a personal god whom they will most certainly meet on that day when wealth and children avail not anyone save him who brings to Allah a sound heart. For environmental concerns to engage the active involvement of more Muslims (especially Malaysian Muslims ), a contemporary Islamic deep-ecology will have to be systematically formulated by drawing upon the rich and still very much alive spiritual psychology of the sufis which is premised on the concept and practice of ihsan, which is what tasawwuf is all about, namely, the beauty, excellence and perfection of ones actions, inwardly and outwardly, both with respect to ones ownself, to others and to God. To illustrate this point, one may invoke the psycho-spiritually touching story of the sixteenth century Turkish Sufi, Sunbul Efendi, who sent out his disciples to bring flowers to the convent. While all of them returned with fine bouquets, one of them, Merkez Efendi, offered the master only a little withered flower, for, he said, all the others were engaged in the praise of God and I did not want to disturb them; this one, however, had just finished its dhikr, and so I brought it. Needless to say, he went on to become his masters successor as head of the convent (zawiyah). So this story, among countless other similar ones gleanable from our sociointellectual history, goes to show to the heedless, environmentally indifferent Muslims of today how traditional Islamic spiritual training and discipline has succeeded in imbuing believers hearts with a very palpable sense of the transcendent reality of the meaning implicit, nay, explicit even, in the verses like, There is not a thing but hymns His praise ; The stars and the trees adore ; All that is in the heavens and earth glorify Him ; and He is Whom all who are in the heavens and earth praise, and the birds in their flight (praise Him too). Those of us who have watched and been touched by the beautiful film documentary on the 300,000 hectares Belum-Temengor rainforest complex will remember forever afterwards the graceful flight of the hornbills, a veritable poetry in motion, inviting us to share in their freedom and reach for the heavens and strive for what we can be instead of what we are. But sadly, only the northern part of the forest complex is officially protected while the southern half, where most of the ten species of hornbillls make their homes, are still left wide open for desolation through the developmental process of logging, both legal and illegal.

Isnt it amazing that despite our much vaunted natural and social sciences and our so -called knowledge economy, we still havent attained to the liberating wisdom of thinking out of the conventional, western inspired development-in-tandem-with-destruction box? As Dato Seri Azmi Khalid puts it, If Belum Temengor can be gazetted, it will be a big milestone for Perak and for Malaysia....it will be for the good of Perak and for the good of the nation.... and, I dare say, for the good of the Ummah. If there are to be any positive outcomes of this august gathering of intellectual luminaries from all corners of the Islamic world, then surely one of them must be the immediate gazzetting, on the part of the highest political authorities of the realm, of all of the Belum-Temegor rainforest complex as a national park, a national hima, or better still, as an international hima of the Ummah, to be held inviolate for all posterity, from now till doomsday. For surely we cannot allow ourselves to be among those who say what they do not, and who would want to be praised for what they have not done, and especially so when the Creator Himself have designated Muslims, His vicegerents, His khulafa, to be Guardians of the Natural Order. So the choice lies before us as people of choice: either we act humbly in the name of the Lord, the True King, or we act haughtily in our own names as usurpers of the Royal Right and of the rights of His creatures entrusted to our care, in which latter case, we shall be cast down from the lofty heights of our arrogance, reduced to the lowest of the low, and the fiery doom of the Steward of Gondor shall soon be our lot! III. ...but they are peoples like unto you The problem of the conflict between man and nature has been one of the intellectual concerns of that remarkable group of independent thinkers in the public interest called the Ikhwan al-Safa (Fellowship of the Pure-Hearted), a veritable Club of Basra comparable in their self-critical altruistic idealism to the present day Club of Rome. They lived ten long centuries ago yet their thoughts remain inspiringly fresh and alive to us who seek a light out of the present dark age of the Ummah and of Humanity in general. They penned an ecological fable entitled The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of the Jinn. Here we find elaborate allusions to the concepts of the balance of nature, of ecosystems and econiches, of biodiversity of the communities of plants and animals greater than the diversity of the races and nations of man, of ecological sucessions, and of natures economy manifested in the symbiotic web of interdependencies between species as reflective of divine economy and plan. They deem it self-evident that it would be an evil for any species, even snakes, to be obliterated from the earth before its ecological life-span has run its course. After an elaborate and fair trial in which long, eloquent arguments were delivered, heard and considered from both parties, the King of the Jinn, ruled, in the end, in favor of mankind, but only because that among them were saints of God, the choice flower of his creation, the best, the purest, who are Gods elect, and that these folk have noble attributes, fair characters, pious acts, diverse sciences, sovereign insights, royal traits, just and holy lives, and wondrous ways... who fulfill their duties of stewardship over nature under the overseership of God, to whom they will be accountable when his epoch of stewardship is at end. Though nature serves the needs of man, they also in their own way serves a higher end, an end which they partake of in communion with mankind, for there is not an animal in the earth nor a flying creature flying on two wings, but they are peoples like unto you, and unto Allah pays adoration whosoever is in the heavens and whosoever is in the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the hills, and the trees, and the beasts, and many of mankind. .., namely, the common end of adoring God and hymming His praise.

and as for those of mankind who desire otherwise, unto them the doom is justly due. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man. This we know. All things are connected. Man does not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Chief Seattle How Islam Teaches Environmentalism In a 2001 Hannity & Colmes appearance, conservative columnist Ann Coulter said, God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants,the animals, the trees. God said, Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it! Its yours. But just as some Christian groups are taking are more Earth-friendly approaches, there is a swelling movement among American Muslims that stands in direct contrast to Ann Coulters interpretation. To members of the Green Muslim movement, sustainability is as much a part of their faith as their five daily prayers. In an atmosphere where religion and science are often pitted against one another, these Muslims are using core values of Islam to push for change in environmental policy. At the heart it is an issue of world view. How we view ourselves in relation to nature. Whether were part of it or a part from it, says Mohamad A. Chakaki, an independent environmental consultant and a founding member of Green Muslims in the District. Its about reconnecting people to each other, to nature, themselves, says Chakaki. Chakaki, Sanjana Ahmad, their friend Sajid Anwar, and a group of their like-minded friends began the group in the spring of 2007 with simple educational programs in mosques and homes. For Chakaki, living sustainably is an inherent part of Muslim life. In Islam the body is temporary; the soul is what belongs to God. The same can be said of the earth and the resources it provides, they belong to God not man, says Sajid Anwar, who worked with area non-profits on water and climate change issues, presenting an idea in opposition to Coulters statements. Chakaki says stewardship does not mean absolute power of humans over nature. It is a trust, an immense responsibility. Farkhunda Ali, who in 2008 won an Ethnic Media Award for her writing on immigration, also sees a natural convergence between sustainability and Islam. Organic is in my opinion more Halal than Halal. Halal is an Arabic word that means i n accordance with Islamic law. While it might appear that Green Muslims in the District simply jumped on a trend, Chakaki, one of the groups founders, says that people have been writing about this direct connection between Islam and environmentalism for a while. In fact, Chakaki points to the work of the George Washington Universitys Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a professor of Islamic studies. Nasrs writings are one of the things Chakaki says led him to a career in environmentalism. To have D.C. area Muslims connect their faith to sustainability requires taking genera l religious principles and seeing how they apply to our resource consumption, says Ahmad, an environmental activist now living in Jordan. Being green isnt a matter of buying the latest gadget. Its living sustainably in line with your religious values and principles, Ahmad says. Sustainability starts with a consciousness of everyday habits, not ones wallet. Ahmads interest in environmentalism began in the classroom when her fourth grade teacher invited the citys recycling director to class. We asked questions like why dont you take aluminum foil? It was those kinds of interactions that helped me realize theres a whole policy space and civic participation is important. Through that teacher I learned a lot about environmentalism and awareness. For Anwar, who since our initial interview has started a graduate program in global environmental politics, it was during a trip to Hawaii that he saw charismatic animals that are a part of every day life in Hawaii and often associated with Hawaii itself. This ability to associate the flora and fauna of a region is a connection Ahmad works hard to instill in people. Get people t o think about something they find peaceful and they will automatically talk about something very natural a sunset, a

mountain view, the ocean, Ahmad says. I encourage them to learn the names of the trees and animals in their area, Once you can look outside and say oh, thats an elm tree you appreciate it more. Rather than looking at charts and graphs, Chakaki asks people to take account of their daily lives to find simple, practical steps to lower their environmental impact. At a local mosque, Chakaki and others pointed out that you need very little water when making ablutions, or performing a ritual purification bath, and encouraged people to use a small container. Green Muslims in the District was able to take a part of daily life for Muslims and find a simple way to relate to a larger green consciousness. Chakaki often uses the words of the Quran itself to teach these principles; in his work he talks of a Hadith, or narration originating from the words of the Prophet Muhammad, in which Muhammad instructs his followers not to waste water even when by a flowing river. To Ahmad this was an example of taking general religious principles and seeing how they apply to our current resource consumption. Though Green Muslims in the District aims to use traditional Islamic texts along with the Hadith the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and theSunna, or the practices of the Prophet Muhammad, they do not mean to drive Muslims into the past. Instead, it is a way to show their peers that Islamic tenets can be used to address contemporary issues. Furthering the connection between Islam and sustainability, Green Muslims in the District created Green Iftars during Ramadan. Iftars are ritual evening meals to break the fast Muslims observe during Ramadan. Green Muslims in the District encourage those observing the meal to prepare organic and local food, conserve paper, and carpool or take public transit at this time. The initial Green Iftar dinner in 2007, hosted by Green Muslims in the District had only 15 participants, but the next year the number of attendees increased to 40. Green Iftars were so successful that the group developed the Ramadan Pact, or a pledge that encourages participants not to purchase anything for a month. Ahmad says a buy-nothing Ramadan was another good way for people to connect something that has so many traditions and is such a big part of Muslim culture with something environmental, says Sanjana Ahmad. Ahmad says the Ramadan Pact forced people to realize consumption is not just about buying stuff at the store. It has a history. Where did the natural resources come from a metal mine in Africa run by child labor? How were they put togethera sweatshop with workers barely making a living wage? Where did they end up in a toxic landfill near an ecologically blighted community? This project help[ed] us combine important aspects of our faith: spiritual reflection and improvement, with a concern for others. Such questions about the workers who produce the products become increasingly personal to the Muslim community since many nations that have been documented with sweatshops and metal mines have large Muslim populations. Ahmad connects this world view to the fact that Muslim countries having resource constraints are intrinsically [wiser] about managing resources. When I went to Bangladesh, they made shoeboxes out of recycled paper. Thats not some pioneering effort; its just an easy way to use what you have. To Ahmad and Chakaki, in contemporary American society it is easy to not be cognizant of your impact, however, in nations where it takes greater effort and ingenuity to simply go about daily life, even the simplest things can prove vital. Founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core,a Chicago based organization that focuses on young people of different faiths engaging in service work driven by their shared ideal, Eboo Patel, stated simply the environmental crisis will affect Karachi before it affects Chicago. Just breathing the air in Cairo is equal to smoking 10 cigarettes a day. Though Mohamad Chakaki, Sajid Anwar, and Sanjana Ahmad have all moved on from Green Muslims in the District, they each continue to be a part of the green movement within Islam through their own actions in their daily lives. At the core of what were trying to do is reconnect [with the Earth], because we live in the United States in the 21st century. Its harder to reconnect to ourselves. To each other. To the natural world. To Allah, says Chakaki.