ENVIRONMENT
Green Earth: The Prophetic Vision Earth is so much more than just a “dead” planet for us to abuse and exploit BY IBRAHIM H. MALABARI
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pward of 50,000 acres of forests are cleared by farmers and loggers per day worldwide primarily for animal agriculture, reports Taylor Meek (https://sentientmedia.org/how-does-agriculture-cause-deforestation). Such clearing results in habitat loss, amplifies greenhouse gases, disrupts water cycles, as well as increases soil erosion and excessive flooding. It also threatens biodiversity, decreases carbon absorption and magnifies natural disaster damage. Forests and rainforests are the only livable habitats for a variety of species and store massive amounts of carbon. Clearing them pushes frontline and Indigenous communities out of their homes, thus violating their human and land rights and destroying their way of life. Abdullah ibn Habashi reported that the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said: “He who cuts a lote-tree [without justification], God will send him to Hellfire” (“Al-Tirmidhi,” hadith no. 5239). The lote-tree is the perfect symbol because it requires little but provides a lot and can thrive in the harshest environments. The Prophet even prohibited cutting down trees during wartime. This last item was affirmed by Article 3 of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights, issued and adopted at the Nineteenth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Cairo in 1990. The Prophet contended that Earth has a spiritual dimension, as we can see in 17:44 and 13:15. Moreover, they brought a different dimension to the idea of protecting Earth and its environment by encouraging people to be fascinated by nature’s wonders, as proclaimed in 13:4 and 27:60. Reflecting this, the Prophet’s stated: “If the Day of Judgment comes while one of you holds a sapling in his hand, let him hurry and plant it” (“As-Silsila as-Sahiha,” hadith no. 9). The Quran relates that God appointed humanity to look after Earth and not abuse or spoil it (7:56), that Earth and all of its creatures are His dear obedient servants who prostrate for His sake (22:18) and that Earth is an intelligent being entrusted with taking account of humanity’s deeds (99:1-4). The Prophet implemented these verses by telling his followers: “Earth has been made a place of worship and source of purification for me” (“al-Tirmidhi,” hadith no. 317). Now, consider some of the illustrative anecdotes from the Prophet’s life that may seem superstitious but nevertheless emphasize this attitude: The trees and hills would greet him during his walks, and a rock in Makka would greet him before his prophethood. His kindness and mercy embraced all creatures, things and beings, whether living or not. Moreover, he told people that if they were merciful to all that is on Earth, then God will be merciful to them. The Hadith literature reports that when the wooden stump that had served as his pulpit was changed, it began to cry. When he stepped down and put his hands on it, it stopped crying. After he told it that he would give it the choice of being returned to its original garden so it could flourish once again or of being planted in Heaven “so that God’s friends might eat of your fruits,” it chose the latter option. The Prophet replied: “It is done. It has chosen the abode of eternity over the abode of transience” (“al-Bukhari,” hadith no. 4927). He also revealed that whatever is on Earth, regardless of whether we perceive it as living or not, is not only sensible but also deeply sensitive. Once pointing 48 ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
to a well-known mountain in Madina, the Prophet said: “The mountain (Uhud) loves us, and we love it” (“Sahih Bukhari,” hadith no. 2889). In addition, he frequently used trees as symbols to display and demonstrate heavenly and spiritual realities, such as, “In Paradise, there is a tree so large that in its shade a rider may travel for one hundred years without being able to cross it” (“Sahih Muslim,” hadith nos. 2827 and 2828). In other words, the Prophet viewed nature not merely as a united body, but as a united body that flows from and returns to God’s eternal mercy — a spiritual ecosystem that eclipses, both ethically and practically, what we have only recently come to grasp in terms of a material ecosystem. The Prophet’s teachings concerning Earth and its human and non-human inhabitants are critical today, given the dangers of environmental disaster, ecological imbalance, the depletion of the ozone layer, climate change and so on. We need to pay attention to this holistic approach that recognizes the importance of humans, of all of their co-inhabitants and of Earth itself. Earth is God’s creation, and its resources are His bounties to humanity. Thus, He “does not love the wasteful” (7:31) and states that “the squanderers are, indeed, of the ilk of satans — inasmuch as Satan has indeed proved most ungrateful to his Sustainer” (17:26-27). Given this reality, the Prophet taught his Companions to be extremely conscious of using any natural or other resource, such as not wasting water when performing ablution. Tariq Ramadan writes: “The Prophet’s insistence on not wasting any natural resources, ‘even when using the water of a running stream,’ indicates that he placed respect for nature on the level of essential principles that must regulate behavior whatever the situation
