Newsletter of the Claremont Main Road Mosque · No.16
‘Id al-Adha 1436 • September 2015
Cultivating Recognition (Ma’rifa) in the Quest for Environmental Justice Dr. Aslam Fataar A focus on environmental justice and sustainability in light of the threat of climate change, global warming, environmental pollution, and ecological imbalances all over the world, has become a matter of urgency in our lives. Humans are affected on a daily basis by an increase in diseases related to air pollution, and dwindling food resources. We have to persuade ourselves of the need for an appropriate response, based on a proper recognition of the nature, depth and extent of the crisis. No one is apparently going to die spectacularly, immediately and directly, as a result of global warming. The issue does not seem to conjure enough alarm to get people focused. Unlike incurable diseases like cancer, HIV / Aids, and even certain strains of TB, the immanence of death by environmental pollution and climate change is not apparent. This lulls us into a kind complacency, and yet the danger is imminent. Recently, the Catholic Church under the leadership of Pope Francis released an important papal encyclical, in which he suggests that ecological problems are not just environmental problems. He reflects on the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable and poor in the world. He calls attention to the devastating consequences of industrialisation, pollution and waste and the role of unbridled capitalism in the destruction of our earth. In August this year, an initiative led by Islamic Relief, with the support of, among others, the SA-based World For All Foundation, brought together a range of
Muslim civic actors and leaders in Istanbul to produce the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change. This initiative is to be lauded. The declaration speaks with clarity and urgency in calling for a coherent response from the Muslim world to address climate change. Muslims, however, collectively and individually, seem not to understand this urgency, nor are we prepared to radically adapt our lifestyles and economic platforms to mitigate and address the dunya’s sustainability.
Humans have behaved as if there will be no hisab (accountability), no reckoning with the impact of our behavior, without much of a consciousness of our ecological sustainability
My suggestion is that most people, communities and nations suffer from a failure to recognize the impending ecological disaster that has been coursing its way into the very fabric of our lives, affecting how we now live and die, the quality of our existence, the scarcity of resources for human survival, where droughts and floods affect our livelihoods, causing famine, forced human migration and wars. I propose that what is needed to confront this crisis are the following: a) a need for proper recognition (ma’rifa) of our worst excesses and complicities in the drama of ecological fragility; b) redemptive
or corrective practices; c) an educational and literacy struggle to combat our global and local ecological fragility, and d) becoming productive in areas of research into new science and technology that can mitigate environmental challenges. Once we recognise the depth and extent of the crisis, we have to work out how to get busy addressing this crisis. With regard to recognition (ma’rifa), it is clear that something about our existence is deeply ‘out of place’. Human practices, in the pursuit of economic gain, have over the last 200 hundred years been based on the unadulterated exploitation of Allah’s earth. Humans have behaved as if there will be no hisab (accountability), no reckoning with the impact of our behavior, without much of a consciousness of our ecological sustainability. An environmentally aware consciousness or taqwa, now requires that we cultivate the ability to recognize the impact of our behaviour well into the future and cultivate the necessary capacity to adjust our behaviour accordingly. Dr. Aslam Fataar, Professor and Vice Dean: Research, Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University, is the author of the recently published book, ‘Engaging Schooling Subjectivities across Post-Apartheid Urban Spaces’, September 2015, SunMedia.
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40-42 Main Road, Claremont, 7708 • 021 683 8384 • www.cmrm.co.za Al-MizanEidADHA1436-2015D.indd 1
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