Zaytuna Center for Ethical Living and Learning: A Year of Harvest and Honey

Zaytuna’s delicious red plums ready for snacking.

The year 2021 has proven to be a year of harvest for Zaytuna’s Center for Ethical Living and Learning. The young garden and orchard produce a variety of fruits and vegetables that come to the table spread of the campus community.

Zaytuna’s students won’t be missing out on organic salads.

Zaytuna’s neighbors, who often stroll through the upper campus’ lush walkways, stop and marvel at the beauty of the budding garden. Zaytuna now owns its own apiaries and produced its first batch of honey this fall. The Center intends to purchase several more to have a steady stream of honey production year-round that can eventually be shared and sold.

The Center’s permaculture garden was recently featured in FaithLands Toolkit: A Guide to Transformative Land Use by the Agrarian Trust.

Zaytuna’s garden, a visitor’s delight Zaytuna’s bees busy making honey for the campus community.

Zaytuna now owns its own apiaries.

Imam Zaid Shakir talks to students about permaculture.

FaithLands*

By Imam Dawood Yasin

Imam Dawood Yasin is the director of the Zaytuna Center for Ethical Living and Learning.

During a May 2014 lecture, President Yusuf shared the wisdom of one of Islam’s perennial scholars, Abū al-Qāsim al-Ĥusayn Ibn Muĥammad, better known as al-Rāghib al-Iśfahānī. Yusuf quoted this eminent scholar’s famous text, Al-Dharī‘ah ilā makārim al-Sharī‘ah (The path to the noble qualities of the sacred law): “[M]an has three specific functions. The first is to cultivate and prosper in the earth (‘imārat al-arđ), which is stated in the verse, ‘He brought you out from the earth and made you inhabit it’ (Qur’an 11:61). He should obtain his livelihood from the earth, for himself and others. The second is to worship God, as is stated: ‘I have not created jinn and mankind except to worship Me’ (Qur’an51:56). This means man should obey God’s commands and prohibitions. The third is his vicegerency, which is mentioned in ‘And [I will] make you successors in the land and then, [I will] observe what you will do’ (Qur’an 7:129). This [vicegerency] is the imitation of God in accordance with man’s ability to rule by applying the noble qualities of the Law, which are wisdom, justice, forbearance, beneficence, and graciousness. Their purpose is to gain paradise and proximity to God.” In the spirit of al-Rāghib al-Iśfahānī’s wisdom, we have created a garden and orchard in the upper campus. We planted approximately thirty fruit-bearing trees, some selected to reflect fruit mentioned throughout the Qur’an. Olives, dates, figs, and pomegranates are prominent in the numerous verses that reference agriculture and the environment. We plan to press the olives into oil. The date trees are limited in their fruit production and more ornamental, but the pomegranates will make everyone happy. Over the long term, the Center for Ethical Living and Learning intends to build a network of scholars to develop curricula and learning materials for high schools, colleges, universities, and public seminars. Its primary function will be to highlight the flaws in current systems of production and patterns of consumption, and their destructiveness to nature. The Center intends to propose alternatives informed by the ethical standards of divine law. Our plan includes experimental farms where permaculture and other alternative farming methods will be taught, including urban gardening and natural methods of animal husbandry.