One of my own intentions was to add clarity to my own personal understanding of Islamic environmental ethics in relation to climate change.
Since the conference in Copenhagen- climate change is coming up, I couldn’t think of a better time to share this. Islam favours the ideas of little waste and degradation and this favours the motifs towards climate change. Rising issues such as the richer north contributing to the warming of the planet and the impacts felt by the poorer south is just one of the concerns that is worrying about climate change.
Humankind’s impact on the earth’s climatic system is leading to a world where life on the planet as a whole may, over the next few decades, become really different. In some parts of the globe it may be difficult for much life to survive at all, because of rivers drying up for example, in many parts of Africa. Consequently, whilst paying attention to other important issues like the Middle East conflict, there is also a need, in the context of global and local politics, for humanity to come together to confront the challenge of climate change. The summer of 2003 was considered an extreme summer, the World Health Organisation published a report in 2002 which estimated through comparisons with the period between 1961 and 1990, that in the year 2000, global warming caused 150, 000 deaths.
So what can we Muslims do to help mitigate Climate Change?
Through early Islam, an intimate link was made between nature and God. God did not merely create the universe, but has also laid down definite laws comprising it. The Law of Uniformity in nature, for example deals with the nature of the universe. He has, besides, prescribed definite laws regulating human life and its activities. Those who study nature and try to discover the laws that govern it are people of knowledge and insight, so the Qur’an says. We use the world, tame it, cultivate on it and many other things – but it’s not our own. God’s quality of encompassing all things, (in Arabic, Muhit) is to maintain awareness of the sacredness of nature into which God’s presence is said to permeate. One of the ways in perfecting ourselves is to bring out qualities of God, like “Muhit”, in us. Nature is not only to feed and shelter our physical bodies, but also to nurture our souls. This can be put in context by conserving our environment and helping to protect it!
Materialism; Islam teaches it’s wrong. It seems to exist to a huge extent within many societies of today. As more people migrate into cities and become closer to energy-intensive production that is becoming increasingly distant from the natural ways- from an Islamic point of view is the dissolving of a source of spiritual nourishment, a distancing from God and spiritual need that becomes harder to satisfy. The Qur’anic verses present a message which is particularly relevant to the societies into which we are entering.

In Islam, unnecessary production and transport of goods and resources are discouraged as both depend on resource use. Production should be for NEED as opposed to simply creating a market for profit! This is what’s happening today- businesses want to get higher and higher to achieve that economies of scale and defeat pressure from competitors at the same time. Most have forgotten what the fundamental reason for production is and now it’s turning into unnecessary production so that profit can be made. This leads to huge amounts of waste. Islam therefore, encourages localised production, this gives benefits such as less fuel used for transport and also helping out the water starved areas that are feeling the impacts of climate change – for example, buying a bag of salad, from your supermarket that is imported from Kenya- we may think it’s just a bag of salad but to the farmers in Kenya, starved of water, it may spell destitution. That mixed salad takes about 300 litres of water to produce. Avoid purchasing things like this that are from these water starved places. Buying separate vegetables instead that is from a country that is perhaps less starved of water? Or even better, buying local!

Moreover, climate change destroys biodiversity and cuts out habitats and brings about extinction…it is as if we are silencing a whole group of worshippers and creatures of God – we are all aware that animals too worship the Lord. “There is not a thing but celebrates His praise, but you understand not how they declare His glory” (Qur’an 17:44). The doors to spiritual elevation can also come through environmentally friendly behaviour. Try it! like…
Practicing simple things to help our environment: less wastage, using public transport (I know we all are desperate to get cars of our own, it’s understandable, it’s cool! But since we are young and fit, why not save the money to get a car maybe after your degree instead and use public transport, cycling and walking that in itself has so many benefits?), recycling, re-using, switching lights off if not in use, not leaving your laptop on standby or even appreciating the trees and green around us rather than encouraging more building. This all isn’t just an intellectual change, but it can also be a shift in the state of the individual, in the way she or he thinks and feels, developing us as better Muslims, reaching that spiritual goal! Beauty is loved by God, and beauty can come through to humans in the form of beautiful gardens and cleaner air. When we experience all these things it is then that we feel that special God consciousness and vibes from our creator.

I think that, if we all act now by doing our bit for the future generation and help to conserve our environment, we will all experience a change within ourselves – it’ll become a discipline within our system. Islam teaches us to balance. Having a balance in everything in life brings optimum. It is, after all, the concentration of greenhouse gases like CO2 that are destroying this balance.
“Verily, all things have We created in proportion and measure” (Qur’an 54:49)
Time to change! No time to waste!

Ameera Bandali

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