The Elephant in the Room – as Caretakers of Earth, Muslims Must Oppose its Destroyers

Pollution has appeared on land and at sea because of what man’s hands have accomplished, so he may let them taste something of what they have earned, in order that they will turn back [in repentance]. (30:41)

Although many translators translate fasad as “corruption,” it can definitely also refer to “pollution” which is indeed a kind of corruption that conveys to modern understanding that this isn’t about leaders getting kickbacks or bribes, it’s about directly destroying the earth and its resources.

It is both dereliction of our duty and a threat to our survival as a species to harm the earth. The Quran warns us not to commit fasad (corruption of any kind) upon the earth many times (around 60x including non-environmental corruption). And our mandate from the Almighty as humans is to be caretakers of the earth. Thus we must also struggle against those who cause the pollution and destruction of the resources of our planet, its water, living things, minerals, air, everything. But now the earth is horribly polluted and made toxic at the hands of humans, and who is the biggest criminal? The U.S. military.

Surat Al-Humaza 104

This sura’s power lies in its sounds, and it’s message. Of course, those sounds can only be heard in Arabic; but before presenting how that works, notice how the message is described in a series of unexpected connections. The first unexpected element is how a “fault-finding backbiter” is not found fault with because of his backbiting, but rather from his amassing of wealth and counting it. Backbiters are not associated with wealth, but rather with gossip. And this guy’s big sin is counting his wealth? Nowadays, one might ask, “well, shouldn’t someone with money count it to know how much he has? What’s wrong with that? And who thinks having money will make them immortal? So ok, backbiting is bad, and I suppose greed is bad too, but fire? Aren’t these guys the supply side who get the economy going? Reserve hell for the murderers and rapists.” But let’s look a little deeper.

The Meaningful Universe, Part 1 – Interconnection with Purpose

We are living in a strange, almost desperate time. What we thought was reliable and true seems upended. How many people are suffering psychologically, mentally, and physically, but drugs and other medical interventions don’t seem to work? So much hostility and death, even in places supposedly at peace. In the modern world, there’s a sense of meaninglessness, of not knowing what or whom to trust. This was described by the poet W.B. Yeats:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,
and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is lost.
The best lack all conviction,
while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.
(W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”)

Note: the title of this poem is “The Second Coming,” an idea I just debunked! But its description and prediction of the modern world, a literal “second coming” aside, is indeed true. Because what he was describing is actually the very real approach of the Hour. Incidentally—or not—this poem was written in 1919.

Does this description in the poem sound familiar? This is in essence the harvest of a world that denies meaning, the idea that everything is random; instead of God, we have the uncertainty principle. But there is meaning all around us, although it often may feel like we’re being pushed away from it. In fact, in reality the entire universe is highly integrated. In quantum “mechanics,” things that are light-years apart are connected. In truth, everything is interconnected, and within this matrix there is meaning. The Quran helps us get our bearings on the meaning of the worlds He created and how our connection to the One Who is singularly connected to everything, brings that meaning, connectivity, and its immense value and power to us mere mortals—enlightening and healing our immortal souls to see into and beyond this world of time, thus find our way to Allah/God. This is Part One of a Series.

Surat At-Takathir 102 – “Competition for More” vs Justice and Survival

This sura shoots straight to the issue of our time and of all times where civilizations teeter on the brink of collapse, and always for the same reason, greed and the competition for continuous nonstop increase — today, it’s called capitalism, about which journalist George Monbiot says “Capitalism is just a means by which something even bigger is pursued. Wealth.” This is the very subject of this sura: “Vying for more preoccupies you” — more wealth. And that pursuit as it is literally capitalized on and emphasized in modern developed countries as the whole point of life, is actually killing us and destroying the ecosystems we need for the survival of humanity. Not to mention the insanely prevalent injustice to the majority of the human race. Contrary to what we are told.  

Video: How Islam Saved Western Civilization

In 7 minutes, C. J. Werleman explains how Islam Saved Western Civilization

This is certainly an interesting and true perspective, inspired as he says from a much longer lecture, the inspiration for this video. And informative for those who are not aware of this. What is left to say is that Islam may need to save civilization itself again, because the world, especially the wealthy and powerful fraction of a percent of it, is on a downward spiral. But this time it is not science and technology that we are losing, rather it is everything else of value.

Beyond Ramadan, Let’s Work Toward Saving the Planet

Pollution has appeared in the land and the sea by the hands of humankind for what they earned. He will make them taste some of what they have done, perhaps they will revert (from corruption).

Al-Ruum 30:41

If ever humankind has tasted ”some of what they have done” in terms of corruption and pollution, it would be now. The word ”pollution” has also frequently been translated ”corruption,” but the Arabic word fasad can mean either or both. ”What they earned” shows us that greed and corruption in the sense of short-term greed for long-term harm played a major part in this. Most people now know that plastics, toxic chemicals, an imbalance of nutrients, and other products of modern human development have corrupted earth’s precious resources that sustain us, without which we cannot survive. But to take effective action, even to save the planet for our children’s future, is the hard part, left to political leaders whose power depends on the very corporations who produce and thrive on the pollution-producing systems in place. The solution? Faith-based cooperative activism such as the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change. Nothing motivates people to take action like faith; cooperation between religions has been shown to create a grassroots movement that in turn can affect how corporations conduct themselves. And the beneficiary? Humanity itself. Solutions and Faith-based organizations working on them are linked below.

Why Being a “Good Person” Is Not Enough – On the Need for Islamic Faith-Based Ethics

This article on Yaqeen Institute eloquently presents the profound truth about how ethics without a primal faith in God as Truth is not enough, leading to climate change and dysfunctional societies and more. It’s not just philosophy; it’s a matter if survival. The article is well-worth your time! A small excerpt is below:

…secular modernity—recall that the 19th century is precisely the time when Western populations began to embrace modern values—has killed the planet Earth. Even as the poor masses, including the majority of Muslims, of the world are being pressured to modernize and secularize, leading scientists and scholars are suggesting, in so many words, that the traditional, communal, and altruistic ethics they are leaving behind are necessary for humankind to survive.

https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-a-good-person-is-not-enough-why-ethics-need-islam

Why Do People Find Healing in Nature?

Photo by Author

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَن فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالطَّيْرُ صَافَّاتٍ ۖ كُلٌّ قَدْ عَلِمَ صَلَاتَهُ وَتَسْبِيحَهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِمَا يَفْعَلُونَ

Do you not see that Allah is exalted by whomever is within the heavens and the earth and the birds with wings spread? Each has known his salat prayer and his exaltation (of Allah), and Allah is Knowing of what they do.

Surat Al-Nur (Light) 24:41

The healing and restorative power of nature is well-documented, and it is essentially free and without side effects. Nature therapy, also called ecotherapy, is the well-documented treatment of many health disorders by immersion in or interaction with “nature”, which refers to any part of creation, especially living things, even when represented in videos, pictures, sounds, or scents from pleasing natural sources. Another article is one of many discussing how such therapy works or can be applied, the how often confused with the why, which is rarely addressed. When children ask “why is the sky blue,” the answer nowadays is usually a scientific explanation of the how. But the child’s probing why may ask a different question: for what purpose or meaning is the sky blue? So in that spirit we ask here the question why is nature such a healing force not so much to know how it works as a mechanism, but what is the root cause and the purpose/ intention of this phenomenon. 

The Quran’s Message for the Anthropocene

(Actual nuclear explosion superimposed on city.) Anthropocene: a name given to the modern era where human activity has caused major possibly irrevocable systemic changes to planet Earth.

Empiricism as scientific method excludes values, scrupulously avoids assigning value and meaning to things as these are “non-objective” or non-empirical and cannot be scientifically proven, but if a system of knowledge actively denies or excludes meaning, always preferentially validating (thus in fact assigning value to) randomness and coincidence as explanations for phenomena or observed things—in effect limiting their search for knowledge to that which is meaningless—, they have created in effect a system that is systematically avoiding meaning or in another sense purpose in any wholistic sense, thereby rendering the entire system, as a guide to living, invalid (considers nothing as intrinsically “valuable”) and meaningless. The point was to avoid the illogical interpretations associated with religions. At the same time, God is by definition uncontainable by the limits of empirical evidence. Thus we have a “guidance system” whose knowledge has been used for destroying the balance and system of our “home” source of survival, the Earth.

What Is the Law of Reciprocity in Islam?

Of all the major guidelines given us in the Quran, one of the most important is the Law of Reciprocity, repeated frequently in the Quran but of course, not using that term. I use the English term to convey its universality, as it is the Divine comprehensive application we discuss here, analogous to Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” What makes it so fundamental is that it applies not only to the physics, biology, and human social behavior of this life, but also to Al-Akhira, the Hereafter, insofar as what we do in this life brings consequences in the next. Not only that, but Allah the Exalted applies it not only to humans, but to all of creation in a sense, and even more stunningly, Allah applies this principle to Himself, as in the expression that Allah has “decreed mercy on Himself.”

The Green Quran

(Photo by author.)

The Quran has much to say about what we call environmental issues, about taking care of the earth. Fasad fi’l ard is usually translated “corruption on earth,” and one of its meanings is in fact corruption in the usual moral sense: cheating, bribery, promiscuity, abusive behavior, theft, oppression, political corruption, spree or senseless killing. But the term “fasad” also can refer to spoilage, as in spoiled vegetables or fruits. Or to something adulterated. Or pollution, such as environmental pollution. Why else would it be constantly called “corruption on earth?” Why mention this? We know corruption takes place on earth already.