Remember how, in the weeks after the revolution of January 25, we saw many citizens on the streets of Egypt with brushes and plastic bags, quite literally cleaning up the country. Kerbstones were painted in white and black. Rubbish at the side of the road was swept away. After years of corruption and decay, it seemed that all this cleaning activity was the symbol of a newer, cleaner Egypt. Even though many of the streets and kerbstones have now gone back to what they once looked like, the imperative to keep the country clean is still important. Just as freedom, dignity and social justice were the slogans of the Youth in Tahrir, a cleaner environment for all the citizens would vastly improve the quality of their lives. Caring for the environment, then, is not just for academics or people in the West with nothing else to worry about. For people of faith, caring for the earth is a religious duty. The earth belongs to Allah. From the perspective of Islam, it is quite clear in the Qur'an that “It is Allah Who has created the heavens and the earth and all between them”(As-Sajdah 32:4), so Muslims should respond to His act of creation by looking after the world around us. In fact, Muslims are the world's first environmentalists. Being Muslim should also mean taking a great care and showing great concern for this world in which we live. Taking care of the environment doesn't mean taking up yoga and wearing sandals! It quite simply means thanking Almighty Allah for the gift of His creation to us. Just as Muslims pray five times a day and fast during the holy month of Ramadan, caring for the earth and all that is in it is truly part of being Muslim. When those horrid cartoons of Prophet Mohamed (peace and blessings be upon him) first appeared in Denmark, many cars and buses in Egypt started to display stickers in the back window which said, “I love Prophet Mohamed.” Some even said, “We will sacrifice ourselves for you, Prophet Mohamed.” One wondered at the time how long such sentiments would last. Talk is always very easy. Those same drivers, prepared to die for the Prophet, were the very ones to throw rubbish out of their windows or to veer across the road in the most dangerous manner. Instead of dying for the Prophet, we should learn to live for him, and we can begin to do that by setting good example. What a terrible example for people who are not Muslim to see Muslims throwing rubbish on the ground or driving in a careless way. Didn't Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) tell us that removing a stone from your brother's path is a charity? What care we should take, then, of the highways and byways on which we walk. Of course, people need to believe that Almighty Allah is in control of all things for them to do this. They need to appreciate that He showers blessings upon us all day long in order to be grateful for His mercies to us. Think of all those beautiful natural scenes we see either in real life or on television. Things like mountains and lakes, deserts and prairies, rivers and seas. Talking about all the creatures on the earth, the Qur'an says: “They celebrate His praises night and day, nor do they ever flag or intermit.” (Al-Anbiyaa' 21:20). In other words, even though we might be late for prayer or might even miss it altogether, the animals and the plants are praising Him all the time, just by the way they move or by the way they look. It is quite wrong to think that environmentalists are just those people who are crazy about pollution or the right to public pathways. “Saving the Whale” might once have been the pastime of those we looked upon as eccentric, but those people have shown us that animals will disappear from the earth if we don't take some care. If we really believe that it is Allah's earth, then how could we not be in favour of looking after it? How could we waste water or use things that harm the soil? How could we drop things on the ground or ignore signs to protect the environment? Chopping down trees in great numbers will one day have a bad effect on the earth as a whole. We all know that our constant need for more energy means that we use more and more petrol and cause more and more fumes to go into the atmosphere. We know now, only too late, that a great hole has been made in the earth's ozone layer, which scientists tell us will take up to a thousand years to make up for. We read in the Qur'an, “Not for (idle) sport did We create the heavens and the earth and all that is in between” (Al-Anbiyaa' 21:16). Allah had nothing to gain by creating the earth. Muslims believe that He is perfect and lacks nothing, so He did not need to create the earth at all. If it wasn't created for the sake of idle sport, then, it must have been created for a serious reason. We are told in another place that “I have only created the Jinns and men, that they may serve me” (Adh-Dhariyat 51:56). In other words, it is the duty of all creation to serve and to praise Allah. That is why we were created. In the same way, the plants and the flowers and the trees were not just made for fun. They were made for us to enjoy. They are gifts which we take for granted, but we do so at our peril. Muslims, then, should be at the very heart of any group that wants to look after the environment. “Environment” is just another way of saying “creation.” If, instead of using the term “environment,” we think about the glorious “creation” of Almighty Allah, it makes so much sense to guard that creation with the greatest care. Remember, that one of the conditions for Muslims ever taking part in a war is that innocent civilians as well as plants and trees should not be harmed. Plants and trees! It could be that our own good example in caring for the beautiful things of this earth will help others to see that Islam and Muslims care for the earth because it was made by Allah. Muslims believe that “with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them but He. He knows what is on land and in sea; not a leaf falls, but He knows it. Not a grain in the deep darkness of the earth, not a thing green or dry but it is in a clear Book” (Al- An`am 6:59). In sha' Allah, as carers for the earth, we will not only give thanks to the One who made it, but we will also tell others about His greatness, too. In addition, the lives of all Egyptians will be so much richer by living in an environment that is clean.
British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, is a lecturer at Al-Azhar University. The author of eight books about Islam, he divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com
