11 - 17 October 2001
Issue No.555
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 11 - 17 October 2001 Issue No.555 |
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To love and cherish
Ri'ayat Al-Bi'a fi Shari'at Al-Islam (Care of the Environment in Islamic Law), Youssef El-Qaradawi, Cairo: Dar Al-Shorouq, 2001. pp260
Allah is He who created the heavens and the earth, and causeth water to descend from the sky, thereby producing fruits as food for you, and maketh the ships to be of service unto you, that they may run upon the sea at His command, and hath made of service unto you the rivers; and He maketh the sun and the moon, constant in their courses, to be of service unto you the night and the day. And He giveth ye of all ye ask of Him, and if ye would count the bounty of Allah ye cannot reckon it. Lo! man is verily a wrong-doer, an ingrate (Abraham, 32-4, The Meaning of the Glorious Quran, an explanatory translation by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall);
Landscape with a sky of gold, detail of a miniature painting from the Shah-nameh by Firdowsi, ca.1525-30
Lo! We offered the trust unto the heavens and the earth and the hills, but they shrank from bearing it and were afraid of it. And man assumed it. Lo! he hath proved a tyrant and a fool (The Clans: 72);
And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said: Surely I know that which ye know not (The Cow: 30);
Work not confusion in the earth after the fair ordering thereof (The Heights: 56).
"Life is short, and we are all guests here... Before taking any action it is important that we take time to think about that action, to consider its consequences, in the short run and the long run. Humans need to know their limits and capabilities, that man is not a god unanswerable for his actions..." Thus writes Shaykh Youssef El- Qaradawi, in his Ri'ayat Al-Bi'a fi Shari'at Al- Islam, which is an illuminating and straightforward introduction to the subject of the environment in Islamic law.
The humane and humble attitude to the environment that the author counsels is one that those who view their lives as driven by forces other than that of Mammon would find both appealing and, perhaps, at this juncture of human history, necessary if humanity as a species and earth as a dwelling place are to survive. In this respect, El-Qaradawi's book does not depart radically from, say, David Ehrenfeld's 1960s then- eye-opening and ground-breaking, The Arrogance of Humanism, now a classic work on the environment. Ehrenfeld's book was a philosophical and scientific critique of the hubristic and greedy attitude to nature that has gained momentum over the centuries and culminated in such Titanic 20th century mega-projects as Egypt's Aswan High Dam and in places like Chernobyl.
Though addressed to all readers, El- Qaradawi's book, however, is written from an explicitly Muslim perspective, and hence frames its answer to why we should adopt a stance of charity (ihsan) and justice (adl) towards the environment in Muslim terms. Proper behaviour towards the environment is necessary, El- Qaradawi, together with all Muslim believers, holds, not only because it is to humanity's advantage, but also because God -- through His Book, through the medium of the reported sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (hadith), and through His Shari'a (His law as derived from the previous two) -- says so.
El-Qaradawi's book is replete with quotations from the Qur'an and from the hadith, quotations which serve not only to show what kind of behaviour (adab) is required of Muslims towards their fellow creatures, but also, to present the theological principles from which the rules of Muslim behaviour (as legislated by Islamic fiqh or jurisprudence) are derived. That is to say, in addition to giving the reader information about the Islamic prohibitions and injunctions concerning the environment, the book outlines what -- according to Muslims who believe that the Qur'an is God's Word and who try to live in imitation of their Exemplar (the Prophet Muhammad) -- is man's position in the universe.
In the Muslim view, human beings share with all members of the created universe (al-khalq) their condition of createdness by God, and hence their utter indebtedness to Him. With all creatures, humans share a condition of servanthood (uboudiya) -- whether they embrace this servanthood or deny or rebel against it. They are in a state of perpetual praise and glorification of His Majesty, whether they are aware of or ignorant of this being the case. Even inanimate matter, Islam holds, is enfolded in the All- Encompassing One, the Source (Al-Samad). He is the Creator (Al-Khaliq) of all that exists, and as such the breath of the Living One (Al-Hayy) permeates even minerals and glaciers.
What marks man out as separate from all other creatures is, in the Muslim view, the Covenant (al-'ahd) whereby, unlike any other species, angels included, man accepted the position of being Allah's viceroy (khalifa) on earth and of being trustee of all creation (al-amana). Man's special position, his endowment with reason, is not one of dominion, but at most is that of a care-taking shepherd (ra'i). His trusteeship does not entitle him to lord it over creation, but rather, his "privilege" is that he has accepted the burden of this responsibility. And though, in addition to the worship of Allah, one purpose of human existence is to build up the earth (imarat al-ard), man's viceroyship consists mainly in maintaining what belongs to the Giver (Al-Mu'ti, Al- Mon'im), Owner (Al-Malik) and Lord (Al-Malek) of all things, and in carrying out this task in accordance and in symbiosis with the existent balance and harmony (wazn) of the cosmological ecosystem.
Man is ordered to work, plant and build -- but to do so in the name of Truth (Al-Haqq) and Justice (Al-Adl), according to the limits implied thereby, in the spirit of charity (ihsan) and not in the spirit of tyranny or injustice (zulm). Earth, according to the Muslim view of things, has not been handed over as property to man by a creator who then absconded from creation. Rather, "the capital" and "means of production" that the environment constitutes has been entrusted to man to safeguard and nurture according to God's Law, through the grateful and loving labour befitting an indentured servant who knows his place in the scheme of things. For man to claim planet earth as his own property is thus tantamount to the worst kind of shirk (idolatry), namely, the taking of oneself as a god.
The correct attitude, or good adab, towards animate or inanimate creation is to consider and to give thanks. The universe, according to Muslims, is Allah's silent Book, a sign everywhere of His being the One in Existence (Al-Mawjoud) and upon which the Muslim is asked to reflect. Having thus reflected, he will -- if sincere (sadiq) in his reflection -- realise that existence itself (the universe's, his own as part of the universe) is, to quote Rumi, "a gift without reason." Having realised this, he will knowingly, and not merely in spite of himself, give praise and thanks. Destruction and corruption of the environment -- through profit and the greed-driven mass deployment of pesticides without thought about the consequences for creation's progeny, through negligence leading to nuclear fall-out, through hubristic meddling with complex ecosystems (the human body, rivers) and with the hidden building blocks of biological being (seeds and genes), through anger and tyranny-driven chemical warfare, genocide and the extermination of species, through tyranny on the part of the strong and the wealthy over the meek, weak and poor -- are not commensurate with the behaviour of a true Muslim.
Animals, the Qur'an tells its readers, consist of "peoples like you" (ummamun mithlakum), and they should be treated with all the good, adab and ihsan (charity), owing to them. The lowliest of creatures, or the most foul-smelling of minerals (petrol, for example), speak a language of praise, but it is you who do not understand or see. The Prophet Muhammad is known to have lovingly and respectfully greeted a mountain, even though that mountain was associated with a major Muslim defeat in battle. He told his friends -- and through the chain of transmission his words have reached us -- that not a sparrow shall fall by your negligent and/or cruel hand except you shall have to answer for the murder you committed. Allah, the Qur'an (itself replete with references to animals, plants and minerals) tells us, is not ashamed to give a fly a prominent place in His glorious discourse.
The Muslim, in sum, is required by the Lord whom he serves and in whose image he was created to preserve the environment, to plant in the spirit of givingness (ataa) and not greed, to build but to do so with a simplicity and frugality that takes future generations -- human, animal, plant and mineral -- into full consideration. Resources, El-Qaradawi makes patently clear in his exposition of the Islamic cosmological principles from which correct behaviour towards the environment may be derived, are gifts that should be treated with respect, care and a sense of beholdeness to the Giver. Do not be wasteful with the gift of water, the Prophet tells his listeners, even when performing your pre-prayer ablutions, and even if you are performing this ritual of purification in a flowing river. If a man has planted a seed, and if, long after he has passed on, a sparrow ate from that tree, he is, in the eyes of his Judge a charitable man, a giver respectfully mirroring the Merciful (Al-Rahim) and the Giver (Al- Mu'ti), his Lord and Master from whom he comes and to whom he returns.
Islam is not just about women covering their hair or about the prohibition of intoxicants. Books like El-Qaradawi's remind the reader -- Muslim and non-Muslim alike -- that this religion of billions contains wisdom for those who seek it. Though Dar Al-Shorouq should be congratulated for giving this kind of Islamic discourse an opportunity to be heard, a less loose editorial policy would be a good idea, especially if we are concerned about the environment. Books are made of paper, and paper comes from trees. Some copy-editing (to cut repetition) of this book would have served both book and environment, while a broader, more vigilant editorial policy would have noted that Abdallah Shehata's Rui'yat Al-Din Al-Islami fi Al-Hifaz ala Al-Bi'a (also published by Dar Al-Shorouq this year) does not offer much that is different from or superior to El-Qaradawi's Ri'ayat Al- Bi'a fi Shari'at Al-Islam
When He hath delivered them, behold! they rebel in the earth wrongfully. O mankind! your rebellion is only against yourselves. Ye have enjoyment of the life of the world; then unto Us is your return and We shall proclaim unto you what ye used to do. The similitude of the life of the world is only as water which We send down from the sky, then the earth's growth of that which men and cattle eat mingleth with it till, when the earth hath taken on her ornaments and is embellished, and her people deem that they are masters of her, Our commandment cometh by night or by day and we make it as reaped corn as if it had not flourished yesterday. Thus do We expound the revelations for people who reflect. (Jonah: 24-5).
Reviewed by Nur Elmessiri
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