Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Environmental and Waste Management Issues From Islamic Perspectives

The global trusteeship (Amanah) which the Heavens, the Earth and the Mountains declined to shoulder its immense responsibility (), was accepted by man for various reasons. Allah is the ultimate holder of dominion over the creation and is thus accountable each in the own ways. The creation itself, in all its myriad diversity and complexity, may be thought of as “communities” Containing “signs” of Allah’s power, wisdom, beneficence and majesty. The wholly creation praises Allah (God) by its very being.
A prophetic tradition stated: There is none amongst the believers who plaints a tree, or sows a seed, and then a bird, or a person, or an animal eats thereof, but it is regarded as having given a charitable gift[for which there is great recompense].Al-Bukhari.III:513].
Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h) was a pioneer of environmentalism as an analysis of the abovementioned prophetic saying reveals that he was a staunch advocate of environmental protection. He was an “environmentalist avant la letter”, a pioneer in the domain of conversation, sustainable development and resource management and one who constantly sought to maintain harmonious balance between man and nature. From all accounts of his life and deeds, we read that prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h) has a profound respect for fauna and flora, as well as an almost intuitive connection to the four elements, earth, water, fire and air.
He was a strong proponent of the sustainable use and cultivation of land and water, proper treatment of animals, plants and bird, and the equal right of users. In the context of modernity of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) view of the environment and the concepts he introduced to his followers is particularly striking: certain passages of the saying could be easily mistaken for discussions about contemporary environmental issues...
The Prophet’s environmental philosophy is first of all holistic: it assumes a fundamental link and interdependency between all natural elements and bases its teachings on the premise that if man abuses or exhausts one element, the natural world as a whole will suffer direct consequences.
The concept of holistic philosophy as applied in modern times in environmental management is that the environment is an ecosystem in which there is continuous and dynamic interaction and relationship between plants animals with the water air and soil that make up the environment. Environmental problems are therefore solved efficiently by considering them multimedia pollution problems caused by the dynamic interaction between the elements which constitute the environment.
For example acid rain that results from the emission of sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides into the air (air pollution problem) will also pollute the water resource as well as the Land resource .these Pollutants are washed out of the atmosphere to cleanse it but in turn it pollutes the surface water (rivers, streams, lakes etc…) groundwater, kills fishes, destroys the soil and any vegetation etc..
Our reliance on “natural cleansing” processes in the atmosphere will there fail to deal with the “multimedia nature of the problem.[Davis.M.L;Cornwell.D.A:1999].The three most important principles of the prophets(SAW) philosophy of nature are based on the Qur’an teachings and the concepts of Tawhid(unity), Khalifa(stewardship)and Amana(trust).
The Qur’an constantly reminds believers that they are but the guardians of Allah’s creation on earth and that they should never take this creation for granted.”Consider the water which you drink, was it you that brought it down from the rain cloud or we? If We had pleased, we could make it bitter”[56:68-70}.

Saving water and safeguarding its purity were two important issues for the prophet: We have seen that his concern about the sustainable use of the water led to the creation of haram zones in the vicinity of water sources.
Accordingly, Islam promotes emphatically all measures that lead to the realization of the common good and make it tangible reality. In this life, it is imperative that the following principles be taken into considerations.
ü The conservation of the natural environment is a moral and ethical imperative
ü Ethical teachings should be backed with legislation and effective enforcement of injunctions and prohibitions
ü Thought the institutional arrangements of society, conservation should be integrated with ecologically sustainable development.
ü Scientific and technical knowledge of the natural environment and the means o fits conservation should continually be improved and developed though ongoing scientific research and monitoring
ü The development of the earth, in order to be ecologically sustainable should be planned and carried out in accordance with the natural constrains, ecological values and sensitivities and inherent suitability of its various localities
ü Developmental actions and projects undertaken in one country should not lead to any kind of damage, harm or degradation in the natural environment of another country
Sadly, the harmony that the Prophet advocated between man and his environment has today all too often been lost. As we face the effects of pollution and overexploitation.desertifcation and water scarcity in some parts of the world and floods and violent storms elsewhere, it is perhaps time for the world community as a whole Muslims, Christians and Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, atheists and agnostics, to take a leaf out the prophet’s book and address the current environment crisis seriously and wisely.
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2 comments:

  1. In fact the environmental and waste managment is undoubtly an effective topic to overcome the numerous environmental problems which affect our world nowadays.And according to the islamic perspective in all fields of our nature,we muslims have to promote this objective through out any moyens we possess to convince the western view dominated by the materialistic thoughts only focused on how to make benefits from the nature even so both environment and humans are endanger.As acccurate solutions ,we must give a great importance to the ethical values that consist of moral and spiritual knowledges considered like two dualistic elements without which we cannot achieve our goal .Only these values can enable us to considerate environment useful and paramount in our life. For example by regarding the sayings of our Prophete Mohamad(saw),it demonstrate obviously that environment composed of trees,water,flowers,forest...are also the creatures of God .And for insistance in the coran Allah says:We have created the heavens and the earths in six days and also the intervals between them.This is the proof that shows us unequivocally that all things in this world are for God ,so we have to take care after them instead of to cause their destruction .In addition,concerning the types of environmental dangers nowadays ,the pollution of atmosphere is very alarming due to the unfortunate fact of the disavantages of science and technology in our daily life.We are going to minimise the most important things and give consideration on less important ones basing on the western theories .The question is now to know how we can overcome this problem?This question is very difficult because the whole world is submitted on the materialism ,individualism ,brief capitalism.These tree doctrines are both the policies used by all countries even those muslim.The problem is to change first the political view of our world to give an extreme importance to the environment through out a strict legislation about .Therefore ,we must implemant specialised institution to supervise patiently and carefully this objective so that all countries become aware of this situation.Finally to achieve that,we need the moral,auhoritarian and powerful administration who can grasp the islamic undestanding on the environment.

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