Day Imams, Islamic scholars train in conservation process

People are suffering from many ailments that are caused by the pollution in the environment. Some creatures are facing extinction in the near future. This phenomenal problem has made people start thinking of a way forward. Though so many efforts were being made locally and globally to address the issue, it is still posing great […]

People are suffering from many ailments that are caused by the pollution in the environment. Some creatures are facing extinction in the near future. This phenomenal problem has made people start thinking of a way forward. Though so many efforts were being made locally and globally to address the issue, it is still posing great challenges.

In what could be rightly said a paradigm shift in the fight against the global warning, the world has come to realize that the Holy Book of the Muslim faithful is enriched with such information that would serve as a guide in conservation. Convinced of this fact, the British Council, Kano office decided to invite a UK based Islamic foundation, dealing with ecological issues to come and sensitize Imams and Islamiyya teachers to how they could use the Holy Qur’an and prophetic traditions in salvaging the world from imminent extinction.

Addressing the Islamic scholars and Imams, the founder of Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (Ifees), Fazlun M Khalid said they were specifically concerned with the Islamic expression of conservation. He said they had developed a training programme to the effect.

Khalid said Islam had unique knowledge in the conservation field, “Islam has a very unique and special knowledge in the conservation field. As Muslims who are working with the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah, we have contributions to make for the betterment of the world.”

According to him, the imams and the Islamiyya teachers were targeted because they were people with knowledge and profound understanding of the Holy Qur’an and Islamic sciences although something was missing. “There is something missing, in that Muslims have failed to make the connection between the teachings of Islam and the reality of life outside.”

He said the Imams were gathered to be sensitized on the messages in the Holy Qur’an dealing with conservation and environment and to also get them think along that line so that they could take the message further to their teeming followers. “What we are doing here is to try and get the ulama replicate the program elsewhere. They should be agents of change.”

Khalid said he was not there to teach the scholars the Holy Qur’an but to teach them use the Book.

One of the ways that people would understand what the Holy Qur’an is saying about conservation Khalid emphasized, was through the activities of the Imams. He stressed the need for children to be taught that they are part of God’s creation, “Children should be taught they are part of the creatures. They should know that they are part of the trees, lizards that crawl and all other things around them”

He said to conserve was to follow the teachings of Qur’an and sunnah because it is in it that man would learn about God’s creatures and the relationship between man and such creatures.

Man, according to him was created like any other creature but was differentiated from them by the intelligence given to him, which was why man was placed as the vicegerent of God on the earth and by extension one who was supposed to protect the other creatures and also make best use of them in his daily life. He cited verses of the Glorious Qur’an which talk about creation, knowledge, measure and balance among others with relation to creation and uses of God’s bounties to mankind.

Speaking in the same vein, the director, Development Association for Renewable Energy, Malam Yahya Ahmad said the indiscriminate cutting of trees causing desert encroachment and desertification was a source of great concern, urging people to revert to the use of other sources of energy which are available in their immediate environment.

He said the sun is an enormous source of energy that is harmless to mankind, “Our objective is to create awareness and sensitize people at the grass roots on the availability of alternative sources of energy such as the sun refuse and many more.”

To show how serious his organization was on the issue of alternative source of energy, Ahmad said they have devised a special cooking stove using little firewood mostly from dead woods around. He said the stove was specially designed to reduce effects of smoke entering the lungs of women cooking with firewood.

He said so far there were about 3700 of these stoves in circulation, adding that on the conservation aspect, each stove saves 2.7 tons of carbon dioxide in a year, “That means 2.7 tons of carbon dioxide did not go into the lungs of a woman using firewood to cook.” He stressed that, the stove came as a necessity because of the alarming rate people are cutting down trees for fuel.

One of the participants who commented on the workshop, Malam Saleh Muhammad Sani said they were happy with the workshop and would disseminate the information to their listeners.

He corroborated what Khalid earlier said that the Qur’an and sunnah have solution to the ecological problems facing the world.  He said Islam is all encompassing, it has offered solutions to problems confronting mankind in his worldly sojourn.

He said Islam is against indiscriminate cutting of trees, as reward is given to Muslims who plant and nurture trees. He explained that all the natural things man sees around him were created for a purpose, and although man was allowed their use, he was not allowed to exceed limit as expounded in the Holy Qur’an.

He then stressed that anything confirmed by scientific research to be harmful to man, it would also not be allowed by Islam because in the Holt Qur’an, Muslims are warned against putting their lives to destruction, “Thus since it has been confirmed that cutting of trees is endangering, live so is forbidden in Islam.”