FORUM FOR SOCIAL STUDIES Qur'an, Creation and Conservation Wednesday, 11-Jul-2001 00:02:39 EDT

God created the entire universe and every single thing in it. The laws of creation include the elements of order, balance and proportion. Everything is limited in space and time. There is a measure to everything. God is in charge of a vast and complex universe, and the myriad elements of creation in it.

EARTH FROM SPACE
We are part of vast galaxies of stars that make our solar system look tiny, yet the sun that gives us life is 93 million miles away. The earths companion, the moon, is a quarter of a million miles away yet it controls our tides and has an influence over our weather systems. The protective atmospheric shell around the earth which is held to it by gravity, is proportionately not thicker than the skin of a potato. We are in fact being carried along in a sea of space in a very finely engineered, self regulating space ship.

TROPICAL FOREST

The variety of creation is described today as bio-diversity which is the short form for global biological diversity. But, there is unity and coherence in the very diversity of creation. Tropical and temperate forests can be divided into sub-types according to latitude, height above sea level and rainfall. As a total system they act as collectors of water that form rivers, control climate by the moisture they generate, stabilize climate by absorbing solar radiation, act as store houses for carbon dioxide and prevent erosion by locking the soil. Forests also act as hosts to millions of animal and plant species many of which benefit humankind.

THE ROSE PERIWINKLE
For example the Rosy Periwinkle which grows in the forests of Madagascar is the original source of the drug that today cures leukaemia and Hodgkin's disease. The vanishing tribes of North America discovered the secrets of the remarkable Mayapple tree and used them to cure warts and kill parasitic worms. Extracts from this plant now provide cures for certain cancers. " No creature is there crawling on the earth, no bird flying with its wings, but they are nations like unto yourselves.

Every living creature is part of a community. They organize and conduct themselves in such a way as to ensure their survival and a sign of this is the way they live in balance with their particular environments, like the polar bear in the arctic regions and the camel that traverses the deserts.

THE GREAT WHALE
The whale is the largest creature God has created. The Blue Whale is the biggest member of the whale family. It weighs over 100 tonnes and its average length is 26 meters three quarters the length of a football pitch. The whale, like the elephant, is a highly intelligent mammal and it has a highly sophisticated social organisation which is apparent in the way it protects its young.
 

TINY INSECTS The insects that are visible to us are as big again as whales to other more minute creatures which we can hardly see. It is estimated that tropical forests alone contain 30 million different species of insects that is about three quarters of all the earths species.

MAN AND THE ELEMENTS
God created humankind as part of His original creation to function within its primordial pattern. The human being was then subjected to God's immutable laws as was the rest of creation making us equal partners with nature. The different elements of the universe working together keep nature in balance. Creation cannot be changed and this explains natural phenomena like earthquakes and storms which are adjusting mechanisms that keep the earth in order. But, does the human being understand all this? The human being is the most intelligent and most complex of Allah's creation. But, his ultimate purpose is to serve his creator by submitting to the grand design. The building blocks of the physical, spiritual and emotional human self are in the context of the pattern of creation.

Khalifa or the role of guarianship is the sacred duty God has given to the human race. Humankind has a special place in God's scheme. We are more than friends of the earth- we are its guardians.

A FAMILY OF NORTH AFRICAN DESERT
For thousands of years the people who have really understood nature were the people who have lived close to it. The nomadic tribes that traverse the desert, people that live in the steamy jungles of Brazil and on the slopes of high mountains, the Eskimos that live on arctic ice, all live with the rhythms of nature and in harmony with it. They take from it the best it has to offer to satisfy their needs and live in a way that protects themselves and their surroundings. These people may today be considered to be the true Khalifa.

Everything now points to the fact that humankind has ignored much of its duties and responsibilities as Khalifa in the way it is destroying nature, polluting the environment and causing the extinction of thousands of species. The consequences of our acts are predicted as being dire, but are we prepared to change our ways?

ACID RAIN
Our lifestyles today demand the consumption of a lot of energy. Electricity generating stations and motor cars spew pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the air creating acid rain. One conservative estimate calculated that in Europe alone 40 million tonnes of airborne sulphur dioxide were produced in 1982. Vast stretches of forests in Europe and North America have been killed by acid rain. Large numbers of fresh water lakes are also now known to be acidified. EROSION-SOIL DAMAGE When forests are cut down, the effect down the river courses is a pattern of floods and droughts. The top soil the trees once held together can be rapidly eroded. Carried downstream the eroded soil now flows into the river causing silting, making the water unusable for many purposes and choking fish down stream all the way to the coastal plains.

EFFLUENT-WATER BORNE POLLUTION
Water borne waste produced by human beings threatens human beings. This waste is deposited in the sea by rivers, streams, pipelines and dumping vessels. This waste contains viruses, bacteria, chemical toxins, metals and oils which can cause disease by direct contact and also through the food chain by contaminated fish.

DEAD WHALE
Human beings are responsible for the extinction of thousands of species and we are destroying them before we can even identify them. The rate of extinction is also rising sharply. In the 400 years up to 1950 an average of one species a year was lost forever due to human behaviour. By 1985 the rate had jumped to one species per day. It is predicted by the year 2000 over 100 species a day will disappear.

EXTINCTION CLOCK If the total period of life on this planet is compared to a single year, the human has existed on this planet for less than 12 hours of the final day. Yet in the last 100 years and perhaps the next 50 (a period equivalent to just a few seconds in the history of life) at least one million and possibly more than 10 million species will disappear for good. We have to rediscover the balance between man and nature.

Man was uniquely created not as a being that functions exclusively on instinct. It was given the capacity to reason and understand. There is order and purpose in creation. If the sun and the moon did not follow stable orbits and the rest of the world did not function as it was designed to, it would be impossible for life to function on earth. So we have a responsibility to behave justly, actively recognising the order that is around us, for ourselves, as much as it is for the rest of creation.

INDIAN TIGER
As we all know, the tiger is under the threat of extinction and it holds our attention perhaps because of its awesome beauty. The demand for food for an increasing population has caused its habitat to shrink. Additionally, people hunt it for its prized skin. The snow leopard in the mountains of Pakistan, the rhino in Africa and the Orang Utan in the jungles of Malaysia and Indonesia are similarly at risk. Now people are working hard to try and save these creatures. If the forests are to be saved we need to plant more trees than the amount that we cut down. This is a long way from happening but people and countries are now waking up to this idea. The Chinese government have a large tree planting programme and so have the South Koreans. The Philippines, Thailand and India have declared deforestation a national emergency. In Kenya the green belt movement have planted more trees in one year than the government achieved in ten years.

WIND POWER
Petrol and coal cause pollution in both their extraction and in their use. Additionally they are expensive to use. There are many forms of energy such as heat from the sun, the tides and the wind which can be harnessed using low cost technology and causing very little pollution. For example windmills are good converters of energy and can be used for pumping water for irrigation. There are more sophisticated windmills that can generate electricity.

RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS
Planet earth is unique. Anything comparable in other parts of the universe has yet to be discovered by astronomers . The green that covers the earth is essential for all other forms of life. Plant cover provides the basis for all food chains, mediates water

cycles, stabilises micro climate and protects the living soil —the foundation of the biosphere. Legions of soil microorganisms, and of anaerobic microbes in the shallow muds of sea floor and swamp, work ceaselessly to recycle decaying matter back into the nutrient system. Living matter is self-organising self-adjusting and selfreplenishing.

SUJUD
The whole of creation works because it follows the laws of the creator. It is in complete submission to His will thus maintaining the balance of the preordained patterning. The only creature that can act contrary to this patterning and upset the balance is the human being by the very powers of reasoning given to him by God. This is why we are required to submit at least five times a day in prayer to remind us that in the end, maintaining the balance of creation requires continuous submission to the will of God, keeping us in harmony with ourselves and everything else in creation.
 

REFERENCES

Fazlun Khalid/Joanne OBrien - (EDS.); Islam and Ecology; Cassell, London; 1992.
Norman Myers - (ED.); The Gaia Atlas of Planet Management; Good Books, London; 1985.
Jonathan Porritt - (ED.); Save The Earth: Dorling Kindersley, London; 1991.
Andre Singer - (ED.); Battle For The Planet; Pan Books, London; 1987.