Spirit of Islam December 2017

34 Spirit of Islam Issue 60 December 2017 ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM, THE ISLAMIC WAY Seek the Gardens of Paradise A CCORDING to Islam, the virtuous are to be rewarded by God in the after-life by being admitted “to gardens watered by running streams” and lodged in “pleasant mansions in the Gardens of Eternity.” (61: 20) . The very fact that Paradise is represented in the Quran as a beautiful garden shows the importance attached by Islam to vegetation: indeed, frequent mention is made in the Scriptures of green and growing things as being a blessing from God to mankind. Referring to the initial stage of creation, the Quran states that "and the earth which He spread out, after that bringing forth from it its water and its pasture land." (79: 30-31) Nowhere in the vast expanses of universe is there any similar vegetation, which explains why it is that living things, including man, exist only on this earth and on no other celestial body. In another verse, which is more admonitory in tone, man is enjoined to “reflect on the food he eats. We let the rain pour down in torrents and then We cleaved the earth asunder. We make the grain grow out of it, and grape vines and vegetables, and olive trees and date palms and burgeoning enclosed gardens and fruits and fodder as provision for you and for your cattle to enjoy.” (80: 24-32) This shows that God has made vegetation a special food for both men and animals, from which they receive all the nutrients essential for the sustenance of life. The different fruits and vegetables have also been endowed with prophylactic and curative properties, and perhaps to show that life is more than mere biological existence, each food item has its own distinctive flavour to appeal to the human palate. Honey is specifically cited as a valued foodstuff produced from plants. Its therapeutic qualities are also emphasized in the verse, which says, “therein lies healing for mankind.” (16: 69) . Many effective medicines, from ancient times to the present day, have been produced from plants. The healing powers of plants are indeed so great that even that great carnivore, the tiger, will resort to eating grass when it falls ill. It was ever the desire of Islam that man should make his surroundings verdant, even if in the next instant his handiwork were to be destroyed by an earthquake.