SECTION ONE: CREATION

1. PLANET EARTH

2. CREATION

. . . (He) to Whom belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth; and He has not taken to Him a son, and He has no associate in the Kingdom; and He created everything, and then He ordained it very exactly.

Qur’an 25: 2

The laws of creation include the elements of order, balance and proportion. Everything is limited in space and time and scientific techniques enable us to measure much of what we experience both in their static and dynamic states. However, we may think that we know a great deal through the advance of science but we still understand very little of the totality of creation.

3. THE COSMOS

Our earth is one speck in an unfathomable ocean, spinning round on its tilted axis. Yet conditions for life here are so finely balanced that were the earth’s tilt to alter from its present position by just one or two degrees, we would either be roasted alive or frozen to death.

4. TROPICAL FOREST

Forests are an essential part of our planet’s regulatory and supply system. They collect the water that forms rivers; control climate by generating moisture and absorbing solar radiation; prevent erosion by locking the soil together and act as hosts to millions of vegetable species.

5. THE ROSY PERIWINKLE

Everything has a purpose and there are in the storehouse of creation gifts we have yet to receive. Over time we have discovered many trees and p[plants that are of great benefit to us such as the Rosy Periwinkle which is the original source of the drug that cure Leukaemia.

6. COMMUNITIES IN CREATION

No creature is there crawling on the earth, no bird flying with its wings, but they are nations like unto yourselves. We have neglected nothing in the Book; then to their Lord they shall be mustered.

Qur’an 6: 38

Every living creature is part of a community. The great whales that plough through the oceans, the elephants of the tropical forests and the ants and the bees are examples of creatures forming complex, efficient, multi-generational communities.

7. THE GREAT WHALE

Whales live in families that live in sophisticated societies. They play in the moonlight, they talk to one another and they care for each other in distress. The whale is the largest living creature that Allah has put o this earth.

8. TINY INSECT

The Tropical forests alone may well contain thirty million different species of insect – that is over ninety percent of all the earth’s species. Many kinds of insects have yet to be discovered and their contribution to maintaining the balance of the earth’s eco-systems is still unknown.

9. ORIGINAL CREATION

So set thy face to the religion, a man of pure faith - Allah’s original upon which He originated humankind. There is no changing Allah’s creation. That is the true religion; but most people do not know.

Qur’an 30: 29

Allah originated creation and then created humankind within it. We were then subjected to Allah’s unchangeable laws as was the rest of creation, making us – at the biological level – equal partners with the rest of nature.

10. MAN AND THE ELEMENTS

Human beings tame forces of nature like no other creature can. Fire, sun, wind, rivers and sea are all harnessed to serve our purposes. But have we carried these activities to access? Our actions seem to show that we have lost the vital understanding of our place in the intricate natural order.

11. GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH

It is He who has appointed you guardians in the earth, and has raised some of you in rank above others, that He may try you in what He has given you. Surely your Lord is swift in reckoning; and surely He is All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate.

Qur’an 6: 165

Khalifa or the role of guardianship is the sacred duty Allah has imposed upon the human race. We are a lot more than friends of the earth - we are its guardians. This responsibility comes from the fact that unlike any other sentient being we have been given the privilege of being able to reason and thus be ultimately accountable for our actions.

12. THE HUMAN FAMILY

For thousands of years the people who really understood nature have been those who live closest to it. Nomadic tribes like the Tuareg who traverse the desert still provides us with examples of life styles that exists in harmony with the rhythms of nature.