CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE TEACHINGS OF OUR PROPHET P.B.U.H

You all must be well aware of the current climate change catastrophe. Especially in the west, there are hundreds and thousands of protests demanding the world leaders to take action.

The problem is, that climate change has not just caused by corporations, each and every one of us are more to be blamed at individual levels. Especially people of the west. I am not putting all the blame on them but they are the major reason for this climate problem. They are the ones with unlimited resources; they are the ones with the biggest corporations. Be it USA, Europe, Russia or China, just naming a few.

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How is an individual responsible for such a mess? Well, the ocean is formed by single drops of water. If you are a careless individual who exploits the resources you got, you are a problem. Look around you, how many things you have in your houses that are actually necessary. I bet, more than 50% of the items that we possess are of no necessity and we just buy them for comfort or luxury.

Every extra pair of shoe that you own, every extra pair of clothes, and every extra food item you have in your pantry has resulted in the climate change. Now you must be thinking how your one pair of shoe could damage the climate. You are not alone, probably within 5km radius from where you live, there must be at least a 100 extra pair of shoes. Now take it further at town level, then city and then country level and do the math. These shoe or clothes or food items are made in the factories that caused the climate problem. The industries expand because we individuals are fueling them with our unnecessary demands.

Have you ever realized how much water you waste during brushing your teeth, shaving, making wudu, cooking food? The same thing which can be done with one cup of water is done by two cups of water due to carelessness. And this carelessness is just because you have water, you have unlimited resource of water so you don’t care.

Have you ever realized how much food, water, or other items we waste during film making or pranks on YouTube. How much electricity we waste just because we are rich enough to pay the bills? These rich people are the ones who recklessly waste resources and then become saints and preach poor people how to change lifestyle to combat climate change by showing the methods that only rich can afford.

How much resources are wasted just in the name of hygiene. “There is a hair in my food, throw it all away. I touched a tissue paper so I won’t use it again even if it’s new”. I once saw a video where a boy orders food from a fancy restaurant and is about to take a snap for Instagram when his friend ruins the presentation as a prank. The boy demands another plate just because he couldn’t take picture for instagram. But yeah, only the 3rd world countries are the problems, right? Our streets might be dirtier than yours but we are the people of very limited resources and we know how to make full use of them. Yes, there are black sheeps within us too, but again, they are also rich. The lavish lifestyles and the urge to showoff your wealth by unnecessary spending on luxury items results heavily in climate problem.

All these protesters, will they sacrifice their comforts they got through unlimited resources? I bet not. They will keep shopping more and more, they will keep wasting food, they will keep misusing the resources just for the sake of their own comfort and entertainment. Demanding corporations or world leaders to take action is also necessary but it is a short term solution because if we don’t change at individual levels, things will become worse than before in upcoming decades.

Let’s say we have Mr. A. Now Mr. A is a very careless young individual. He prefers comfort and luxury at any cost. He never realizes how much resources he is wasting just to get own comfort. The wasted resources could have been used in much better ways or could be used for others but no, Mr. A just thinks about himself. Now imagine Mr. A becomes a Manager or a CEO of a restaurant. Is he really going to care about the wastage of the food? Never, he wants to make money and he can pay any price to achieve his goal. He just doesn’t care about others. We have many Mr. A’s within us and if they don’t change now, then tomorrow when they become in-charge, they will cause damage at higher level too.

Same goes for throwing trash. If you see a place full of trash and you know that this is not the place of throwing trash, don’t throw your trash there even if hundreds of people have thrown. Respect the land. It’s not just the government’s job to provide you clean roads or clean environment. Treat the motherland as your own house. This motherland provides you food, water, shelter and all sorts of comfort. Respect it. Do you know it is also a form of Sadaqah to pick trash or harmful objects from the streets? If no one is abiding by the law, you do, you become the drop of change. And remember, cleanliness is a major part of your religion. In fact there is a hadith that says CLEANLINESS AND PURITY IS HALF OF YOUR RELIGION. Look around you; is this what your religion asks you to do?

Allah and His Messenger PBUH reminded us that we will be hold accountable for every act and every resource that we have. We will be asked on the Day of Judgment how we utilized the money we were provided, how did we utilize the water, the electricity, the food, the clothes etc. We were taught to respect food. If something you are eating falls down, pick it up, wash it and eat it. There are people in the world who eat from garbage and believe me; they are healthier than the hygienic eating people.

Think before you throw away an item, may be it is still usable or you can give someone else to use it. If three tissue papers are required, use two. Close the tap while making wudu or brushing teeth or shaving. Even when you open the tap for using water for any purpose; like dish washing; keep low pressure, it will consume more time but it will save you from the future catastrophe.

Learn to sacrifice for Mother Nature, we have taken a lot from this beautiful earth, but how much have we given it back? If Allah has blessed you with resources, utilize them wisely, don’t misuse them or waste them just for the sake of luxury.

I recently heard a story, don’t know if it’s true or not but it has a strong message. An 80 years old man in Saudi Arabia is admitted in hospital due to breathing problem. He is given oxygen for several hours. Once he gets better, the doctors allow him to leave and gave his family the receipt for the cost of oxygen which was a few hundred Riyals. The old man started crying. When asked if there was a financial issue and if he needed any help paying the bill, the old man replied, ‘ I can pay this bill easily. Why I am crying is because I realized that I have to pay for the oxygen that I used just for couple of hours. Allah provided me oxygen for 80 years, how am I going to pay for it? ‘.

Of course this old man can’t pay Allah in cash for the oxygen he used for 80 years. The message of the above story is that we have to be always Thankful to Almighty Allah. Both verbally and by respecting and honoring the resources He gave us. Picture those poor people without food, shelter, shoe, clothes and then look around you how recklessly you are wasting resources.

Stop just asking others to change, start by yourself. Start by your room. All the excess items that you have, things you over utilize, and the cleanliness; try to sort it all out. Every individual is in-charge of this planet. Every small act counts, either towards betterment or disaster.