Eco-anxiety, together with battling with the converging crises befalling us today, can be paralyzing. Constant news of death, loss, destruction, and devastation is exhausting—to the point that we can enter a state of paralysis, with our minds and hearts turning numb and desensitized. This happens to the best of us, myself included when I struggle to rise and draw out the curtains to allow light into my room. This reaction is entirely human, as we possess functioning faculties and hearts that recognize right from wrong. It is precisely in these challenging times that we need a reminder: no challenge can truly be labelled unprecedented in its severity for a believer because Allah (SWT) has already provided the antidote through the Quran and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) — including the solution for tackling the climate crisis.
From warming temperatures to the constant news of extreme disasters and wars, the hardships we collectively face today feel heavier than we can bear because we have forgotten our place in the universe as human beings. These hardships feel burdensome not only because of their severity but also, more critically, due to our lack of preparedness, complacency in maintaining the status quo, and, in some cases, our direct complicity in causing these difficulties. As Muslims, we must never forget that no matter the level of uncertainties surrounding us where we may not be able to control everything, we can be reassured with the absolute certainty of Allah SWT overseeing everything and always in control of all our affairs.
Losing sight of our purpose and place in the universe has led to a degradation of our beliefs, principles, and values—similar to the repercussions of God’s first creation’s sin: Satan forgetting his place in the assembly of God and refusing to submit to God’s will after being blinded by his pride. This disobedience was followed up by harbouring such malice and ill-will against God that permanent disbelief in God’s mercy took hold of Satan, completely blotting his chances of deliverance in all realms. Have we not learnt our lesson?
Humans plunder, murder, ravage, deface, and exploit Mother Earth. When asked about consequences, there is always a scientifically engineered answer reassuring us that all will be well. However, the truth is that we have long neglected to seek Divine pleasure as the pinnacle of our endeavours—modern man has severed his relationship with Al-Malik as His Abd (servant). Now, in our vanity stemming from a misplaced sense of self-sufficiency, we look to the stars as a possible refuge after causing colossal corruption on Earth, rendering it increasingly uninhabitable.
Allah said in the very first revelation to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):
“Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who taught by the pen—taught humanity what they knew not. Most certainly, one exceeds all bounds once they think they are self-sufficient.”
(Quran 96:3–96:7 – Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran)
Allah appointed us as Khalifa on Earth while declaring Earth as a place of prostration, or sujud.
“We are always-already in a state of return to God, and our movement upon the earth that is masjid thus becomes a constant motion of (re-)turning toward the niche, the focal point of that masjid. This turning is a humbling, in humility—the turning as sujud and of sujud, on the earth-as-masjid—and too as a turning in expectation: because every spatial point upon this earth is the site of sujud, and every niche is open, and every prostration is a melting of the self toward the Center, and every empty space is a site of Omnipresence.”
(Basit Kareem Iqbal, Islam & Science, Vol. 7, Summer 2009, No. 1)
Read more: A Climate Professional’s Insight on Islam & Climate
Internalizing the status of Earth as a masjid—a place of prostration to God Almighty or sujud—is essential for centring our place in the cosmos. By submitting humbly to the Omnipresence, Vastness, and Continuity of Allah (SWT), we acknowledge that the Earth is made and declared a place of prostration; everything in it is making sujud to one Creator. By actively seeking God through an unending sujud, all creation on Earth becomes relatives in Islam—a principle beautifully preserved by many Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island. Our role as Khalifa cannot be envisioned and honoured without first internalizing our relationship with the rest of God’s creation. Without this realization, we will never learn how to walk gently on this Earth.
“Corruption has spread on land and sea as a result of what people’s hands have done, so that Allah may cause them to taste ˹the consequences of˺ some of their deeds and perhaps they might return ˹to the Right Path˺.”
(Quran 30:41 – Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran)
The path to reconciling with Mother Earth starts by finding our place in the universal congregation comprised of the vast creation of God, actively worshipping Him at all times. While doing so, seeing everything in existence through God’s divine quality of Rahma, mercy—an inherent characteristic of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) further perfected through regular practice, granting him the deepest perceptions of how natural objects around him felt, for instance hearing the cries of a tree, empathizing with its hurt and tending to its emotional needs by hugging it.
Earth is a masjid, a sacred place of prostration, and everything placed upon it is sacred.
Unless we, as the human race, learn to stay in our place—respecting, honouring and cherishing all of God’s creation, and bowing in unison and humility alongside all our relatives to one Creator—we will never begin to undo what our hands have wrought. Now more than ever, we need to start our return to the Right Path, and it starts with repentance to Allah.
Read more: Exploring the Spiritual Connection Between Food and Ramadan
