"It is Allah who causes the seed grain
and the date stone to split and sprout.
He causes the living to issue from the dead.
And He is the One to cause the dead
to issue from the living.
That is Allah:
then how are you deluded away from the truth?"
[Al-Qur'an; 6:96]
In this physical universe, nothing is ever lost. It all gets recycled.
Allah provides for the new generation from the elements of the previous generations.
Decomposition, or composting, is the natural process of returning fiber to the soil, which
turns lifeless sand and clay into a nutrient-rich substance that can sustain life, with
the help of Allah and the sun and the rain. By nature, everything natural biodegrades. It
is a continuous process. Every moment, our cells are dying and are being replaced by new
cells. Allah creates again and again throughout the life cycle. Someday even our bodies
will be turned back to the earth. Soil is nothing more than small pieces of rock mixed
with decomposed plants and animals, which have been eaten by microscopic bacteria. From
this soil grow fruit trees, vegetables and grains, which humans and animals eat. This is
Allah's miracle for us to understand how this life system that He created is sustained by
Allah's command. If it were not for this ongoing lie exchange process, we would not be
here today.
By participating in this natural process of decay, we stop thinking of
the by-products of our food as garbage. Instead, we increase our awareness of the natural
elements which make up our daily lives. There are some resources such as plants or animals
that are renewable, and others, like minerals, which have a fixed destiny. Some things are
biodegradable, and other things are not. Items like plastic will remain as solid waste
until it is incinerated into dust and winds up in the air we breathe.
Starting a compost pile is one of the best things you can do to help
clean up the environment. Family households refuse in North America consists primarily of
paper products, glass, plastic, Styrofoam, metal, animal and vegetable waste. Along with
recycling our newspapers, bottles and cans, composting the vegetable waste is the next
step in reducing the bulk of our weekly garbage haul. You simply let your foodscraps go
back to the earth, rather than adding it to the garbage to be landfilled. Kitchen and
garden refuse - egg shells, peanut shells, leftover bread, wilted lettuce, orange peels,
grass clippings, branches, leaves, coffee grounds, tea leaves, carrot peels, banana peels,
avocado pit, grape seeds, and whatever else can all be tossed onto a pile in your garden.
Leave the pile for a year, then turn the compost with the garden soil. By doing this, we
can reduce the stress on our area's infrastructure. We also end up with a valuable
byproduct: rich, non-contaminated soil.
A tree or vegetable plant growing in moist, nutrient-rich soil produces
stronger plants that don't attract insects. Rather than concentrating on the overall
quality of their garden soil, some people instead spend lots of money on chemical
pesticides and fertilizers to keep their lawns green, exposing their children to
cancer-causing agents, greatly increasing their risk of leukemia. But even so-called
natural fertilizers can have hidden risks. Recent news articles reported that toxic ash
containing high levels of industrial waste is mixed with commercial fertilizers without
any labeling on the pack soil has a natural capability to ward off attacking pests. These
heavy metals get "recycled" into gardens and farms around the United States.
This is something to be concerned about because heavy metals such as lead, mercury,
cadmium, zinc, copper and arsenic are known to cause cancer, kidney and liver dysfunction,
mental retardation and birth defects. Likewise common pesticides leave harmful residues in
food, drinking water and households. Another terrible effect of the suburban American lawn
care chemicals is that the rain washes the fertilizers into the lakes and rivers, turning
them into marshes. Seaweed and other plants start growing out of control, so that boats
cannot pass through.
The best way you can ensure that your garden is truly healthy is to
provide your own organic fertilizer from your family compost pile. By allowing the last
fall leaves to be run over with a lawn mower before the first snow, the leaves will be
decomposed by spring and ready to give body to the soil, to help it hold in moisture, and
give the grass stable roots. Excess leaves can be dumped with vegetable scraps from the
kitchen on the compost pile. The alkaline features of the leaves balances out the acidic
nature of the food waste and make a great all-purpose garden soil fertilizer.
A pile of leaves left to decompose separately for about a year will
make a nice, clean mulch to spread over the flower beds before winter and around hedges to
protect the roots. Do not add meat or dairy products to the compost, and it will not
attract rodents. You will, however notice birds coming to munch on a snack: this is
Allah's sadaqa.
If you have a large backyard, you can simply throw everything in a pile
in a corner of the yard. But if you have nearby neighbors, it is less smelly to use a
composting container. An inexpensive compost bin can be made by wiring together four
wooden pallets standing up in a square to make a box shape. Don't use a pallet on the
bottom, as the vegetable matter needs to work its way into the ground. Then use a fifth
pallet for a cover, wiring it on only one side to make a hinge for this wooden box which
has slats to let the air circulate. You can also buy ready-made compost bins. Serious
gardeners may wish to mix this compost with peat moss when they till the soil before
planting. Even if you don't have time or space to plant a garden, the simple act of
composting has its benefits. By separating out the vegetable scraps from the rest of your
trash, you reduce the amount of waste collected from your house every week to be
landfilled or incinerated into toxic ash. Those who are unable to keep a compost pile
should still make sure to recycle, especially metal cans and newspapers, as these items
have a heavy lead and other metal content which will eventually get into the groundwater
or air.
There is no way for humans to escape the increasing need for
organically grown foods. Whatever is in the air, water or soil ends up in the food chain.
Pesticide contamination can be further reduced by carefully washing and peeling
grocery-bought fruits and vegetables. Keep in mind that even when there are traces of
carcinogens in the food the health benefits of regularly eating a variety of fresh fruits
and vegetables still outweigh the associated risks.