Environmental Health: The Islamic Perspective

    In Islamic communities there is a major guaranteed method of seeking advantage and combating corruption, which is the promotion of good (maruf) and the censure of abominations (munkar). This is an obligation that goes beyond mere education and information availability and involves checking that the information is actually put to practical use.



Preserving Trees

The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) sought to encourage agriculture in order to increase vegetation resources and enhance a benevolent environment. He said: "Whenever a Muslim plants or grows a sapling or a plant, and a human being, a beast, or anything else feeds upon it, it is counted for him as an act of benevolence".

The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) was the first to establish environmental reservations, where trees could not be cut down and animals could not be killed. God's messenger protected the whole of Medina, section by section, where no tree could be uprooted and nothing bigger than what can be used to drive a camel could be cut. He did not allow any trees of Medina to be cut down. He said about the city that: 'Its game may not be scared, and none of its trees may be cut, except for a man feeding his camel".

He also said: "I forbid the trees between the two lavas of Medina to be cut down and the game to be killed".

Referring to the Wajj Valley in Taif, he said, "The game and trees of Wajj are forbidden".

A Muslim is even compelled by force to irrigate palm trees if neglecting to do so would cause them to die. The same thing applies to other plants. The evidence in support of this is God's words: As soon as they hold authority, they go over the earth to spread corruption, destroying tilth and progeny. God does not like corruption. (2:205)



Caring for Animals

These injunctions were thoroughly understood and acted upon by Muslims. Refer, if you will, to what imam Ibn Hazm says in Al-muhalla: �Charity to animals is benevolence and piety, and when a man does not help with animal welfare, he is promoting sin and aggression and disobeying God the Almighty.� To keep an animal from the feed or grazing necessary for its survival, and to neglect the irrigation of fruit trees and plants until they perish, is according to God's own words corruption on earth and destruction of tilth and progeny. It is something that God does not like!



Roads

The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) used to urge people to clean and not pollute their environment. He said: "To clear the road of all sources of harm is a benefaction".

Benefaction or sadaqa, is a term used in Islam to refer to what we call today civilized behavior or civilized conduct, because as the derivation of the Arabic word suggests, it is the true evidence that an individual belongs to the civilized Muslim community. This is supported by the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)'s statement that "Sadaqa is an irrefutable proof".

The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said: "The removal of harmful objects from the road counts as an (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) act of benefaction"'.

In an authentic hadith, the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) is quoted as saying: "I have been shown the deeds of my followers: both good and bad ones. I found among their good deeds the removal of harmful objects from people's way".

Muslim also relates a hadith following Abu Huraira which says: "Faith includes over seventy branches, ...the simplest of which is the removal of any source of harm from the road".



Water

The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)'s guidance also includes his injunction "Let no one urinate in stagnant water". "The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) has forbidden anyone to urinate where he bathes." He used to say: "Avoid the two actions that bring peoples curses!" He was asked: "What are these?" "The one who defecates in the road and the shade used by others."

He also said, " Avoid the three actions that bring people's curses: defecating in water sources, on roads, and in the shade."

The great scholar Al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam summed up the rights of other people to be observed by a rational free adult as "bringing them all types of good and sparing them all kinds of harm... Good is used to mean bringing benefits and preventing evils, and harm is used to mean bringing evils and preventing benefits."

This prohibition on polluting water sources and roads is only one of the Islamic directives that aim to keep the environment healthy. We have a complementary order to keep it clean and pollution free.

The same attitude is adopted by every responsible Muslim towards a person who pours the waste of his factory into waters that are for common use or into other areas of the common environment, or indeed towards any person who contributes in any way to the pollution of the environment.

Enjoining what is right and good and forbidding what is wrong and evil, which is a fundamental principle of Islam, ensures the vigilance of every member of an Islamic community to make sure that the law is enforced, the common interest is guarded, and every source of corruption is blocked.

Islam makes the protection of the environment and censure of its corruption a duty of the righteous society. God says, Why were there not among the generations before you some upright men preaching against corruption on earth? (11: 116)



Food and Drink

The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) prohibited the contamination of food and drink with what human bodies discharge, because these discharges carry germs and spread infection.

He said: "Let no one urinate in stagnant water".
He also "prohibited anyone to urinate where he baths".

He warns us: "Avoid the two actions that bring people's curses". When he was asked what these were, he said: "The one who defecates in the road and the shade".

In a different version he warns against "three actions that bring people's curses: defecation in water sources, on roads and in the shade".

Needless to say, defecation in or near water sources is a major factor in transmitting disease, either directly through the polluted water, or indirectly through fruit and vegetables that are irrigated with such water. The reference to the shade in these hadith is significant; a shaded place is a breeding area for germs, as it does not benefit from the sun that kills many germs.



Community

The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) forbade causing harm to individuals and to the community, as he said: "There shall be no infliction of harm on oneself or others".

He also forbade any injury to one's neighbor, any neighbor, whether in residence, public transport, public places, or offices. He said: "Whoever believes in God and the Day of Judgment should not hurt his neighbor".

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Dr. Mohammad Haitham Al-Khayat, Lecture on the Fiqh of Health delivered at the fourth Conference on Islamic Medicine, Karachi, 1984. Published in the proceedings of the conference by the Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences.