Voice of British Muslim Women

Arfa Yassir, Swindon

Trees are such a beautiful, significant, and irreplaceable creation of God Almighty. This is the very reason the Holy Quran in various places gives examples of a tree in different contexts. For example:

“Dost thou not see how Allah sets forth the similitude of a good word? It is like a good tree, whose root is firm and whose branches reach into heaven.” (14:25)

But a very significant verse actually about trees and plants is:

“And the stemless plants and the trees humbly submit to His will.”(55:7)

Plants and trees serve to support life on our planet and in this way they submit to God Almighty’s will.

All the things in this entire physical system are put into place by God Almighty to help sustain human life. The sun, the stars, atmosphere, water, trees, plants and so on. So that human beings fulfil the purpose of their existence:. forging a living bond with God Almighty. This makes life, and everything that supports life, sacred. A Muslim must never do anything that disrupts the balance of the entire system. Be it something that damages the environment, or causes loss of life, or disrupts peace, because peace is a fundamental requirement needed in order to simply exist, let alone seek higher objectives.

Whatever good a believer takes up has a very strong foundation, so that no other action of his or her must cancel out that good. Planting trees and caring for the planet must have an overarching theme of caring for humanity, because every life is sacred and it is a chance to love their Creator!

The natural environment alone can never be the agenda unless supplemented by rock solid steps towards peace and justice. Planting trees is good, reducing emissions is vital but coping with all this on one side and devastating the world with emissions of lethal weapons and bombardment which burns trees on large swathes of land on the other side will never bring environment-related efforts to fruition.

The world needs to have a comprehensive and coherent approach to fix the environment and politics, so disputes are settled on the table with negotiations, something expected from our? civilised, technologically advanced world. Children will fight for hours over a single toy, but adults should talk their way out. World leaders must now behave like adults and implement what they know about the power of negotiation and diplomacy, rather than destruction and war. This cannot happen without sticking to justice rather than vested interests.

An amazing effort in this regard is ‘National Tree Week’, organised by The Tree Council and partners, with hundreds of tree events held across the country. This initiative brings together a cross-section of society to mark the start of the annual tree planting season. This is indeed an excellent initiative everyone should come forward for. Alongside it, we must also not forget what environmental conservation and protection entails, including peace and justice for all, without discrimination.

Lajna Imaillah, (the women’s auxiliary of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community) also took up the task of planting trees as a humble gesture of gratitude on completing one hundred years of its foundation. By the grace and blessing of God Almighty and the unmatched commitment and passion of all the members, we were able to plant almost 97,000 trees in the twelve months of the centenary year.

We can hope and pray that these efforts may continue and help us learn to value all the gifts of God which are at service for all, without discrimination.