Cleanliness is Half of The Faith

Environmental pollution, continuous degradation of the natural resources, and the depletion of the ozone layer have been some of the most threatening issues for a long time. Various environmentalists have different perspectives over this issue but Islam's teaching "cleanliness is half of the faith" is one of a kind. When we talk about the environment we mostly think about how the polluted environment affects the quality of life of human beings, but Islam has connected this to a spiritual level by calling it a part of faith. In fact, it has gone far beyond saying that if an individual is not clean, half of her faith is missing. This single sentence says it all about how important cleanliness is in Islam.

In spite of hundreds of researches, scientists have failed to find a planet that matches the perfect environment to accommodate a wonderful creation like human beings. Humans are blessed to have place like Earth to call home that includes all the necessities of life. Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessing be on him) said " The Earth is green and beautiful, and God has appointed you his stewards over it. The whole earth has been created a place of worship, pure and clean. Whoever plants a tree and diligently looks after it until it matures and bears fruit is rewarded. If a Muslim plants a tree or sows a field and humans and beasts and birds eat from it, all of it is love on his part"  This saying by the Holy Prophet Mohammad(PBUH) is yet another example of importance of clean environment. By designating the entire Earth as a place of worship, Islam has heavily emphasized to keep it as clean and as pure as one can because no religion in the world would allow their place of worship to be polluted. God has provided just the right amount of everything on the earth for human beings to be able to not only survive but thrive, but in process of achieving the best we sometimes forget that we owe some care and attention to our wonderful natural habitat. It is our moral duty to keep the environment around us clean by volunteering for betterment of it. An act as simple as planting a tree can bring a huge change.

April 22nd is celebrated every year as Earth Day to remind individuals about their responsibility towards keeping this planet safe in the present as well as the future. We certainly cannot change the entire world in one day, but if all of us turn ourselves into environment lovers, we can surely bring an unavoidable change. The Medshare is a non-profit organization that has brought a change by collecting extra and unused medical supplies from hospitals that might have been thrown out to  landfills to create more pollution, and sending them to third world nations where these supplies have improved and saved the lives of hundreds of individuals.  Youth of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community participated in Aziza Magazine sponsored event at Medshare and helped pack several boxes to ship to other countries in an effort to save the environment and serve humanity.

What effort did you do to help save the environment?