40 Hadiths on Social Justice
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Hadith #38 - The Rights of the Environment Upon You
In Hadith #38 of the 40 Hadiths on Social Justice Series, Sh. Omar Suleiman breaks down the different facets of the environment that are described in the Qur'an and Sunnah, and how we can interact with them.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Wa alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala salli wa ala alihi wa sahbihi man wala. So after a very long break from this class, obviously with Ramadan coming in between and a lot that has happened in the last couple of weeks, we are now in the last three courses, or the last three classes, on this subject of 40 hadiths on social justice. And if you think about the spectrum of what we've covered thus far, we've pretty much covered every sector, including the last class that we had before going into the month of Ramadan, which was speaking of animals. And I think that there's often a lot of extremes when we're talking about these particular subjects, when we talk about animals, when we talk about the environment. And especially when you approach Islamic texts, because they come off initially as overly idealistic. How do I apply these lofty expectations and these lofty ideals of how the Prophet, peace be upon him, taught us to deal with animals and deal with the environment around us when we can't even get to the human compassion or human beings treating each other like human beings. So how do we then transition from a very high standard already with human beings and then move on to animals or move on to the environment. And today we're going to talk about the environment, and I think that it's important to point out from the very beginning that we spoke a lot about this concept of ihsan, excellence and beauty. Ihsan means excellence and it means beauty. We talked about this overall concept of ihsan in the month of Ramadan quite a bit, that it defines the overall character of a person. And so a person pays attention when they exemplify that to things that people typically don't pay attention to. And there's no way that you could be extremely beautiful in one aspect of your life
and the opposite of that in another aspect of your life unless you're not understanding the text properly or you are disconnecting the treatment that the Prophet, peace be upon him, gives to one group of people from another group of people or to people and things that are around as well. So we're going to talk about the environment today, but I want us to be as practical as possible while talking about the way that we treat the environment within the context of justice. And so I was thinking about what hadith, what tradition that we'd start off with tonight. And the hadith that I decided to start off with is a hadith that's narrated by Abdullah bin Amr. May Allah be pleased with him. It says that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, passed by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas while he was performing wudu, while he was performing his ablution. And while he was performing his wudu and purifying himself for prayer, the Prophet, peace be upon him, told him to not be extravagant, to not be extravagant as he was doing his wudu, as he was purifying himself for the prayer. So Sa'd asked the Prophet, peace be upon him, is it possible that a person could be extravagant even as they are doing wudu or could be wasteful? I think a better word here is wastefulness. Israf is wastefulness. So is it possible that a person could be wasteful while they're doing wudu, while they're purifying themselves for prayer? And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, na'am, wa'in kunta ala nahrin ja'a, he said, yes, even if you are upon a flowing river, even if you're dealing with nahrin ja'a, even if you're dealing with a river that is continuously flowing. Meaning even if you have an abundance of resource, an abundance of water, don't waste water as you're purifying yourself for the prayer. And this is interesting because the prayer is the most important thing to our lives as a believer. It's our most important fundamental pillar in Islam, is the prayer.
And when we do wudu, when we wash ourselves and purify ourselves for the prayer, and go through the wudu, the idea is to not miss a single spot. But at the same time, in the process of not missing a single spot, that doesn't mean that you act like you have an infinite supply of water. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, is saying, even if you're upon a flowing river. Now why is that an important hadith, an important tradition, I think, to start with? Because even with a noble purpose, and with an excess of resource, wastefulness is still possible. Israf is still possible. So then what does that say about a neutral purpose, or a sinful purpose, of course, with limited resources? We tend to think that if we have access to a lot of something, that that means that that is unlimited, and that means that we cannot be wasteful. Why? Because at the end of the day, I'm not going to run out of water. I'm not going to run out of whatever it is that I'm being wasteful with. And alhamdulillah, here in Valley Ranch, we applied the no plastic, we tried to apply the no plastic water bottles rule in Ramadan. Some of us failed, including myself a few times with the water bottles that were up front. But Sheikh Yasir did a good job of not using any plastic water bottles. And we tried to implement this idea of paying attention to the things around you, even if you have excess, that does not mean that it's okay to be wasteful with it. And there's a very famous hadith where the Prophet, peace be upon him, talked about the seeker of knowledge. And he said that whoever seeks a path of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him the path to paradise. And then he continued to say that everything seeks forgiveness for the seeker of knowledge. The angels in the sky, the angels in the heavens, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the rivers, even the insects seek forgiveness for a student of knowledge, for a seeker of knowledge. And the scholars talked about this idea of why is it?
Ibn Rajab, rahim Allah, talked about why is it that the angels, the birds, the fish in the sea, and even in some narrations, the insects would seek forgiveness, would ask Allah for forgiveness for a seeker of knowledge. And Ibn Rajab, rahim Allah, said because a person who is knowledgeable pays attention to the things around them and is fully aware of the rights of everything around him. So they do not transgress the rights of anyone or anything around them because they are fully aware of them and they are connected to them. It's also interesting if you pay attention to that hadith that what we're also being told is that those things will testify on the Day of Judgment. Things that we deem insignificant, the environment, the animals, the insects, will testify on the Day of Judgment for or against the person. So a person who is knowledgeable understands the rights of the things around them and pays attention to things that otherwise people do not pay attention to, including how to treat the seas, how to treat the roads around them, how to treat the environment around them in every way. So there are several hadith we can go through. There's another hadith from Anas, may Allah be pleased with him. He said that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said that there is no believer who plants a tree or sows a field for a human being, a bird, or a wild animal. A ba'ir is a wild animal that eats from it, illa ajarahu Allah yawm al qiyama, except that Allah will reward him for it on the Day of Judgment. Or another narration, illa kana lahu bihi sadaqa, except that it will be counted for him as a charity. So again, no believer plants a tree or sows a field for a human being, for a bird, for a wild animal, a wild beast that eats from it, except that it will be regarded as a charity for that person. And that hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim. And another narration, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said,
no Muslim plants a sapling or a shoot, except that whatever is eaten or even stolen from it, whatever is eaten or even stolen from it, or anyone obtains the least thing from it, except that it will be considered a charity on that person's behalf until the Day of Judgment. So the Prophet, peace be upon him, is talking about planting plants. The Prophet, peace be upon him, is talking about undertaking anything that you can to benefit the environment around you. And this is really interesting because it speaks to our overall purpose on earth, that the believer should optimize their stay on earth. They should be productive and find ways to make the world a better place while they're here and after they depart. We know the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, he said that if the Day of Judgment begins, while you're alive and you have a plant in your hand, whoever amongst you can plant that plant, let them plant that plant. And that speaks to the idea of you being productive. That speaks to the idea of you doing whatever it is that you can to benefit. Even if, as you're seeing, that you're about to plant a plant in an earth that's about to be destroyed, you still do your part. And what that means is that no matter how crazy things get around you, you never give up your own personal role. So it speaks to a greater capacity that you have in how you treat your own productivity and your own responsibility to what Allah created around you. So even if you have just a plant in your hands, plant it, even if you think that the Day of Judgment is about to come. The Prophet, peace be upon him, also taught us that even if you were to sell this produce, and this is what the scholars mentioned, you'll still be rewarded for making them available. Because by their extinction, they become unpurchasable. So even if a person was to plant plants, and a person was to make use of that in the worldly sense,
by selling their own crops, that they would still have a reward from it. The scholars also mentioned that in the cultivation of the planet, and not leaving it unattended and barren, there is a reward in that as well. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, من أحيى مواتا فهو له that whoever gives life to a barren land, then that land belongs to them. It also shows that you intend well for others, and that helps you sometimes forego things, even when they're taken from you unethically. And that's where the Prophet, peace be upon him, talked about if you plant a crop, and even if it's stolen from you, that you still have a reward for it. And this is really interesting, because back in the days, if you can imagine, when you plant trees, and if you're a farmer, and people are walking by, and there are a lot of famous stories about a person taking an apple off of a tree that didn't belong to him because it hung over the fence, that a person could start to feel like they were at loss. But the Prophet, peace be upon him, is actually saying that you're not at loss because there is a reward in that. There's something that you get from that. And in fact, there is loss in hoarding, and in trying to keep people away from the things that you plant and from the things that you cultivate on this earth. The very first example of a people that was given in the Quran that likened a people to Quraysh, to the tribe of Quraysh, were the people of the garden that Allah talks about, that tried to hide their stuff or hoard their stuff so that the poor would not get to their garden. So they went out and they picked all of their crops early on in the day, or they plotted to do so earlier than when the poor would usually show up to take from their trees. So Allah talked about how that actually led to loss on their part. So the Prophet, peace be upon him, talking about this idea of when you plant things and when you produce in this, when you cultivate this earth, that even if something is taken from you unjustly,
there's still a reward for it for that person. So you intend well for others. We also learn from this the generosity of Allah, the generosity of the Creator that even a tree could be your key to Jannah, it could be your tree to paradise, that if a person planted a tree with the right intention and they did what they had to do with that tree, that that could actually be your key to Jannah. And there's an interesting ayah and hadith that I'm going to mention in this regard. So we're going to start off, the way that we're going to go through this class basically, we're going to start off with the different facets of the environment that are described in the Quran and in the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and then how we can better interact with them. So you start off with the trees. They call them tree huggers for a reason. So a Muslim is a tree lover for many different reasons. Allah mentions in the Quran, maa qata'atum min leenatin aw taraqtumuha qa'ima ala usuliha, that you do not cut down of their palm trees or leave them standing on their trunks except by the permission of Allah. fa bi'idhnillah, except by the permission of Allah. wa liyajzi alfasiqun, and Allah subhana wa ta'ala, wa liyajzi alfasiqun means that Allah would disgrace those who are corrupt or those who are defiantly disobedient. So Allah is condemning people that cut down, for example, trees unnecessarily or uproot trees unnecessarily. Then you compare that to the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, saying that if the day of judgment comes, idha qamat al-sa'ah wa biyadhi ahadikum, faseerah, that you have in your hands a sapling or a small plant, whoever amongst you can plant it before it commences, then let him plant it. Ibn al-Qayyim, rahimahullah ta'ala, and other scholars pointed to this importance here or the way that we understand particularly that it's not just about being productive,
but it's also about not necessarily being destructive when everybody else is destructive. So a lot of times we pay attention to the small good deed, but then we start to neglect the corruption that we also wreak on the earth. Why? Because everybody else does it. We've spoken about the everybody else does it complex or mindset very early on in this series. Imam Malik, rahimahullah ta'ala, he narrates in his muwattah that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said do not uproot or burn palm trees or cut down fruitful trees. So how do you reflect on the trees or how do we deal with the trees? First and foremost, the Prophet, peace be upon him, taught us that the trees are living beings in themselves. They are living beings. There's a very famous hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, that he used to lean on a palm tree when he used to give his sermons. And when the companions noticed that the Prophet, peace be upon him, used to lean on this tree or stand in the shade of this tree, they decided to build him a pulpit. So as they built him a pulpit, they felt the tree or they heard the tree crying out of missing the Prophet, peace be upon him. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, literally hugged the tree, calmed the tree down, showed love to the tree, and he said that it was crying because of the dhikr, the remembrance of Allah, that it used to hear. So this idea of the tree being a living thing, the Prophet, peace be upon him, is teaching us to actually reflect upon these signs of Allah upon us and to treat them like signs of Allah. So he said, for example, that amongst the trees, there's a tree which resembles the Muslim most. And this is the hadith of Ibn Umar. So he said, what tree is that? And he said, it's a nakhla, the palm tree, and the palm tree is rooted and its branches are high in the sky and it produces fruit, it produces its dates throughout the year. So it produces fruit and benefit throughout the year
while also being a firmly rooted tree. And it's also important to point out that in the Quran, for example, Allah mentions in some of the mufassireen, some of the scholars who interpreted these ayat pointed this out, that Allah mentions, for example, in Surah Al-Hajj, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees. So this idea of the trees, for example, that some of the scholars mentioned in Tafsir, you're more likely to pay attention to the stars, you're more likely to pay attention to the moon, you're more likely to pay attention to these glorious signs, but you also neglect the trees. So some of the scholars mentioned that of the wisdom of Allah mentioning the trees in that context is that you pay attention to them and you pause and you actually reflect on their beauty and you see them as signs of Allah. And you also recognize the blessings that Allah bestows upon other creatures of the earth through those trees. So some of the scholars mentioned again that Allah places those trees at the same level as some of the other more notable creations so that you could pay attention and so that you could see the signs of Allah around you everywhere. And when you start to treat them as the signs of Allah, then you're less likely to become destructive with those trees. So that's with the trees. When it comes to water, the Prophet, peace be upon him, already taught us that if you're making wudu, again, the most noble purpose is to prepare yourself for prayer. Don't be wasteful with your water. Don't run the faucet too long. Don't sit there and just take a shower every time you do wudu. We have a hard time distinguishing sometimes between ghusl and wudu. Like some people take a shower every time they do wudu. Because the amount of water that you use in your wudu is excessive. And so even though it's the most noble purpose, a person should not be wasteful. But there are many ways... Can someone please handle the kids? If I can get one of the brothers, inshallah, to go around and just quiet down the kids, I'd really appreciate it.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, when he talked about water, he mentioned wasting water in many different ways. And though some of these things speak more to an older context, they still have relevance to us. We can still reflect on them and derive benefit. Mu'adh, radhiAllahu anhu, he narrated that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, Beware of the three acts that cause you to be cursed. Beware of the three acts that cause you to be cursed. And then he said that it's to relieve yourself in a shaded place that people utilize, or in a walkway, or in a watering place. So, to relieve yourself in certain areas is considered to be unjust. Now, obviously, back then, they didn't have restrooms. You had to look for a natural place to relieve yourself. But that's why you'll find, for example, so many ahadith, so many traditions, where the Prophet, peace be upon him, forbade a person from urinating in still water, in standing water. Why did he do that? Can anyone tell me why there are so many traditions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, forbidding people from urinating or from relieving themselves in still water? Yeah. So, the main reason is contamination. The Prophet, peace be upon him, was talking about unnecessary contamination. So, think about, how do I relate ahadith about relieving yourself in still water with my own current context? Do we unnecessarily contaminate water in our own context? So, there are ways to interact with some of these ahadith, with some of these traditions,
even if they don't really apply to us anymore, in the most literal and technical sense. Do we unnecessarily contaminate water? So, think about, at a greater scale, the deliberate contamination of water, of the water supply during modern warfare, for example. Think about how many people die because of the contamination of water. So, when the Prophet, peace be upon him, says that a person is cursed when they relieve themselves in still water, it's not him exaggerating, it's not being unnecessarily harsh. It's to stop people from literally contaminating that which is a source of life for other people. So, we can relate to that in our own capacity without just focusing on the technical things. It's interesting because we find that Allah mentions in the Quran, So, just like we said with the trees, you're called to reflect and see them as signs of God. With water, Allah teaches you to see it as a sign from Allah. So, He says, do you consider the water that you drink? Did you send it down from the clouds or was it us who descended it? And if we wished we could render it salty and then what benefit would you take from it? So, the scholars reflected on that. When Allah tells you, do you consider the water around you? Do you pay attention to the water around you? When's the last time a person, you know, when you drink water, as Muslims, you say, Bismillah, in the name of God, and then you say, Alhamdulillah, you thank Allah, every time you take a sip of water. The Sunnah is literally, the tradition is literally, every time you take a sip, you thank Allah for that sip of water. So, it's not even a beginning and an end. The Prophet, peace be upon him, would say, Bismillah, he'd drink, he'd say, Alhamdulillah, he'd say, Bismillah, he'd drink, he'd say, Alhamdulillah. So, he was thanking Allah for every sip of water.
So, when Allah says, are you paying attention to the water that is descending upon you? That blessing that you take for granted. I was just in California and I was just reflecting on some of the areas where the trees used to be a lot greener and fuller, but obviously because of the drought, they suffered. How many people would really take a moment to think about that in normal circumstances, until a drought takes place and then you realize the blessing of water, the blessing of rain. I'm from Louisiana, we didn't like rain too much. We had to be aware of the rain because it kept on falling on us all the time. But, Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, he used to, when he used to read that verse, he used to think about the scarcity of water on Yawm al-Qiyamah. So, he used to actually think about it. He actually used to reflect on it. And so, you consider it. A'antum anzaltumuhum. The scholars mention, who can send it to you if Allah does not send it to you from the clouds? And who can release it if Allah traps it? Right? So, if Allah does not send it to you, then who can send it to you? And even if we sent it, think about the powerful example that's being given in the Quran. Even if we sent it and it's in your hands, but it's still too salty for you to make use of. That's to make you even more humble, because at the end of the day, it shows you that you are utterly in need of every single drop of water that Allah sends to you. And so, being grateful for it is first and foremost, the first step to being grateful for that blessing of Allah, is to not violate Allah with that very blessing. The first way to be grateful for that blessing is to not violate Allah with that blessing. It starts with that, and then being humbled by it, and feeling privileged, can only come after that.
So, you don't violate God with your water, literally with your water, which you have an endless supply of because of your circumstances. So, treating the environment well in this sense, how many times does Allah say, for example, in Surah Al-Mulk, قُلْ أَرَأَيْتَمَنْ أَصْبَحَ مَاءَكُمْ غَوْرًا فَمَا يَأْتِيكُمْ مِمَاءً مَعِينٌ Who would be able to provide for you if Allah did not provide for you water? So, there is again, a call to appreciate and a call to reflect as well. Reflect upon that blessing, interact with it in a different way, and don't violate it because if you violate that, then you're automatically showing that you don't have appreciation for that. What about the streets and the roadways? Again, the word طُرُق or طريق, which is the singular of طُرُق, means path, a pathway. There are different forms of pathway. There are paved roads that exist in different contexts. And you might remember that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said that the lowest branch of faith is إِمَاطَةُ الْأَذَى عَنِ الطَرِيقِ to remove something harmful from the road. That I saw a person strolling in paradise because he saw something harmful on the road and he removed that thing from the road to ease the path for other people. So, the word طريق means anything that people use to pass through. Anything that people use to pass through. And أذى means the lightest form of harm, period. So, the word أذى, like when Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala says لَن يَضُرُّكُمْ إِلَّا أَذَى referring to أذى as the smallest amount of harm. The way the scholars referred to it when they talked about the classifications of أذى في الطريق, of harm on the pathway, they talked about noise pollution. They talked about street pollution. They talked about littering the streets or causing, you know,
and yes, our scholars even talked about noise pollution and obscene sights that bother people as they go on the road. The scholars, you can find in the early شرح of this حديث, the early explanations of this tradition, scholars talking about a person spilling oil on the road or spilling something on the road that could get on someone's, you know, clothes as they walk through. You think about a person that's literally on the road and just throws their drink out of the window. Okay, not at another car necessarily, but even just throws it unnecessarily on the road. That these are all forms of أذى على الطريق. These are all forms of causing harm on the road. So, when the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, I saw that man strolling in paradise because he removed أذى, removed the harmful thing from the road. He wasn't talking about this giant boulder. Okay, he wasn't talking about something overly harmful because then the word أذى would not have been used. All right? He was talking about something that was of minor inconvenience, but it's still enough for you to pay attention to. And essentially, that person showed إحسان, that person showed excellence. Why? Because other people walked by and said, well, what's the big deal? Did you guys see the thing about the Japanese fans in the World Cup? They just put the whole world to shame. They even cleaned up the stadium after the game. Imagine if Muslims did that after Hajj. I mean, we can't even, you know, you're literally stepping in garbage like it's a football game or a basketball game because people just litter so subconsciously. So, that person that the Prophet, peace be upon him, was talking about that decided to remove أذى, remove something harmful from the road, paid attention to something that other people did not pay attention to. And this is really interesting because, you know, you find this, how this translated, how this culture was created amongst the early Muslims.
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari was appointed as the governor of Basra in Iraq by the second caliph, by the second khalifa, Umar ibn al-Khattab. May Allah be pleased with him. And the way that he addressed the people, he said, I was sent to you. I absolutely love this narration. This is how he introduced himself as the governor of one of the biggest cities in Iraq. He said, I was sent to you by the commander of the believers to teach you the book of your Lord, the sunnah of your Prophet, and to clean your streets. Those are the three ways he introduced himself as a governor. I was sent to you to teach you the book of your Lord, the sunnah of your Prophet, peace be upon him, and to clean your streets. That's the first thing he mentioned after teaching the Quran and the tradition of the Prophet, peace be upon him. How does Allah call us to reflect on the streets or on the pathways? It's really interesting. You find this in many different parts of the Quran. Alam naja'alil arda mihaada. Didn't we make the roadways or the pathways smooth for you, the earth manageable for you to travel? Allah even mentions al-arda dhaloola, thamsu fee manakibiha, that he made the earth submissive to you, that you can travel upon its terrain. So anyone who disrupts that in any capacity, even with other, is violating a blessing of Allah. So Allah calls you to reflect, first and foremost, once again, the blessing that he gave to you with it, and then don't violate that blessing. Unless you connect the two, unless you recognize the blessing that he gave to you, then you're not going to properly be grateful for it or give it its right in particular. Obviously, overall, how do we bring this all together? Allah teaches us to seek balance and to minimize consumption. This refers to the way that we eat. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said that we are a people that do not eat to their fill.
What we eat to function, for example. So you eat to live, not live to eat. That's a rule in consumption. The Prophet, peace be upon him, teaching us not to overconsume, even in our food. Even when we have the ability to eat as much as we can, the Prophet, peace be upon him, taught us to not exceed what we need to function, to not overeat. And so you start off with that, the problem with overconsumption, the problem with not recognizing the blessings of Allah around you, the problem with not seeing them as signs, the problem with not recognizing that these are all things that will ultimately testify for or against you on the Day of Judgment, and lastly, the idea that Allah appointed human beings as stewards on this earth. Right? He appointed you as khala'ifah, that he appointed you as stewards on this earth. And Allah, in placing you as a steward on this earth, by virtue of being a child of Adam, you are responsible for all these seemingly inferior creatures around you. And that does not just mean feeding everything around you, that means making sure that the environment is as beneficial to everyone around you as possible. So it starts off with you. Allah says, اَللَّهُمَّا أَنْيَا آدَمُوا فُذُوزِينَتَكُمْ عِنْدَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وَكُلُوا وَشْرَبُوا وَلَا تُصْرِفُوا إِنَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُسْرِفِينَ Allah mentions, O child of Adam, eat and take your best appearance to the houses of God, eat and drink, but waste not by excess, for Allah does not love those who are wasteful. Allah also mentions in the Quran, أَنْ ظَهْرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِ النَّاسِ That corruption has appeared on the land and on the sea because of the evil which man's hands have earned.
There is a broader definition or there is a more spiritual understanding of that, obviously that we create corruption on this earth and then we suffer due to the corruption that we create, that most evil in the world is moral evil and not natural evil. A very simple example is that there is enough food in the world for every single member of the human race to have a 3,200 calorie diet, but how many people die of starvation? How many people die due to the inequity of those resources? But then there is something, and there is obviously the corruption in the sense of sin and how that sin consumes people, but then there is also the way that we make our environment more volatile by our wastefulness and by not treating it properly and the implication that that has. So I want to connect that because most people will be like, no you are kind of stretching it right now because when Allah talked about corruption on the earth, he wasn't talking about pollution, he wasn't talking about littering, it has nothing to do with that. Actually it has a lot to do with that. And this is where we actually find that example in the wife of the Prophet, peace be upon him, May Allah be pleased with her. She was walking on the streets and she saw a palm granite pearl, a rubnan, on the ground. Think about how many times you've walked by and you've seen food that was cast, that could have been eaten, thrown on the ground. And she looked at it and she recited, Inna Allaha laa yuhibbu al-fasat. God does not love corruption. So she connected that, the wife of the Prophet, peace be upon him, just the person throwing away their rubnan, throwing away a palm granite, and not eating it or not making use of it. She reflected on that and she connected that to the ayah, to the verse where Allah talks about him not loving. Inna Allaha laa yuhibbu al-fasat. Allah does not love corruption.
So it is corruption as well when we disregard the signs of Allah around us and when we do not treat the environment in the way that it is meant to be treated. And of course Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surah Ar-Rahman, Allah mentions, Wal arda wada'a haa lil-anam. Allah mentions the way that he set the ecosystem, that he set the earth to the benefit of everyone around. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that he set the scales. Al laa tatghaw fi al-mizan. And that you observe the balance that Allah has created in this universe, in this system of his. There is again a spiritual dimension to that, and then there is the way that Allah has set everything to be a perfect balance to one another. So do not transgress that balance that Allah has sent, and that is something that can take place when we start to approach our environment recklessly. And so what does this all tell us in conclusion? If a believer is to pay that close attention, we talked about this with animals, if a believer is to pay that close attention to the trees around them, and to the water around them, and to all of these things that other people deem insignificant, how then will the believer pay attention to things that are of greater severity, and greater measure that are around them? And I want to connect that directly to Ramadan. The point of Ramadan, the point of fasting, is, well there are many points of fasting, but one of the points of fasting is that if you forego things that are ordinarily available to you, and that are permissible to you, you'll recognize the greater blessing of those permissible things, and you'll be even more careful of not consuming that which is prohibited.
So you're paying attention to consumption, both in the physical sense and in the spiritual sense, in regards to sin. So if a believer is that careful to approach even this, then how much more careful would the believer be with the honor and the dignity of the people that are around them, of their believing brothers and sisters, of human beings that are around them, of animals, of whatever it may be. How much more careful will a person be in that regard? So we ask Allah to make us worthy stewards, worthy khalaf, and to allow us to do right by everything that he's put around us. We ask Allah to forgive us when we transgress in any capacity. Allahumma ameen. The next two, or the last two halaqas, we're going to actually go back to, we're going to sort of wrap up the series, and we're going to talk about a few of the broader concepts. So we got into a lot of specifics, but a lot of the broader discussions of how we bring all of this back together, I think the last two halaqas are probably as important as the first two classes, or the first few classes. So inshallah, please do make sure that you attend the next two Tuesdays, in which we'll actually go ahead and complete the series, and I'll go ahead and open it up for questions.
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