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What to do?
Keep objects as long as you can, or reused them!
Be careful of what you purchase. Can you recycle them? Do you need to eat so much?
Do not use ‘disposables’ like disposable cameras, but use digital cameras.
Find some other alternatives such as batteries you can charge over and over again. If using disposable
batteries, make sure you recycle them because of the mercury they contain that may be harmful to the
environment.
First of all, do you really need all that you consume? Look around the house and ask yourself why
you need two irons, 50 toys, 3 television sets, that much clothing or towels? How many times do you
change shoes after the first year of use? And, do you need to heat your house so much? Can’t you use
more blankets and more pullovers? Do you let the water gushing whenever you brush you teeth or when
you perform ablutions? Do you take showers instead of baths so that you can use less water? The
pollution is not only the problem of industries and political powers; it is also and principally inside your
doors, among yourselves.
Consume less and you will need fewer industries! Walk more often and ride your bikes more often, so you
will release less smog into the atmosphere! Eat healthy and do sport, so you will not waste as much your
time and your natural resources. See Allah has forbidden us to waste. He stresses the importance of nature
and its beauty so much in the Qur’an that nobody can ignore the fact that wasting or killing without
necessity is a great sin, should it be a human being or the last of the mosquitoes on earth!
Our Prophet, peace be upon him, said: Whoever is kind to the creatures of Allah, is kind to himself, and
whoever pays attention to any living creature, Allah pays attention to him.
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Do you know that knowledge in Islam is obligatory as well as action whenever there is injustice on earth?
So, before you do anything, you have to be strong in knowledge.
2000-2001 www.arttoday.com
If you want the birds to come back, read on any subject related to ecology and the environment! Plant
trees! Write to political leaders or to industries to complain about pollution! Call your recycle services
and the sanitation bureau to ask them what have been done so far in the matter of protecting the
environment! Tell them you are motivated and ready to do something! Finally, write to Associations like
Greenpeace! These associations can help you in many ways. It is better to rely on them for information
and advice, but this should not prevent you from creating your own Association. Contact local schools so
you could be invited to do presentations or they could invite people to talk about issues concerning the
environment. Attract more and more children to the cause, then try to reach to parents. To protect the
environment should be priceless, a pride you should instill in people.
So, after the Khutba, us children walked out of the mosque, very excited about the new plan and
very much decided to make it work!
So, what did we do?
The first thing we did was to meet people to ask questions and be prepared to launch a campaign all over
the town. The slogan was:
Of course we began by setting the example. Things had to come very slowly so that everybody could be
accustomed to the new ideas. In order to reach this goal we had to make people aware of what would
happen.
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