Since Ramazan is one of the more spiritual months of the year, I thought this week’s column should explore the strong link between environmentalism and Islam. Last year, I attended a lecture on this topic, which was hosted by Baytunur, a trust that has been established in Lahore to promote understanding of Sufism. The trust is involved in activities like reviving traditional calligraphy, translating classic Sufi texts into English and of course, organising lectures on Islam.

The lecture revolved around the teachings of the eminent Islamic scholar and authority on Sufism, Seyyed Hossein Nasr. I had the privilege of interviewing S.H. Nasr (who was born in Iran but now lives in the US) in Lahore a few years ago – he was great friends with the late Syed Amjad Ali and would often stay at his home during his visits to Pakistan. At the lecture, Dr Ejaz Akram, who currently teaches at LUMS, and was a student of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, expounded on his teachings.

S.H. Nasr foresaw the current environmental crisis back in the early 1950s when he was a student at MIT and Harvard University and would take long walks on Walden Pond, which gradually shrunk in size as development took place. He authored a book in the 1960s entitled Man and Nature, the Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man. He writes, more recently, “Nothing is more important and worthy of consideration today than the environmental crisis.”

And yet, most Muslims, like many people living in the West, are “Walking through this unprecedented crisis like sleepwalkers, little aware of what goes on about them or of the deeper causes of a crisis that threatens human existence itself here on Earth.” All this is going on, he says, “Despite the powerful and persuasive spiritual teachings of Islam about the natural world and the relation of human beings to it.”

Dr Akram, pointed out that S.H. Nasr’s book on the environment was largely ignored when it first came out but now of course, it has regained currency and is being re-printed. Dr Ejaz Akram reiterated the ‘sacred element of nature’. In his world view, there are two groups – the Malthusians vs. the Cornucopians. The former lives according to spiritual principles, upholding the view that the quality of one’s life is far more important than the quantity. The latter believe that the modern world can fix itself through technology and yet more development. He has pointed out, however, that we are running out of time – in a generation or two, global warming will become irreversible with disastrous consequences for the planet.

“If the lifestyle of the developing world becomes that of the industrial centres, it will be a global catastrophe,” he writes. I agree with Dr Ejaz Akram – the global problems of climate change, deforestation, land degradation and loss of biodiversity to a certain extent have not been caused by underdevelopment but by the relentless consumerism and wasteful lifestyles of developed nations.

“The industrial world over consumes and over produces. Then they look for sinks for their garbage in poorer countries… It is the bugbear of development which is the real cause of environmental damage,” he adds.

Dr Akram traced the rise in greed and over-consumption to the changing rules of ownership which occurred when Europeans started distancing themselves from Christianity. It was the Protestant work ethic which took over and flipped over the traditional Christian view which believed that ‘work is a curse and blessed are those who have time’. In the traditional Muslim world, ownership was regarded as what you have on you.

According to Dr Ejaz Akram, what the world really needs is not a “war on poverty, but a war against wealth.” Most of the people who are currently suffering from environmental damage (take the coast of Bangladesh and other small islands for example, where villagers are losing their homes and livelihoods due to rise in sea levels) are not the ones who caused it in the first place.

“People are suffering from someone else’s fault… We are made to believe that resources are scarce but in fact, resources are plenty. If there is a loss, someone is taking more,” says Dr Ejaz. He referred to the famous book, Small is Beautiful which outlines how localised economies should be run instead of the globalised system we currently live under, which “sees society as economy, not that society has an economy.”

Religion, of course, calls one towards good deeds and teaches us equilibrium, harmony and balance. This leads to stability, whereas modern economics is inherently unstable. In the religious mindset, “everything in the world has everything to do with God. But if you kill God, then everything becomes possible”.

Dr Ejaz points out, “Modern man treats nature like a prostitute – taking what he wants without responsibility instead of treating her like a wife, who comes with responsibility.” With the way things are going – “the graveyard spiral” as Dr Ejaz calls it – perhaps we should seriously be thinking about living simpler, cleaner and more spiritual lives.