Nuh

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah (SAWS[1]).

Welcome to a new episode of Life Makers. In the third stage of Life Makers, we have talked about manufacturing in one episode and handicraft in another. We are talking about different pieces of the same puzzle. We are actually joining the pieces together, until we complete the puzzle, and see the whole picture. Then, we can say that this is the picture of the revival we are aiming for.

We started with the manufacturing piece of the puzzle, but then we said that there is something else that should join it, so we connected the handicraft piece. Then the manufacturing piece started to become clearer. Thus now we join the piece of agriculture. This is how we are advancing. We are not choosing random subjects; each one is talking about a different piece of the puzzle. You might ask yourself, “What is he talking about? We are lost.”

No, I am talking about the eleven domains. These eleven domains are all development areas. We are drawing a picture; the picture of what we want our countries to look like in twenty years. The picture started the time we told you to send your dreams, and vote for them. What do you want your countries to look like? At the time, I did not believe it would work. Do people care about what their dreams will look like? I received a million ideas; a million suggestions, which means that people are longing for this.

There is something else I am doing in the third stage of Life Makers. I am asking the youth to pledge trust. It is a trust which our Lord will ask them about on the Day of Judgment. I am asking them to bear this trust. Do you know, young people, what I am doing in Life Makers? I am carrying a flag and I am telling you this is the way. We describe the way, and link it to our religion. We say that this is what our religion is telling us to do. This is like the last episode about handicrafts, and like the episode about small industries. We need this for our countries, our religion and our nation. Come on and bear the trust!

Today, I came to ask you to bear a new responsibility. I know that we are carrying numerous trusts on our shoulders now; that is why after today’s episode, we will take a break, so that people can implement what we have said. I did not come today to present a TV program, but a project for our nation, so the trust today is this: we will talk today about agriculture. This is a large subject, which will take several episodes. Today’s episode is only the beginning. The subject has many pieces. Inside agriculture, there are many pieces that join together to complete the entire agricultural picture.

The first one is about the food bill for the Arab world. The bill we pay in order to eat. What is that bill?

It is the bill that we pay to import food, starting from wheat, sugar and oil. These are the three things we import most. They are also essential for the remaining food types. Our food bill is very high in the Arab world; it is enormous. It is a bill that we all pay. How much is that bill? The report for 1993 states that the food bill was; try to imagine this number. How much? In 1993 it was 23 billion dollars. How about in 2003, how much was it then? What did the 23 become? 28? 27? 26? No, in 2003 it reached 37 billion dollars. Can you imagine? Can you see the increase!

Here is the second piece of information. I am just putting the facts in front of you, young people, and you, ladies.

The second fact, which is a very important one too, is about the area of the Arab world. How much is it compared to the area of the world? How much is the land area? We are talking about agriculture, so how much is the land area? The land area for the Arab world is 10% of the area of the world. It is exactly 1,402,000,000 hectares. That is the area of the Arab world. Ten percent is very low; true, our land area is not that big and remember, what is the majority of this area? The majority is desert; most of which is not fit for agriculture.

We have 10%, a small 10%, most of which is not fit for agriculture. The circle is becoming smaller and smaller. What is the percentage of the land fit for agriculture? It comprises 14% of the total area of the Arab world (it is 197,000,000 hectares), and what percentage of that land is actually used for agriculture? You will not believe it. The area is 54,000,000 hectares, 27% of the area that is fit for agriculture. It is a tiny area. This is the problem.

Is your faith weak? Are you not a believing Muslim? Is there belief without hope? Where is your trust in Allah (SWT)? Where is your love for Allah (SWT)? I did not come here to say that we are bad, and that there is no hope in us, but we have to say the truth, and say that we will change this because we have hope in Allah (SWT) and because we will go in the right direction.

Do you realize now how small the area of land is? Ok, I will ask a question. Is this area growing or shrinking? I will not say. How large will it be after 20 years? The experts say that if our situation continues as it is now, bearing the declining of the area fit for agriculture and the increasing rate of desertification in mind, the 27% of land fit for agriculture will not increase, but it will decrease, down to seven percent. I wonder how much the food bill would be then, and how much would be paid for imported food.

What is the dream? We want to draw a picture of the development, so what is in this picture? We see the 197 million hectares fully planted; fully, without leaving an inch. Furthermore, we start thinking about the lands which are not fit for agriculture. We turn them into land fit for agriculture. What is the dream? The dream is Sudan’s land. Sudan can feed the whole Arab world. The dream is in the Western Desert of Egypt, which is sitting on top of gasoline reserves, and which we cannot plant because of minefields. What is the dream? The dream is many things for our countries in order to feed ourselves. We cannot fulfill this huge dream in Life Makers now. This is the role of our governments. Nevertheless the governments need the support of their people, us. They need our help. I cannot come in this episode and promise you, and the audience, that we will cultivate Sudan. I cannot promise this, even though I know that when the youth sent in their dreams, they put this dream as their number one dream. I know that this dream is number one, but what is the immediate solution? The solution is to start with you, your mother and your grandmother. It will start with me, my young son and my father. What will we do? We will do a small thing, which will engrave inside us the initiative for agriculture. What do you want to do exactly? I want to make a project (I will not discuss today all the dreams for agriculture, but later). I want to set a project from the beginning that will make a crucial leap. What is the crucial leap? To ingrain deep within the people that, ‘my food is very dear to me, and I will start the dream called planting our land.’ When I start, other people will follow, until the whole nation is involved. Then, the governments will find out that all the people are interested in this initiative: the agriculture issue. I am looking for a small thing that you and I can do, and if it succeeds, the big dream must follow. I do not think this can happen before we start. We have to prove to ourselves that we are serious about the issue of agriculture.

Before starting the third stage, we said that the previous stages of Life Makers were only a proof of our seriousness and goodwill. Will we continue or not? This episode can be considered a deposit for our seriousness regarding the issue of agriculture. Do you have big dreams? About 70 thousand youth sent their dreams.

The people who sent these dreams formed a trust. I told them that sending their dreams would be a testimony to Allah. They sent about planting the land of Sudan and the Western Desert, and about the minefields. In order to start on those two issues, let us start first by proving our seriousness, ladies, fathers and mothers. Today’s project is a trust that you bear on your shoulders. I can see the future of the Arab world in this project. If this idea succeeds, lots of things in agriculture will change. I gave you a long introduction and I want to start explaining the project now. It is a project that we can all participate in; from Algeria, to Tunisia, to Egypt, to Libya, to Yemen, to the Gulf. It is suitable for all people; for grandfathers, for senior people, for youth, for university students and for primary school students. Primary school students emailed me on Life Makers on the amrkhaled.net website asking me, ‘why don’t you talk about us, aren’t we with you in this?’ I was very happy, because those are the ones who will live to eat from the things that we will plant, not only in the land but in Life Makers in general. That is why this project is suitable for all people. What is the project?

Please excuse me, but it is a new concept: planting without soil. Is it not true that our land is desert, and that we have 197 million hectares that we want to plant? Let us start by doing this first; let us plant without soil.

What does it mean to plant without soil? What is the project? It consists of planting the rooftops of homes, schools and balconies. How do we plant them? This is today’s project. I know that some people are shocked to hear this. Be patient, I will talk to you about the goals of this project, and the beauty of it. Before I start in the beauty of the project and its value, and how to implement it, I want to talk to you first about how the Qur’an talks about agriculture. In the end, we are a nation that has a culture pushing it towards success. Our culture is our religion and our faith. Our culture came from the Qur’an. I want to show you how the Qur’an adjusts your brain; how it makes a methodology for your brain to link you to agriculture.

See how the following ayah is linking agriculture to reward: Allah says what can be translated as, “The likeness of (the ones) who expend their riches in the way of Allah…” When you proceed in the way of Allah (SWT), you want reward, like what? See the example Allah (SWT) will give you for your reward, “… is as the likeness of a grain that grows seven ears in every ear,” of wheat, “a hundred grains.” (TMQ, 2:261)[2]. Why are these linked together? Our Lord wants to teach you belief, and that everything belongs to Allah (SWT).

See what Allah says in the ayah what can be translated as, “Have you then seen (whatever) you till? Is it you who plant it or are We, Ever We, the Planters? (TMQ, 56:63-64)”. Do you see the link?

See the other ayah, it is describing to you the power of our Lord in the universe, when Allah says what can be translated as, “And a sign for them is the dead earth…” Who gave life to matter? Who can give life to millions of dead fields in our Arab countries? “… We give it life and bring out of it grain, so they eat from it.” (TMQ, 36:33) Can you see how belief is linked with the issue of agriculture? Can you see what our Lord is saying? Listen to the ayah following it in which Allah says what can be translated as, “And We made therein gardens of palms and vineyards, and therein We caused (some) springs to erupt forth. That they may eat of their produce and what their hands have made. Will they not, then, thank (Us)?” (TMQ, 36:34-35) Thanking the bounty is linked to what? Agriculture.

Listen to the other ayah that is talking about agriculture. Allah says what can be translated as, “(For) that We poured water in abundance, (Literally: with abundant pouring)…” Who is the owner of this universe? “… Thereafter We clove the earth in fissures, (Literally: in cloven “fissures”). So, therein We caused (the) grain to grow. And vines, and clover, (Or: reeds). And olives and palm trees. And enclosed orchards with dense trees. And fruits, and grass, (Or: fodder). An enjoyment for you and your cattle (anaam; includes cattle, camels, sheep and goats).”(TMQ, 80:25-32).

There are an unusual number of ayahs focusing on the same subject: linking agriculture to belief; linking agriculture with our Lord’s power in the universe, and linking agriculture with reward.

There is also another crucial dimension, listen to this ayah where Allah, the Almighty, says what can be translated as, “And if the population of the towns had believed and been pious, We indeed would have opened upon them blessings from the heaven and the earth.” (TMQ, 7:96) What does it mean? If you believe and are pious, then blessings will descend upon you. He linked piety with agriculture. As much as you are pious to your Lord, your plants will grow, and as much as your piety decreases, your plants will die. See the meaning! See how the Qur’an is linking things!

All the previous ayahs were talking about agriculture and food, but this one has a strange orientation while talking about agriculture. Allah says what can be translated as, “Is not He the (Most Charitable) Who created the heavens and the earth and sent down for you from the heaven water? So We caused to grow therewith enclosed orchards, full (Literally: owing, comprising) of delight.” (TMQ, 27:60). The Qur’an is telling us that the path of agriculture is not only for economic reasons. It is not only to feed, and not only to decrease the bill. No, it is a way to nurture the aesthetic sense. It is important when building any development to have a sense of beauty. The sense of beauty in our Arab world can be seen on satellite channels. You can see it in video clips of songs, in the way of dressing, and many other things. Our Lord wants to say that agriculture is not only an issue of feeding, or an issue of economics, but also an issue of nurturing the sense of beauty. Did you notice that all the civilizations that were built in the past were built around rivers and agriculture? It is because agriculture nurtures this sense, and it nurtures innovation. When you see our Lord’s power in the universe, it nurtures the power of innovation in you. That is why the ayahs for agriculture contain a multitude of meanings. The issue of agriculture is not only to do with eating and drinking; it is to nurture the sense of beauty in your children.

This is not my business, nor is it my role. We have with us an expert and a specialized group who are responsible for the project. They will explain it to you in detail. Let us first say what the aims behind this project are, for they are many.

The first is to raise people in our countries. Every one of us has to cultivate each centimeter within our reach in the region where we live until we fulfill our great dream of cultivating the 197 million hectares.

To achieve this dream, we must take the first step. This is the first aim which is very great. It means to “make” an able person who can work on a small part which will grow with time. Imagine that the project is spreading on the roofs of our houses and schools; that in each street there are one or two houses serving the project, and that it is echoing and spreading in Yemen, and here and there. Imagine that life makers are spreading it everywhere; people, even senior ladies, are carrying it out and encouraging each other, and the project’s fruits are getting ripe. Certainly, this great aim will be achieved.

This is the first and the greatest aim: to “make” someone who has values prove his seriousness by carrying out a project, and then making him turn to work on a bigger one.

The second aim is to create an aesthetic sense in our children, the next generation. Without this sense, there will be no revival. Do you understand why we need to convince the youth that the word “aesthetic sense” is very important for the revival? The Prophet Dawud (AS) (David) was one of the greatest prophets who achieved a revival in human history; Allah (SWT) made his voice very beautiful because aesthetic sense is important for revival. The voice of Prophet Dawud (AS) was the most beautiful ever heard. Why? Because no revival has ever taken place without aesthetics. All the revivals that took place throughout history had an aesthetic touch, and their peoples had an elevated sense of taste and beauty.

The best thing in the project we are calling for is developing the sense of beauty in the youth, children, and adults. Notice that the one who will watch a growing plant cannot listen to a song of indecent taste that hurts one’s ears. Remember this speech one year from today and you will recognize it; you will see how this man’s dress sense will have changed to the better. I am not joking; believe me, things will change.

The third aim of this project is to grow nearer to Allah (SWT), namely through piety. This means to feel that this small plant will grow by you being pious, and to feel, “O Allah, how great Your creation is.” Also, you can be nearer to Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) who says, “None of you shall ever eat food better than that which he earned with his very own hands.”[3]

Do you see the advantages of this project? Has it become important in your opinion? I want you to stare and say, “Yes, but how?” This is the task of the experts who are going to tell you how.

However, these are not all the reasons behind the project. There is that of lessening environmental pollution. In the West, each quarter must have a garden, and they call them ‘lungs.’ Houses in the quarter which have no garden are valued at lower prices. Environmental pollution means that there is no creativity because there is no pure air to breathe. Hence, what can the cultivation of the roofs of houses do? There is a statistic that shows that every square meter of plants purifies the air from 100 grams of its pollutants for a year. Each square meter of plants supplies man with the amount of oxygen he breathes for a year. Can you imagine? We can plant lungs in our streets and houses. Do you see the elevation achieved by such a project? It develops an aesthetic sense.

Moreover, this project will help our children who are eating vegetables that are full of pesticides. This causes cancer and other diseases to spread among youth and middle aged people. Our nation’s health is declining. The Prophet (SAWS) said, “A strong believer is more loved by Allah than a weak believer.”[4] He also said, “He who wakes up every morning having his day’s sustenance has in fact won the whole world”[5].

Thus, we are working in this project under the umbrella of these Ahadith. Do you see the possibilities of this project?

Still, the project is an opportunity for life makers. Do you remember in the first episode when we promised to work together in life making, and many people promised before Allah (SWT) and said, “O Allah, O Allah’s messenger, we promise to participate in the revival.” This project will help. How? Everyone who listened to the previous episodes and said, ‘I have nothing to do with small projects or crafts’ can participate now by cultivating one’s roof. If somebody does not know how, they can ask for help. This project is for all of us and it can be implemented in all Arab countries. Can you do it now?

I can tell you more. The project has previously been carried out in the Gulf and by the Agricultural Research Center in Egypt. It succeeded. I published it on the website (www.amrkhaled.net), and I asked the youth to carry it out. They promised to do so if they learned how. They said that there were obstacles, for example, the owners of the buildings might not agree to cultivate the roof, in which case you could use your balcony. The matter is difficult, not in carrying it out, but in changing our habits of giving up and saying that it is difficult. We must say, “We will do it, we will do it, and we will succeed.”

Now I shall leave you with Dr. Osama el-Beheri, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ain-Shams University. He is the one who is preparing for the project and visiting the Arab world to present it. He is going to present it now.

(Editor’s note: It would be useful to look at the slideshow while reading the speech).

In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. At the beginning I want to thank the program because it is adopting the project. This project started as a dream to change the Egyptian personality within ten years.

It is not just to plant what we eat by our hands; 90% of its advantages are still unseen. The start was in Egypt, and we wish the project to spread to all Arab countries, especially since our lands are desert, and we have a problem with water because industry consumes a great deal of it. However, by cultivating roofs, we can save large amounts of water; for example, to plant one kilogram of tomatoes in a field, we need 300 liters of water, but if we plant it without soil, we need only 3 liters. Look how economic it is. Many people fear that it will be expensive, and require effort to go to the farm and prepare tools. On the contrary, the project is very simple. Even a young child can carry it out. Most of its needs can be found easily in the supermarkets, and we will present a lecture to make it clearer and easier. Technologically, it is easy, and it needs little effort or time – from about half an hour to an hour.

What does cultivating roofs mean? It means to exploit parts of the roofs to plant different crops which are needed by the family such as vegetables, some types of fruit, decorative plants, flowers, and medical and aromatic plants. Exploiting roofs and balconies to plant them means that you can plant all the garden corps you need, and that you can save money and effort because you will not need to transport crops from farms to major markets then to small markets.

As we know, cities, especially major ones, in all countries are forests of cement. Their lands were suitable for planting, but now they are not as a result of urbanization. This makes cities crowded with buildings and no green color. Nonetheless, we still need oxygen. You can realize the difference if you see people when going to perform Fajr prayer (dawn); they are simple, nice, and smiling to each other. They are the same people you see at noon quarrelling. This happens because at dawn there is plenty of oxygen which eases one’s heart. Once the oxygen starts to decrease in the air, one gets nervous and cannot bear life’s difficulties. Surely, if we can have an abundance of oxygen produced throughout the year, we will find people’s conduct changing. Research has been carried out to make the subject clearer, which shows that cultivating 1.5 square meters will provide a volume of oxygen sufficient for one person for a year. Thus, if the average area of a building’s rooftop is 300 – 400 m², and the number of its residents is about 30 or 40, this means that the building will provide the amount of oxygen needed by its residents.

The second thing is that plants are the only things that can absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen by process of photosynthesis. Plants are the only things that can clean the air and produce oxygen; they decrease the harmful and increase the useful. Surely this is an endowment from Allah (SWT).

Another advantage comes due to the fact that the roofs which are not visible to people have become filled with waste. This makes them home to snakes, insects, mice etc. Thus, we need to use insecticides; in the meantime, we have to cure the result of breathing them. This means that we will spend a great deal of money to get rid of these insects and rodents.

The most important thing is to produce fresh food for the people of far or remote regions. We know well that there is an expansion in the area of cities, and in order to provide the new areas with vegetables, it can take three or four days. This, of course, results in an increase in price, and poorer quality. As the Arabic saying goes, ‘from one hand to another, the price rises’. As a result, each seller raises the price while the quality gets lower, along with a loss in vitamins, which leads to a bigger problem. In addition, these remote new cities have no strong ties between their people for they are all new to the place. Imagine that you are in a block, and its administrative office arranges a meeting. Once we say that there is a meeting, the occupants will know that we are going to collect money, so nobody will come. On the other hand, if we said that we are meeting to distribute money, all would attend. We may say that this money will help to solve our problems, and to repair and mend the building. In our street, we may solve our problems with cars and with parking. All these can be solved once we get closer to each other; no wonder Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) told us to be good even to our seventh neighbor.

Thirdly, an extremely important aspect is to provide old people (senior citizens) with jobs to pass their time and to raise their spirits. We see an old man, aged 80, whose only wish is to cultivate land, but it was hard for him as he did not have a piece of land to cultivate. I presented this project to him and he became involved; he loved the plants to such an extent that in winter he feared they were cold and watered them with hot water! Of course, that had a negative effect on the plants, but it reveals his love for them; he felt as if they were his own children and thus he watered them with hot water.

Our main hope lies in children, for speaking to those present now is ineffective, because they have already been brought up with specific habits and traditions. However, a child should be brought up from the very beginning to love plants. In the past, a child used to plant beans and fenugreek on the windowsills at school. They used to follow up the planting and watch the vegetables grow and protect them. If something happened to the plants, they would be sad. However, nothing of that exists nowadays, and therefore if someone grew some decorative plants in their school, they may destroy them and abuse them; some children cut the leaves of trees when walking in the streets, because they were not brought up to love the environment. On the other hand, their attitude would be totally different if they witnessed the growth of a plant in front of them. Once, a grandfather made a competition between his grandchildren where every one of them would grow several plants on a table. The winner would be the cultivator of the tallest plant. When the fruit was ready to be picked, all of them cried because they thought that they would lose everything by picking the strawberries. If they care for it, they will care for it even when picking it. Nevertheless, it is the same child who cuts the leaves while walking, because the child’s personality and sense of duty have changed. However, through this project, after ten or fifteen years, we will see that a child will love plants; we will find him completely changed to the better, as we are mainly concerned with children and youths.

If we talk about children, we have to talk about schools as well, because they are part of them. We may turn schools into productive units. A school will be a unique unit, for one has students in a school, and there is agricultural education class. However there are never any farming areas at schools, so the lesson is empty or it is taken up by any other subject. As a result, students graduate from school knowing nothing about agriculture. If the school provided a suitable area and cultivated it, it would enhance the educational process, and at the same time, the students would work for free; the result would be an excellent product that would provide an income that, in turn, would help the educational process. Meanwhile, the consumers would in fact be the students, the teachers, and the workers. In short it is a complete chain of production, working, and selling.

It is an opportunity as well for a poor woman who brings up orphans, because it does not need much money or a piece of land. It could help her to work and pay for her children’s living.

This (pointing to a photo) is a roof. We hope the roofs of our countries would become like that one. It is, simply, a park which lies over the roof. You can go up at times of holiday or Eid instead of going through the streets, where you can face many problems resulting from over population. You can take your children and go upstairs and sit up there together. You can have your celebrations or wedding parties there as well.

Therefore, which kind of crops one can cultivate by the system? We can plant all green plants, whether vegetables, such as cucumbers, cantaloupe, tomatoes, peppers or strawberries, or leaf vegetables, such as dill, parsley, watercress, Jew’s mallow (Molokhia), and radish. We can also plant fruit trees, as we can see here in this picture; you can plant a lemon tree in a 60 liter plastic barrel, and the same goes for grapes and peaches. We can plant decorative plants or flowers as we see here. There are cloves and broad beans as well. Decorative indoor plants can be cultivated as well like the gardenia, which we can see on the edge of the screen. This type of plant starts with a set which costs 30 Egyptian piasters (pence), and after six months it can be sold for eight Egyptian pounds; of course the profit is great. If we compare between its planting on roofs and that on earth, we find that it takes only half the time, which means that you can plant two cycles at the same time. Among the encouraging things are the medical and exotic plants like peppermint, thyme and radish, because the effective substances in them increase. Take for example, when you smell fresh peppermint, you find it totally different because the volatile substance in it vanishes after 4 hours from its picking; on the other hand, if we used it fresh, we would benefit from this volatile substance.

Well, that was about vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants, but what about farming fish? Many would say, ‘the farming of fish needs a large amount of water, and it makes a bad smell’, etc, but why did we think of such a project? First, to make a fish farm on a roof, the aquarium would be narrow, and it would need to have its water changed regularly. Where, then, would that water be disposed of? Of course, in the drainage. However, if we consider the matter a little further, we realize that this water includes ammonia and organic substances, the natural secretion of fish; these substances are the main food for plants. Thus if we put plant alongside the fish, we can send the water to be changed from the fish farm to the plants, which will take the ammonia and send the water back to the fish clean. Therefore, we will not need to change the water, and at the same time we will grow our plants without any mineral fertilizers or insecticides because we will not be able to use anything that could damage the fish. Meanwhile, we will have clean, fresh, fish. As we can see in the picture we made an aquarium with a small pump to provide the fish with oxygen and then we sent the water to the planted area, and the water is sent back again to the fish in the aquarium, and thus, we made a new side product. As we can see in this green picture, where the vegetables and fruits are planted, each fish here started as half a gram and after 6 months, we were provided with 200-250 grams of fish.

Dr. Osama says: this is a small model that one can put in his balcony to produce both fish and plants.

The doctor comments: this figure shows one of the famous hotels which was fascinated by the idea and carried it out on a large scale. Tourists come to pick their fresh fish from the aquarium. The hotel produces eggplants as well.

This was a swimming pool which was not used. It has an area of 10 square meters. We filled it with water and farmed 7000 small fish with a ratio of 150-200 fish per square meter, while the average in other farms is from 5-7 per square meter. Look how far we are going.

On the edge of the swimming pool, we made a green house, in order to warm the pool, because fish do not eat in the cold, and we aim for continuous production in the winter. The water emerging from the pool is sent to the plant in order to be cleaned and sent back again to the pool.

Satellites - what can we do with them? They are a problem faced by nearly all Arab roofs. All roofs have satellites. What can we do? Shall we plant or place our satellites? Of course, the easy answer is to prefer the satellites to the cultivation, but in fact when we carried out an experiment, we found that the satellite is a close friend to plantation! How? It acts as a windscreen. It lessened the fierceness of the wind especially when it was rising. What is the benefit from that? Well, it will protect the plant and it will lessen the evaporation which is known to be increased by the wind, as the wind sends the vapors away, making the plant produce more vapor. Thus, we cut down the consumption of water.

The winter harvest of strawberries and the summer harvest of tomatoes will lead to a profit of 31%. We will find that a meter of herb plants like spinach and parsley will make a profit of 68% every 2 weeks.

The plantation of the roofs of schools is very important. We have 300-400 students in every school who, in turn, will teach their parents. The wall of the school will turn into an area of decorative plants. We can use any other wall for the same purpose. The idea is so simple and so easy. Thank you.

Those were Dr. Osama’s words, and I remind you of the Hadith Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) says, “A Muslim who makes a plant that is eaten by a man, an animal, or a bird, will have for every one who eats a Sadaqa (Charity).”

The project is not difficult to carry out; it only needs a strong will. We will help you, however. You will find a whole film on how to make a table and about the type of seeds. You will find five assistants of Dr. Osama who will be free for your questions for a whole week. If you do not have access to the internet, you can ask for the courses of Dr. Osama. If one is really willing, it is not for the case of money, but for many other benefits. It is a step towards learning how to plant our food, and an introductory step towards cultivating our whole country. It would be a great success for the Arab and Muslim youths.

We could arrange it with all branches of Suna’a al-Hayah associations in the Arab world, but I do not want this. If you are resolute in doing the project you will sign up on the internet or take courses, and we will meet after a month. What we will achieve through this program was not there before. I am not boasting but it is Allah (SWT) who chose them for us. Let us help each other for the sake of the success of the project. You, young men: our great hope lies in you. This is your project, though I am not sure whether we will succeed or not and I am waiting for your feedback, and to see all the roofs, even if we started primitively. Imagine if Algeria or Lebanon carried out the plantations. O Allah (SWT), we hope to succeed but the agricultural field has many other things.

Did we not say that water is a very serious problem and that Arab people suffer from the lack of it? Thus, our next project today will be a contest organized by the King Abdul-Aziz Institution and his associates, and it concerns water. If anybody has a suggestion to lessen the amount of water used up in the Arab World, please present it. This project is organized by a businessman and the prize is 1.5 million Saudi Riyal. The center responsible is al-Faqeeh Research Center. The contest will be held on 15 June 2005,

Last week we were talking about handicraft and we advised the boys to learn it. Next time we will review one of the previous episodes, not because we do not have something new to do, but pray by night and weep and ask Allah (SWT) to help us; then we will make a revival and you will see, but if we are lazy in His worship and disobey Him, He will not send us help.

[1] Sala-llahu Alahi Wa Salam = All Prayers and Peace of Allah be upon him.

[2] TMQ=Translation of the Meaning of the Qur'an. This translation is for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (Surah: Ayah) of the Qur'an. Reading the translated meaning of the Qur'an can never replace reading it in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed.

[3] Authentic, narrated by Bukhari.

[4] Authentic, narrated by Muslim.

[5] Narrated by Al-Albani.

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Episode 38: Agriculture