* Episode 12: Preserving Our Resources – Part 1 Episode 12: Preserving Our Resources – Part 1 We have finished the three episodes about responsibility, and today we will start another topic that will go on with us for several episodes to come. Today we will talk about ‘Preserving Our Resources.’ Do not forget the plan of the program. Our main goal is to revive the Muslim Ummah (Nation). However, is it realistic to achieve this goal in a program that lasts a single hour? Certainly not! This is a program that depends on the audience, the people, the street, and the public opinion. All of these should act and try to change internally, and our role is to help them by the projects that are offered through the program. These projects are the guides that should lead them to success. Attaining revival is a process that requires many stages. Currently, we are in the stage of undoing all the shackles that confine the nation; youth, men, and women. Up until now, we have undone four shackles; passivity, imperfection, triviality, and unreliability. The great number of people who acted throughout the previous episodes make me feel that all the shackles are about to be undone. We are nearly in the middle of this stage, but by the end of today's episode about ‘Preserving Our Resources,’ we will be nearing the end of this stage, i.e. undoing the shackles. This was the plan of our program. Until now, results are very good. In the latest episodes we have been discussing the five narcotics, and in the last one we spoke about drugs. Towards the end of the episode, we agreed on the following points: • We should report all drug dealers to the police. • We asked all lawyers to avoid accepting any drug cases. • Implementing our project Guardians of the Future,’ in all schools, universities, colleges, and youth centers. Four or five people (or even one as a start), are to bear upon their shoulders the responsibility of warning youth against the different kinds of narcotics. Our role is to help them by every possible means, and to train them to carry out such a project. Also, we invited many physicians to send us their qualifications and to dedicate a part of their time to training those youth. The main role of such youth is to combat the five narcotics in all schools, universities, and clubs. 1. Until now, 4,943 youth have volunteered to start training for such a program. Moreover, 570 physicians have volunteered to train them (i.e. one physician for every 9 youth). A graph was drawn to arrange the countries according to the numbers of volunteers. In descending order, they are: Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Palestine, and Lebanon. 2. We expected to have 3 or 4 volunteers from each college and school; however, the results have by far surpassed our expectations. People are becoming positive. We were surprised to know that whole schools and colleges wanted to become part of the project (including teachers, deans, and students). Examples are: the Sheikh Zayed Secondary Mixed School, Students of Rasheed Suburb School in Jordan, Faculty of Engineering of al-Menia University, many university students in Canada decided that the Muslim Students’ Union will carry out such project, and Baladeyat al-Mahalah club in Egypt. 3. A great number of youth reported many drug dealers to the police after they repented and stopped buying drugs from them. On the website, a number of them related their stories; how they were addicts, how they repented and later reported to the police the drug dealers who used to sell them these drugs. 4. The circle became wider. The Cultural Center in Ukraine informed us that they will be responsible for the ‘Guardians of the Future’ project there. 5. The Egyptian Research Center for Combating Smoking informed us that they will hold a regional conference whose goal will be to combat the five narcotics. 6. King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital in Jeddah informed us that they will carry out the same project. 7. The Ministry of Health, in Qatar, announced, in al-Watan Newspaper dated April 30th, a competition called ‘Quit it and Win.’ The prize is a trip to Europe or to do Umrah (minor pilgrimage). 8. Also, in Banha University, the members of the Faculty of Medicine agreed with the dean that none of the five narcotics are to be allowed into their faculty. The same thing took place in: The Faculty of Pharmacy in Tanta University, a charitable society in al-Madinah, the Faculty of Education of the English department in Sana‘a University. All these projects surprised us. It is really a wonderful start for the ‘Guardians of the Future’ project, and I assure them that I will go on with them until the summer vacation, where the practical training for the project is to start. Before ending the talk about the five narcotics and before moving to the other subject of ‘Preserving Our Resources,’ I would like to mention one last thing about the competition held to choose the best design for the anti-smoking sticker. The sticker will be spread everywhere. Up until now, we received 580 designs, some of which are very nice. However, we decided to extend the time of the competition for two more weeks. The prize is a ticket to Umrah. A really precious prize and the project is worth it! Now let us move to ‘Preserving Our Resources.’ The word ‘resources’ is a very difficult word and it needs some explanation. The program aims at attaining revival. Scholars state that there are two types of revival: • Accumulative Revival: Each generation attains part of the revival and hands it to the following generation who completes their work. This revival can take place after 150 years as a result of the accumulation of work. • Sweeping Revival: All powers, minds, and resources are gathered and mobilized very quickly and in a very short time. This, revival takes place in no time. Examples for this kind of revival are; China, Japan, and Malaysia. In our program, we want to achieve a sweeping revival. This is the kind of revival achieved by Prophet Muhammad (SAWS ). In only thirty years, Prophet Muhammad (SAWS), together with his companions, was able to achieve such a revival. This is what we are looking forward to achieve in this program, by compiling and gathering all the resources. Actually, no revival was attained except after compiling and gathering resources; the Pharaohs, the Persians, the Romans, and the Muslims, all followed the same route. There are two kinds of resources: • Human Resources: refers to human minds. • Natural Resources: refers to water, air, minerals, oil, agricultural land, animals, and plants. We will move step by step to make such a complicated subject easy to understand. All the resources should be recognized and compiled for revival to take place. Omar Ibnul-Khattab (RA) knew very well how resources are very important to achieve revival. He, also, understood how human resources are more important than natural resources. One day, while sitting with the companions, he said, “Can each of you make a wish?” One of them said, “I wish this house would be full of money (resources) to use it in consolidating Islam.” Omar (RA) answered, “Not the wisest wish.” Another said, “I wish this house would be full of horses to use them in achieving victory for Islam.” Omar (RA) replied, “Not the wisest wish.” They said, “So, tell us yours, Amir (King) of the believers.” He replied, “I wish this house would be full of men like Abu-Ubaydah Ibnul-Jarrah, Osama Ibn-Zayd, Khaled Ibnul-Walid, and Belal. Those will be able to get the money and the horses by which they can achieve victory for Islam.” This clearly illustrates how matters were clear in the minds of both Omar (RA) and the companions. Many theories appeared to measure the wealth of countries: some said, the Average National Income, others said, the Average Individual’s Income. The latest of these theories states that the country's wealth can be measured by the amount of resources available for it and how far such resources are exploited. Hence, our problem is that our status-quo hinders any revival. Our resources are either unexploited at all or exploited, but in wrong ways. The Arab world owns 60% of the world resources; however, we are the poorest peoples. The reason for that is; we do not exploit our resources. An example is the vast fertile arable lands which are not exploited, as in Sudan. Another example is the great number of minds and brains that emigrate to achieve success elsewhere. Moreover, we have the strongest of all resources, but they too are unexploited, we have youth. Some other resources that we do have are misused, like: water and electricity. Money is spent daily on sending SMS text messages to choose; Miss Universe, the best player, or the best song. Money is spent on luxuries, cosmetics, and fashion that change every year. It is spent on clothes and cars that are changed every now and then. Fortunes are exhausted all of the time. Keeping things as they are will make matters worse. We must wake up. Our resources are destroyed either by our own hands or stolen by the hands of our enemies. We need to protect our resources. We need to learn how to protect them. At the beginning of creation, Allah (SWT) created many resources and called them ‘blessings.’ These are: water, air, minerals, oil, animals, plants, etc. All of these resources were regulated by the accuracy and precision of the Divine balance. Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, • “Verily, We have created all things with Qadar (Divine Preordainments of all things before their creation as written in Al-Lauh al-Mahfuz (The Book of Decrees)).” (TMQ, 54:49) . • “He has created everything, and has measured it exactly according to its due measurements.” (TMQ, 25:2). • “Everything with Him is in (due) proportion.” (TMQ, 13:8). • “And the earth We have spread out, and have placed therein firm mountains, and caused to grow therein all kinds of things in due proportion.” (TMQ, 15:19). Similarly, such an accurate balance regulates everything. Human beings take in oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide; while plants take in carbon dioxide and get rid of oxygen. This protects the world from pollution. The sun rises, sea water evaporates, clouds are formed, rain falls, and finally, plants take in water to grow. Animals eat those plants and from their waste, fertilizers are made and are given back to plants to flourish. Therefore, the extinction of any living organism means the extinction of a chain of organisms dependant on it. Here is an example: if birds that carry the nectar of flowers die, consequently these flowers would die too. Praise be to Allah (SWT) who has created such a balanced universe. This balance is maintained as long as human beings are just and peaceful. Once they turn to injustice, tyranny, and greed, the whole universe would become unbalanced and the earth will be destroyed. Until the seventeenth century, there were no resource problems. At that time, nobody imagined that water can come to an end, or that air can get polluted, or that the seas and oceans can be contaminated. How did all that take place then? In the seventeenth century, the steam engine was invented. That is nice and it deserves our appreciation. However, the immerging of this invention was accompanied by the immerging of a group of greedy people who were keen on making huge amounts of money and fortunes regardless of anything. Thus, Capitalism surfaced. Briefly, Capitalism is the process of urging people to consume, hence increasing the wealth of the capitalists, regardless of any human value, regardless of the poor, or people in general. In this way, the strong remains strong and the weak remains weak. As a reaction to Capitalism, Communism surfaced, calling for the workers’ rights. The two movements struggled until Communism fell, and now, Capitalism is on its way to the same destiny. However, what does Allah (SWT) want for the world? He wants justice and balance between ‘substance’ and ‘soul.’ Let us see how we destroyed our resources. When human injustice, greed, and tyranny interfered, Capitalism appeared, calling for more production. Hence, it was necessary to call for consumption on the other side. We were the consumers. Through advertisements, they taught us how to be consumers. In 1995, the United States spent 84 billion dollars on advertising through the media. Their target was to convince us that we would be old-fashioned or stingy if we did not buy the advertised products. All of this, and we are sleeping. They are greedy and we are sleeping. We think we are smart when, in reality, they are fooling us. Indeed, we keep consuming when car models and fashion keep changing and continue to do so. I will relate to you one of those advertisements by which they fool us. In the ad, a boy is shown bragging about his new mobile tone in front of three girls. Another boy comes and displays his tone, which is newer. The girls, at once, leave the first boy and walk towards the second one. A real smart Casanova! He was able to win the girl’s admiration! That’s how they visualize our smartness. They try to fill our minds with nonsense so as to do nothing but consume more and more. There are three types of societies: • Pre-industrial societies: like ours. • Industrial societies • Post-industrial societies: This type has finished industrializing, yet, they still have productive energies that need to be exploited. To whom do they direct their products? Certainly, to us. In Egypt, three or four years ago, new boots, exported from Italy, were in fashion. These boots were for countries where snow, rain, and water were present; whereas, in Egypt, they are useless. Nobody thought of it that way. Instead, everyone went on buying them. Expiry dates of many products were made shorter so as not to remain usable for a long time. In addition, the technology of certain products was offered over many stages so as to force us to change the whole product every now and then and buy a new one. These are their thoughts, controlled by greed and cruelty. Add to all that, the different agreements that were signed among countries such as The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), with the aim of letting all the products into all the countries with no customs, and they gather all the fortunes at the end. Any country that would not share in these agreements will be deprived from many privileges. All these practices destroy the resources, whether they are the earths or ours. This amount of production needs more than what is naturally produced by earth. Oh, youth! This is never smartness. Please, spread these words around. What is worse is that they are still not satisfied. They started buying our resources at very cheap prices or even stealing them. They bought our raw materials at very cheap prices and then manufactured them and sold them back to us, as final products, and at soaring prices. Since, as usual, greed always asks for more, they started ripping us off our own resources. Wars, colonization, and occupation were all means leading to that end. They occupied Muslim territories in; Africa, Asia, and India. At that time, namely the eighteenth and nineteenth century, they had neither culture nor products to give us, they only came to rip-off our resources. An example for this is India, when occupied by Britain. The British forced the Indians to cultivate certain crops that they needed for their industry, especially the textile industry in Manchester. In addition, when the Indians tried to do their own textiles, they prevented them from doing so that they even cut the fingers of the girls who tried to do that. Wake up, please! All of this is but the consequences of our faults. Why did Europe occupy the African continent? Africa had diamonds, gold, and men who were sold as slaves. Now, it has been completely depleted from its resources. This cannot be blamed on the robbers; but for those who slept while they were being ripped off. We are in a deep slumber while people are stripping our countries. One wonders; are we developing or sleeping countries! There is more to this, their production for some commodities has increased to the point where they became concerned that their prices will plunge. To take care of this problem, they usually get rid of the entire surplus. Wheat is a good example since it is produced in large quantities. The producers would throw the entire surplus into the sea in order to prevent prices from falling in the world-trading market. This happened while, at the same time, we hear of nations dying of starvation. Even when some aid is sent to starving countries, this is not done for the sake of feeding the hungry but simply because these countries happen to fall under the subordination of their aiding nations. Compare this to the mercy and beauty of Islam. Allah says what can be translated as, “And they give food, in spite of their love for it (or for the love of Him), to the Miskin (the poor), the orphan, and the captive, saying, ‘We feed you seeking Allah’s Countenance only. We wish for no reward, nor thanks from you.’” (TMQ, 76:8-9). Can you recognize the difference? There is even more; because of the blind acquisition of more power and greed, we are now living through an arms race. Take a look at these numbers; • One Apache airplane costs $12 billion, which is equivalent to the cost of 80,000 water pumps, much needed in third world countries. • The world spending budget on the armed forces is $7 billion for every three days. This is equivalent to the cost of ridding the world of malaria, a disease that causes the death of one million children every year. It is also the equivalent to maintaining the world’s rain forests for five years. It gets worse; while we were dozing off; they robbed our poor countries from their brainpower. We take care of our children and we spend lots of money so they can attain the highest level of education. Then, when they graduate and are ready to give back, they are taken away from their homelands, where they take full benefit of them. The following are some numbers from the 2003 United Nations’ report on human resources: • In 1996, 25% of 300,000 young college graduates from Arab countries immigrated to North America and Europe. • Between the years 1998 and 2000, more than 150,000 Arab physicians left their countries. • Consequently, the developing nations lost about $42 billion, the cost of teaching all these highly educated individuals. • On the other hand, North America saved more than $1.8 billion, which would have been the cost of educating all those scholars. All this is happening at a time when our ultimate dream is to install the latest ring tones on our cell phones! As a result, the West has become much like Korah’s example. Allah says in the Qur’an what can be translated as, “Verily, Qarun (Korah) was of Musa’s (AS) (Moses) people, but he behaved arrogantly towards them. And We gave him of the treasures, that of which the keys alone would have been a burden to a body of strong men. Remember when his people said to him, ‘Do not exult (with riches, being ungrateful to Allah ).’” (TMQ, 28:76). This is exactly the description of Capitalism and how it operates. Allah (SWT) also says what can be translated as, “and do good as Allah has been good to you, and seek not mischief in the land. Verily, Allah likes not the Mufsidun (those who commit great crimes and sins, oppressors, tyrants, mischief-makers, corrupters).” (TMQ, 28:77). Allah (SWT) says of his punishment what can be translated as, “So We caused the earth to swallow him and his dwelling place.” (TMQ, 28:81). Some results of today’s Capitalism are: 1. Desertification: due to forest destruction for the sake of profit and due to all the pesticides that are used to help the rapid growth of plants. 2. Global warming: a rise in the earth’s temperature is a result of the smog and all kinds of waste coming from factories. 3. The growing ozone hole due to the release of carbon dioxide from industrial plants. 4. World poverty, 20% of earth’s population enjoys 90% of earth’s resources while the rest live under the poverty line. One fifth of the entire population’s average income is less than one dollar a day. Seventy million people in the Arab world live under the poverty line. Can you believe that? We are much like a bunch of passengers on a bus. The only problem is that the bus driver is drunk and does not know how to drive, yet the passengers have no problem with that and they even like it. They simply don’t care where their destination may be! We have sympathy for the West. This nation has gone astray because of their preceding generations. They built on their ancestors’ ideas and beliefs without trying them first. The western people are fatigued by; depression, suicide, addiction, broken families. We pray that they will go back to the right path, Allah’s system, the system which states that resources are not owned by people. They belong only to Allah (SWT). Allah says in the Qur’an what can be translated as, “Believe in Allah and His Messenger Muhammad, and spend of that whereof He has made you trustees.” (TMQ, 57:7) Islam came with the virtues of justice, charity, and distribution of wealth. During his reign, Omar Ibnul-Khattab (RA) saw an elderly Jew begging on the streets. When Omar (RA) asked him why he was doing so, the old man replied, “So I can pay my taxes.” Omar (RA) then said, “We took your money when you were young, and deprived you from it at your old age! By Allah, this will never be.” Omar (RA) then issued a decree to give out monthly wages to all Jewish and Christian elders. Next, Omar Ibn-Abdul-Aziz came up with the idea of moderate consumption and conservation. He first applied it to his personal life and soon everyone was following in his footsteps. As a result, the greatest boom in the Islamic history occurred under his leadership and the Treasury of the Muslim State was flooded with Zakat (Charity) money. Omar ordered the treasury to spend all the excess money on the poor and needy. They had plenty left, so they spent it on the Muslim army. Still they had plenty left, so Omar ordered to spend the remaining money to pay off all Muslims’ debts, and then that of all the Christians and Jews. They still had a large amount of money left; Omar then gave an order to purchase wheat with the money and scatter it over the mountaintops so that even the birds could reap from the Muslims’ wealth. That is the difference between overindulgence and moderation. This is a call for all Muslims, why all this spending? Have we forgotten Allah’s commands? Allah says in the Qur’an what can be translated as, • “Spend not wastefully (your wealth) in the manner of a spendthrift.” (TMQ, 17:26) • “Verily, the spendthrifts are brothers of the Shayatin (devils).” (TMQ, 17:27) • “…eat and drink but waste not by extravagance, certainly He (Allah) likes not al-Musrifun (those who waste by extravagance).” (TMQ, 7:31) • “Thus We have made you (true Muslims - real believers of Islamic Monotheism, true followers of Prophet Muhammad and his Sunnah (legal ways)), a moderate (and the best) nation.” (TMQ, 2:143) • “… And give to the kinsman his due and to the Miskin (poor) and to the wayfarer. But spend not wastefully (your wealth) in the manner of a spendthrift.” (TMQ, 17:26) The Messenger of Allah (SAWS) passed by Sa'ad Ibn-Abu-Wakkas while he was performing ablution and said, “What is this extravagance, Sa'ad?” Sa’ad replied, “Is there extravagance in the use of water, Prophet of Allah?” The Prophet (SAWS) said, “Yes Sa’ad, don’t waste water, even if you are at the bank of a running river.” The Prophet (SAWS) wasn’t talking to Sa’ad only, he was talking to all of us. Omar Ibnul-Khattab (RA) once saw a man in the market buying a piece of meat. After a short while he bought another product, then another. Every time he desired something he would buy it. Omar (RA) then stopped him and asked, “Do you buy everything that you crave?” The man replied, “Yes.” Omar (RA) took out his baton and hit him once saying, “This is not what the Prophet taught us.” Our resources are exploited because of our unconsciousness, wastefulness, and because we denied the poor their rights. We need to wake up. We need to identify our mismanaged and wasted assets in order to preserve and protect them. It is a very difficult and complex matter. We are going to start with a project that will help preserve some of our resources. It is not the answer, but it is a step forward. This project started with an idea coming from a positive young man. He is a member of the Amr Khaled discussion forum. His name is Ahmad Imam. He sent a letter saying that he was moved by our program and that he wanted to do something positive. He thought of something simple, something that even he could do; he suggested the idea of collecting old or unused clothes and then donating them to the needy in the poverty-stricken areas of Egypt. I contacted him and told him that it was a very good and practical idea and that I was willing to help and support him. I thought that this project would be a good start because we are transforming our own valueless resource to a valuable resource for someone else. We have plenty of clothes in our closets that we never use anymore. Collecting these unneeded clothes and delivering them to people who live in poverty, would be an easy practice to conserve our resources. Why not expand this project to include the entire Arab world? Brother Ahmad called to inform me that he found a place to collect all the clothes; so far they have received about 200 full, large bags. He asked the permission to use our program logo on the bags. Indeed, this logo is owned by all of us. Now, any group can do as Ahmad and his friends did and put this idea to work. We liked the idea so much that we posted a call on our website to anyone who had a large storing area to come forward with the information. We then posted the addresses of every country and every city on our website. We are still receiving new addresses; all the info is available on our site. Everything has been set for you; all you need to do is look into your closets and send the clothes to any of the posted locations. The advantages of this project are: 1. Transforming a zero value resource to its full value. 2. Putting our human resources into constructive work. 3. Allah’s reward. The Prophet (SAWS) says, “The similitude of believers in regard to mutual love, affection, and fellow-feeling is that of one body; when any limb of it aches, the whole body aches, because of sleeplessness and fever.” He also says, “Whoever brings happiness into the household of one Muslim, will have no reward but paradise.” He also says, “None of you will have faith until he wishes for his (Muslim) brother what he wishes for himself.” In this month we are celebrating the birth of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAWS), so practicing his Sunnah will surely please him. On an icy winter day, the Prophet (SAWS) was shivering from the cold. An old lady from al-Ansar made him a wool cloak and gave it to him as a gift. He was so happy, he wore it to prayer. A man saw him passing by and asked him, “O Prophet of Allah, please let me wear it.” The Prophet (SAWS), barely having had enough time to wear it himself and despite the cold weather, gladly took it off and gave it to the man. Later the companions scolded that man for what he did. He told them, “I wanted to be wrapped in it in my grave.” When the Makkan Muslims migrated to Madinah, al-Ansar greeted them with opened hearts. They welcomed them in their homes and they shared everything with them; their food, money, houses, clothes, and even their harvest. All they asked the Prophet (SAWS) in return was paradise. The Prophet (SAWS) assured them, “You fulfilled your part, and you shall be granted paradise.” We are only asking you for your unwanted clothes to give to our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Give generously; be like your Prophet (SAWS). We suggest that this project should be done on three phases; 1. Collecting phase: clothes will be collected for the next couple of week. We need thousands and thousands of bags. 2. Sorting phase. 3. Delivery phase: clothes will be distributed to the villages and communities through organized clothes expos. Thanks to Allah (SWT), the first phase is not as hard and shouldn’t hamper your studying for the final exams. We need the involvement of everybody; men, children, and especially women. All the collection centers are posted on our site. If anyone would like to add a location, let us know. We need to mobilize everyone, and may Allah (SWT) bless and reward Brother Ahmad for this idea. Inshallah (if Allah (SWT) permits), we shall meet again next week with the best results.