Islam is green by nature, and Ramadan offers a chance to make a big impact.Shawna AyoubAfter my grandfather had a stroke, the doctor said he might not walk again. He also said that getting him to challenge himself — to give walking a true try — was critical to his physical and emotional recovery. My grandfather took his first steps only a week after the near total paralysis of his left side.
While he never regained his easy gait, he also never let his slow, strained shuffle hinder him. Mornings, he made ten laps back and forth on the Lebanese mountain road outside the gates of his house. When I visited Lebanon, I walked with him, helping him stoop and clear the trash — plastic bags, Pepsi bottles, paper, cigarette butts — that passersby had tossed out their windows onto the road. It was close to the time Jiddo died that I learned clearing the roads wasn’t so much a physical exercise as a spiritual one.
The responsibility Muslims hold in man’s divinely bestowed role as the world’s vicegerents extends to the planet’s health. We know that removing litter from the road is considered an Islamic charity (Sahih AlJumea). We ... Read more
