"Host Greener Iftars At Mosques" Is The Green Ramadan Message From Imam Zaid Shakir (VIDEO)

American Muslim scholar Imam Zaid Shakir encourages the Muslim community across the world to support their nation's "Green Ramadan Initiative" by cultivating Green Iftars at your mosques.

The importance of the community is the foundation to Islamic society. The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said each believer is like a brick, one supporting the other, in turn creating solid walls and together forming a sound structure that is resistant to shakes and changes. These changes also come in the form of climate change, in pollution, in toxins and harmful gases and acres of chemical compost.

Turning back to the beginning of faith is the root to finding solutions for out environmental downfalls. Many times, the most active of eco-campaigners criticise the faith groups for only talking about sustainability and green living with 'hot air'. But this is a putative judgement.

Like Imam Zaid Shakir encourages, if one cannot walk the walk of green action, one should at least support those who do take the greener deen (path) and share the prophetic foundations of that lifestyle.

I have transcribed the video to capture the main points and for those short of time.

Video link + http://youtu.be/gFkP9yuzWn4 | 4:13 mins

Imam Zaid Shakir begins with the Islamic formula by mentioning the name of God (bismillah), praising Him (hamd), sending salutations upon Prophet Muhammad of Islam (salawat) and the Islamic greeting of peace and 'hellos';

"Salam`alaykum, peace be with you.

This is imam Zaid Shakir and I'm here in office of Imam Sohaib Sultan at Princeton University to bring you a very important message.

That message is that Ramadan is here and Ramadan is for the community. It is a time, to come together as a community, for cultivating a healthy sense of environmental and ecological consciousness. [Many will ask] Why mention this in Ramadan?

We have all witnessed during Ramadan that our community generates and disposes tons of trash. Be it paper plates or Styrofoam cups or plastic knives and forks or reams and reams of paper towels, that we bag up and fill all dumpsters outside the masjid (mosque), night after night.

Brothers and sisters, imagine how many tons we could save, with one simple job: Greening the Iftar. This would help our environment and help our community get involved in projects to benefit the citizens and those of the world.

I encourage you: Green your iftar!

There are many organisations such as the Green Faith initiative and similar that are pushing for 'Green Iftars' such as my masjid in Oakland, California masjid where two years ago they adopted the initiative. Now, instead of garbage bags of scraps, left over food is composted, dishes are washed at a local restaurant to be reused, there are no paper towels allowed-all hand towels are washed.

So let's begin in Ramadan with a Green Iftar!

Let's green our community and country. If America greens itself, we can green the world insha-Allah ta`la. As you all know US is first in producing greenhouse gases-many have surpassed us (with China coming up behind)-but we all know that in landfills and producing trash, we have no rival.

Protecting the environment is beloved to Allah and the Prophet. They encouraged us not to be wasteful, and to live in harmony with everything around us.

Nothing exemplifies this more than God's statement in the Qur'an concerning our Prophet, saying he is "Sent as a mercy to all the worlds". This includes the animals, plants, insects, fish, all of these 'awalam,' all of these worlds, to which the Prophet is a mercy. He is an exemplar. So we, as people of the 21st century, should be about the business of being of mercy to all that share the environment with us.

Thank you for listening and viewing this brief message, insha-allah we can come together and make a difference. THESE are the types of initiative that will take people away from all the negativity on Muslims because they will be focused on the good things being done by Muslims."

See more on Greening Ramadans
+ Green Ramadan: How To Form A Green Mosque Committee
+ Making Your Ramadan A Fairtrade Month
+ Smoke Free Ramadan [Quit smoking]