Abu Hurairah once reported that the Prophet Muhammad,\npeace be upon him, said: \u201cThe believer (Muslim) will not allow himself to be bitter\nby or snake twice from the same hole.\u201d (Narrated by Bukhari and Muslim). The\nhadith clearly teaches us that we must always be careful not to fall into the\nsame problem or predicament twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, the recent Pasir Gudang incident regarding\nchemical pollution cloud be perceived as the opposite of what the\nabove-mentioned hadith tries to teach us. It seems that we never learned our\nlesson. The Pasir Gudang calamity, which refers to the areas around Sungai Kim\nKim and in Taman Mawar, are not the only environmental tragedy that repeatedly\nhappens in Malaysia. We should also not forget the landslides due to\nagricultural activities that recur in Cameron Highlands for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are some of the examples of our lackadaisical\nattitude towards our environment and natural resources. We seem to be ignorant about\nand arrogant towards the environment. We disregard our responsibilities to conserve\nour natural environment. In Islam, Allah has placed humans as the khalifah<\/em> or stewards of the earth. The\nposition seems to be great and noble, but as the khalifah<\/em> of Allah we also have many responsibilities and one of them\nis to protect the natural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to protect the environment, we must seek\nknowledge on how it works. Scientific and technological knowledge of the\nenvironment are vital but so are the spiritual and cultural understanding of\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example in Islam, there are six basic principles\nMuslims must understand regarding the environment. These principles are the\noneness of Allah and His creations (tawhid<\/em>),\nnature as a sign of Allah\u2019s greatness (ayat<\/em>),\nhuman as the steward of the earth (khalifah<\/em>),\nour responsibility to fulfil our role in this world (amanah<\/em>), to uphold justice (adl<\/em>)\nand living in balance with nature (mizan<\/em>).\nThese six principles not only need to be understood but also extended in the\nform of actions to help conserve the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We desperately need further and better action to\nprotect our environment in order to have a better quality of life, not only for\nhumans but other living creatures as well. This is the obligation and\nresponsibility of all parties including the government, community and individuals.\nThere will be more cases like the Sungai Kim Kim and Taman Mawar incidents if\nwe fail to protect the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a quote which says \u201cmistakes are made,\nlessons are learned.\u201d Therefore, for every mistake we make, we must be able to\nlearn something valuable from it. This is also true in the Pasir Gudang case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To begin with, the problem needs to be addressed with\ntighter monitoring. In Malaysia, there are various laws and regulations to\nprotect the environment and these must be strictly implemented without any\ndiscrimination. If we fail to implement them, then the laws and regulations\nwill be the laughing stock of unscrupulous parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, these incidents prove that the various\necosystems have no boundaries. In the case that we are considering, hazardous\nchemicals have been thrown into the river, the evaporation process has made\ntoxic material spread and pollute the air. In the end, the dangerous chemicals\naffect the residents and animals in the area and require urgent treatment. This\nclearly demonstrates that one type of pollution can lead to another. The river\npollution, can leads to air pollution which eventually harm humans and other\nliving creatures. Obviously, there are no boundaries in nature. In many cases,\none may not avoid becoming a victim even if the actual pollution is ocurring in\nother areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, the community should be empowered to become\nobservers or \u201cwatchdog\u201d in their surrounding area or environment. This is\ncrucial so that they can identify any environmental problems and lodge complaints\nimmediately. Likewise, any complaints received must be treated fairly and be\nresponded to promptly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In conclusion, it is important to learn a lesson from the\nenvironmental problems that occurr. We should then take the necessary actions\nto overcome them. We must also understand that there is no benefit in destroying\nnature. When nature strikes back, we will have to face the consequences and as mere\nhuman beings, we are not able to protect ourselves. There is no point in living\nagainst nature. We are part of it and we must learn to live in harmony with the\nenvironment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Abu Hurairah once reported that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: \u201cThe believer (Muslim) will not allow himself to be bitter by or snake twice from the same hole.\u201d (Narrated by Bukhari and Muslim). The hadith clearly teaches us that we must always be careful not to fall into the same problem or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}