Stewardship of the Earth
Discussion Questions
1. What is the relationship between your religious beliefs and your attitudes toward issues of the environment and sustainability?
2. What are your primary environmental concerns and how active are you in promoting progress in these areas? How active would you say your religious community is on environmental issues?
3. Do you think that working on environmental issues from an interfaith perspective is a particularly good way to build stronger relations between Muslims, Christians, and Jews? Why or why not? From the point of advancing environmental issues, do you think that an interfaith approach brings something important to the table? If so what?
4. Would you want to see our group get involved with an environmental issue and if so how?
Texts from Islam
Qur’an: (2:28) He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth.
Qur’an: (2:29) And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said: Surely I know that which ye know not. (30) And He taught Adam all the names…,
Qur’an: (14:32) God is He Who created the heavens and the earth, and causeth water to descend from the sky, thereby producing fruits as food for you, and maketh the ships to be of service unto you, that they may run upon the sea at His command, and hath made of service unto you the rivers; (32) And maketh the sun and the moon, constant in their courses, to be of service unto you, and hath made of service unto you the night and the day. (33) And He giveth you of all ye ask of Him, and if ye would count the bounty of God ye cannot reckon it. Lo! man is verily a wrong-doer, an ingrate…
Hadith: On Cultivation of the Land
Harth is the tilling of land, and muzāra'ah (from zara'a, he sowed the seed) is the making of a contract with another for labour on land to sow and till it for a share of its produce. The Holy Qur'ān draws attention to the necessity of turning waste-land into gardens by making arrangements for watering it, and growing good crops (vv. 1-3). Hadīth speaks of it as an act of great merit (h. 1), but it gives a warning at the same time that a people who give themselves up entirely to agriculture neglecting other lines of their development. are not capable of great and glorious deeds (h. 2). Impetus is given to the cultivation of wasteland (h. 3). It is allowed to let to another person land for cultivation for a part of the produce (hh. 4, 5), or for money (h. 6). but it is at the same time recommended that a person who can afford it should give land rent-free to his poor brother (h. 7). A person having his land on a water channel is entitled to water his fields. but he must allow the water to pass on to others when his need is satisfied (h. 8). The digging of a well is an act of great merit (h. 9). A neighbour's right to land must be respected very scrupulously (h. 10).
Christian Texts (Note: Because Jews and Christians share the Hebrew Scripture, texts from the Hebrew Scripture provide important sources on stewardship for both religions.)
1. To the chief Musician, according to the Gittit, A Psalm of David. 2. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens. 3. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have founded strength because of your enemies, that you might still the enemy and the avenger. 4. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have established; 5. What is man, that you are mindful of him? And the son of man, that you visit him? 6. For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor. 7. You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet; 8. All sheep and oxen, and the beasts of the field; 9. The bird of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas. 10. O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! —Psalms 8
1. To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 2. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. 3. Day to day utters speech, and night to night expresses knowledge. 4. There is no speech nor are there any words; their voice is not heard.
5. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 6. Which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man when he runs a race….
—Psalms 19
The nations raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead,
for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name,
both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.
—Revelation 11:18
Praised be You my Lord through our Sister,
Mother Earth
who sustains and governs us,
producing varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon for love of You and bear sickness and trial.
—Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon, Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
Jewish Texts
The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to till it and tend it.
—Genesis 2:15
When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city?
—Deuteronomy 20:19
When God created the first human beings, God led them around the Garden of Eden and said: “Look at my works! See how beautiful they are—how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy My world; For if you do, there will be no one else to repair it.”
—Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:20 (9th century C.E. midrash, Land of Israel)
Human beings have indeed become primarily tool-making animals, and the world is now a gigantic toolbox for the satisfaction of their needs . . . Nature as a toolbox is a world that does not point beyond itself. It is when nature is sensed as mystery and grandeur that it calls upon us to look beyond it. The awareness of grandeur and the sublime is all but gone from the modern mind. The sense of the sublime—the sign of inward greatness of the human soul and something which is potentially given to all—is now a rare gift. Yet without it, the world becomes flat and the soul a vacuum.
—Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972, Poland, Germany, United States) Theologian, Social Activist (God in Search of Man, pp. 34, 36)