An Islamic Perspective on Australia's Historic Fires (Afroz Ali)

Jun 20

Jun 20 An Islamic Perspective on Australia's Historic Fires (Afroz Ali)

Jan 8, 2020:
Imagine an ancient Hindu fable, later developed and written down in Arabic by a Muslim community, subsequently translated into Hebrew by a Jewish writer and then into Latin for a Christian audience. However improbable it might sound, this is what happened around the tenth century when a Muslim scholarly and spiritual circle, known as Ikhwān al-Safa (or “Brethren of Purity”), adapted a story most likely derived from an Indian oral fable, turning it into a written text that was later translated into various languages throughout the world.

This book is still available today in English; entitled, The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity, it has a fresh relevance at this moment in the aftermath of the devastating fires that have ravaged Australia.

To give some perspective on the extent of the devastation, the total area burned across all Australian states since the beginning of the 2019 fire season stands at 10 million hectares (nearly 25 million acres); by contrast, in October last year, fires in the Amazon consumed less than 1 million hectares. The fires that now engulf many parts of eastern Australia occupy an area larger than Belgium, and the smoke produced by these fires are causing breathing problems 2,000 km away in New Zealand. Twenty-five people have died to date, and well over a 1,000 houses have burned down.

Among the most moving images have been those of wild animals being rescued by the firefighters across the continent. Many other animals — over half a billion — were not so fortunate. Sussan Ley, the federal environment minister, said that up to 30 percent of the koala population may have perished due to the bushfires, putting koalas and other species at even greater existential risk.

See a gallery of animal rescue images on The Atlantic.

The koalas may have a desperate moral appeal to make, both for themselves and on behalf of all the wildlife that has perished — just as the animals in the book, The Animals Lawsuit Against Humanity, did due to the devastation humans had wrought upon their shared planet.

In the tenth century, global warming was not a known phenomenon. Yet, the fable lays out some remarkably prescient warnings for our time.

The story recorded by the Brethren of Purity is set on a remote island, where various species of animals have lived for centuries in peace, free of any human presence. (Australia could easily have been the setting for this fable.) Disaster strikes when humans arrive on the island after their ship is wrecked off the coast. Within a short time of establishing their settlements, humans enslave animals and pillage the environment, causing catastrophic harm. In desperation, the distraught animals send a delegation to the King of the Spirits, seeking his legal intervention against the humans and their reckless actions. In response to the lawsuit brought by the animals, the humans make their appeal to the king in the form of spurious arguments and flimsy alibis for their catastrophic actions. Each time, however, the animals are able to bring their reasoned response and convince the King of the Spirits that the devastation wrought by humans is without justification.

Once the humans finally concede the harm they have inflicted, the King of Spirits gives his verdict: “I find myself in favour of the animals, for they have been sorely tested and abused.” He adds that only if humans cease to abuse the shared environment can they live up to their function as “vicegerents” — trustees — of God on earth. If they fail to live up to this commitment, he tells them, they will spell their own doom:

Should you err, the animals will begin to disappear, one by one, forever, from the face of the earth; and the air in your settlements and fortresses will become dangerous to breathe, the seasons will be upturned and your climates turned on end … and you will no longer rule the earth.

This tenth-century warning could not be more pertinent, for it describes our present reality.

It is important to note, however, that the literary work of this Muslim spiritual order — the Brethren of Purity — is entirely theological in character and is devoted to exhorting high ethical standards from humanity as a whole. The group which adopted this fable, The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity, into a 52-treatise compiled work entitled The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, relies on a comprehensive Islamic tradition concerning environmental responsibility — “environment” ranging from the holistic existence that influences the human soul, to the biosphere of our shared world. In other words, in the Islamic tradition, all that exists around us is not disconnected from us, but we are symbiotically interdependent. Thus humanity’s very wellbeing reflects and is dependent on the wellbeing of the planet: catastrophic climate change is a sign that something is feverishly wrong within ourselves.

Lessons from the apocalyptic tradition

The term “apocalypse” tends to aggravate many people; it is widely used as a term of derision and its use in religious scripture is often dismissed. But the object of apocalyptic narratives in religious traditions is not to frighten readers or scare them into a state of moral paralysis — neither, I’d insist, are scientific reports that warn us of impending environmental disaster. They collectively, collaboratively, aim to inform and steer us toward a way of living sustainability on the earth, and away from harm.

Even if one is not disposed toward religion, the warnings included in apocalyptic narratives are of great importance for humanity as a whole. This includes the apocalyptic narratives within the Islamic Tradition. These narratives are similar to warnings foretold (a more accurate translation of the Arabic term nubuwwa, often translated as “apocalyptic narratives”) by climate scientists. Just as the scientists forewarned us about the consequences of environmental degradation many decades ago, prophets of God similarly forewarned us of the climatic consequences of irresponsible modes of production and consumption. In the case of Islam, that was some 1,400 years ago — the central goal being that we, as a civilisation, would take heed early enough and not do the very things about which we have been warned. Such a forewarning constitutes a blessing to humanity; a form of Divine grace and forbearance.

The reference to “rain turning into burning acid” in the tenth-century book, to mention just one example, is from an apocalyptic narrative of prophet Muhammad (upon whom, and all prophets, be peace), and is one of many tragic consequences of air pollution validated by modern science.

But, these scriptural forewarnings from the past are not without counsel for the future. In other words, apocalyptic narratives are not a doomsday message, but a message of how to avert catastrophe. (Again, this is not that different from the warnings of climate scientists.) These scriptural warnings should be carefully considered in our time, since they contain profound knowledge that can contribute to minimising environmental degradation and perhaps reversing global warming before it is too late.

So what can we learn from faith-based apocalyptic traditions in the context of global warming and the consequent environmental devastation? While there are many valuable lessons, I would identify three as especially pertinent.

First, such apocalyptic narratives encourage advocacy for humane capital — which is to say, that nothing should be enslaved by economics in any way. The irony is that, as humans pillage the earth, the very essence of humanity is being drastically diminished. Resource-grabs, regional conflict and the associated weapons proliferation, the contraction of human liberties and the reliance on GDP as the primary measurement of the health of a nation, have all collectively reduced humans to just another commodity: human capital. The uprising of peoples all over the world against their governments, I would argue, is fundamentally due to this practice of stripping humans of their humaneness.

There needs to be a return to humane capital in all that we do, reflected in planetary wellness (which includes all its inhabitants) not on a lopsided “national interests” argument. National interest must be balanced to include all citizens rather than primarily the interests of corporations. We know the fossil fuels industry, for example, is a major contributor to environmental degradation, and yet we have politicians who are hellbent in approving more coal mines in Australia, while taking few countervailing steps toward clean energy.