Ihsaan Magazine August 2016 | Page 57

REducing Your Carbon Tech & Auto FootPrint WRITTEN by. umar mohammed M uslims believe that God has entrusted us with everything that we possess; our wealth, health and even natural resources. These all belong to the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and we have merely been allowed to partake of its benefits. As such they must be preserved and returned to Him in the best manner possible. The approach of Islam towards the use of natural resources was brilliantly put forward by Ali ibn Abu Talib (RA), the fourth of the Rashidun or rightly guided Caliphs. “Partake of it gladly so long as you are the benefactor, not a despoiler; a cultivator, not a destroyer. All human beings as well as animals and wildlife enjoy the right to share Earth’s resources. Man’s abuse of any resource is prohibited as the juristic principle says ‘What leads to the prohibited is itself prohibited”. We have been trusted wi