1

2

3

Published by GreenSpirit at Smashwords

www.greenspirit.org.uk

Copyright 2015 Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston)

ISBN: 978-0-9552157-9-7

Cover design: Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston)

Cover image: copyright Binkski/Shutterstock.com

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to

other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an

additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not

purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the

hard work of the authors.

* * *

4

To GlynIn memory of a treasured friend

5

CONTENTS

Publisher’s Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Namaste: Reverence for the Elements (poem) – Marie Miller

2. On Christ – June Raymond

3. Judaism and Deep Ecology – Vivienne Cato

4. Pagan Ethics: An Interview with Emma Restall Orr – Marian Van Eyk McCain

5. Daoism: The Natural Way – David E Cooper

6. Hinduism and Ecology: A Reflection – Jean Hardy

7. Spirit Dance: A Modern’s Encounter with the Indigenous Mind – Donna Ladkin

8. Earth as a Mosque – Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston)

9. Buddhism, Society and the Planet – Jean Boulton

10. The Relevance of Jainism – Aidan Rankin

11. Creation Spirituality and God – Chris Clarke

Appendix I: Green Spirituality as a Model for Future Environmentalism – Chris Philpott

Appendix II: Quotations through the Ages – Various Authors and Teachings

About the Contributors

Other Titles in the GreenSpirit Ebook Series

6

PUBLISHER’S PREFACE

This is the second of two linked ebooks in the GreenSpirit ebook series. This title brings

together numerous reflective, insightful and informative pieces by various contributors to

GreenSpirit magazine spanning a period of 11 years, along with especially written new

material: chapters two (in part), five, eight and appendices. Its companion ebook is Rivers

of Green Wisdom: Exploring Christian and Yogic Earth Centred Spirituality by

Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston).

The GreenSpirit ebook series is a low-cost series (via Smashwords and Kindle), which is

free for members. Pathways of Green Wisdom is the fifth title in this essential series.

Other titles will look at the application of green spiritual principles to different aspects of

life and culture, such as celebration and ceremony; crafts and music; culture and the arts;

ecology; economics; education and parenting; farming, food and cooking; health and

healing; law; literature; personal spiritual practice and ritual; politics; psychology and

psychotherapy; and science and travel.

GreenSpirit is a registered charity based in the UK. The main contents/written material,

editing, design and promotional work for our ebooks is done on a purely voluntary basis,

or given freely by contributors who share our passion for Gaia centred spirituality.

Publisher’s Note

For the purpose of clarity, quotations used in passages by the author of a chapter are

placed in double quotation marks. Words given stress by the author of a chapter, which

are not quotations, are either in single quotation marks or italics.

* * *

7

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

An anthology of this kind for a publisher such as GreenSpirit is very much the product of

a communal effort. Because of this a very special thanks must go to David E Cooper who

brilliantly put together a new article on Daoism especially for this ebook, to June

Raymond for extending her insightful piece on Christ and why she is a Christian, to

Aidan Rankin and Jean Boulton for putting in extra work on their chapters and adding

new material, and to all other contributors who kindly gave permission to allow their

work to be included and shared the same enthusiasm I have about this ebook’s contents.

In addition, a special thanks also goes to Marian Van Eyk McCain for wisely conceiving

the idea of a low-cost ebook series that would widen the reach of GreenSpirit’s Earth

centered teachings, and for the encouragement given by Marian and Ian Mowll, the

coordinator of GreenSpirit, in the production of this title. A grateful thanks also goes to

knowledgeable Muslim friends and teaching colleagues who generously gave their time

to clarify key Islamic beliefs for the chapter I put together.

* * *

8

INTRODUCTION

One reason for compiling this ebook was to highlight what is already there in various

wisdom and mystical traditions, though sometimes it takes more than a superficial

scratching of the surface to uncover. Contemporary problems of climate change,

threatened ecosystems and the demise of various species were not things that teachers

such as the Buddha, Prophet Muhammad and Jesus faced in their physical lives. Yet

what is found can be seen as ‘a Yoga’, ‘a Way’ or ‘a Path’ that not only honours and

lovingly cares for Nature at its core but also joyously celebrates Earth life. As something

like over three-quarters of people in the world hold some form of religious and/or

spiritual belief, and all widely recognised religions have teachings about the natural

world, our interrelationship with Nature and cultivating compassionate and nonviolent

actions, it seemed only logical to gather some of their profoundest insights for a title in

GreenSpirit’s ebook series.

Similar to GreenSpirit magazine, from which the majority of the material for this ebook was

drawn, articles/chapters are of different length and not planned to be read lineally from front

to back. You as the reader may start at any place. As the editor I sought for variety and

writers who could not only write skilfully but also display a rich understanding of green

wisdom within specific traditions. In all, each contributor offers a place for eco-spiritual

readers to draw some nourishment, a place where we can all hopefully meet and appreciate

numerous Earth centred teachings found in various influential traditions.

The material presented here is for sharing a deeper understanding of different paths and

enriching dimensions of green spirituality. You might notice that each writer and/or

tradition covered often have their own unique perspectives on how we can unpack,

sometimes reinterpret teachings, and implement Earth focused wisdom and practices.

The contents of each chapter may not always sing from the exact same song book of

Nature as another’s, but now is not the time to be side-tracked by unhelpful hair-

splitting, I feel, about differences that lead us away from the important unity required for

bringing about a new consciousness and healthy transformations in the ways we interact

with each other and the natural world.

9

If we are to move forward in harmony, we need to embrace others, be open minded,

practical, realistic, inclusive and accepting of the different living religious and spiritual

traditions that have emerged in human history. It is no longer a case of thinking in terms

of whether we and religious and spiritual communities should be getting jointly involved

in becoming architects of a largely forgotten Earth centred spirituality or not, but about

realising that humankind won’t be effective enough in bringing about necessary changes

if we don’t.

Like other GreenSpirit publications this ebook covers beneficial material and insights with

the intention of building bridges between people – without overly simplistic claims that

everyone is teaching the exact same thing – and reinforcing the interconnections between us

and Nature, of which we are all wondrously interwoven. It could instead have become

bogged down with drawn-out arguments about how human centred, instead of Earth

centred, one tradition might be over another, and how Abrahamic religions have seen

humans in special roles – which some have considered as harmful – over Nature. One

contributor, Vivienne Cato, in fact, sensitively addresses this with beneficial reflections on

key passages in Genesis in a razor sharp article on Judaism and Deep Ecology. For nothing

is ever straightforward. The idea of stewardship, found in the early heartlands of Judaism,

Christianity and Islam, Karen Armstrong informs us in her insightful book In the

Beginning, is not about exploiting the natural world and ransacking its treasures, as some

suggest, but about treating Earth with respect. Similarly, Islamic writer Mohammad Aslam

Parvaiz pithily points out in The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Nature that, “To deface,

defile or destroy nature would be an impious or even blasphemous act. Though man [or

woman] is accorded the right to use natural resources, he [or she] is not permitted to abuse

it with impunity”.

Religious believers seeking to draw their principal teachings from central texts are

obviously not going to completely discard what their scriptures say, although they will

often understand how more than one perspective can be extracted from them and how

ancient sacred writings are limited by disparate cultural times to our own. This doesn’t

then imply people are happy about holy scriptures being interpreted without

10

acknowledgment of this or the rape of the natural world and the mass genocide of

numerous species. I am only too pleased to see people in all walks of life and all

traditions (and none) waking up and earnestly seeking for compassionate, wholesome,

skilful and unitive ways ahead. Thankfully, Nature centred spiritualities have never been

completely forgotten and are these days starting to become centre stage once again, as

now, more than ever, there is a growing paramount need to revive and strengthen our

kinship with Earth and to act justly, responsibly and wisely for our times.

With these thoughts in mind, I trust you will enjoy drawing from the deep springs of

green spiritual wisdom shared in these pages and find numerous joyful and creative ways

to engage with them in your everyday life.

– Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston).

References

Armstrong, Karen, In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis, Vintage Books,

London 2011.

Parvaiz, Mohammad Aslam, Islam on Man and Nature, in The Encyclopaedia of

Religion and Nature: Vol 1 (edited by Bron Taylor), Continuum, New York 2008.

* * *

11

8. EARTH AS A MOSQUE

Santoshan (aka Stephen Wollaston)

My brother and I used to think the entire world was a sea of concrete buildings. My

father upended that reality the day he took us to Bear Mountain … On that trip, we were

black Muslim city kids hiking in ‘the country’ for the first time. What I recall from that

day was moss growing on rocks, mushrooms on rotten wood, and drinking from my first

juice-box – the kind you poke a straw into.

When it was time for afternoon prayer, my father stopped to pray. My brother and I asked

him where he was going to pray. He pointed to the ground, to a small area he had

brushed free of twigs and leaves. Until that day, prayer for us had always been something

done at home or the mosque ...

On Bear Mountain, as we prepared to kneel down in payer, my father related a hadith, a

saying of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): ‘Wherever you may be at the

time of prayer, you may pray, for it (the Earth) is all a mosque.’ At that instant, and I

could not have been more than five or six years old, I understood for the first time: the

Earth is a mosque; a mosque is sacred, therefore, the Earth is sacred.

The passage above is from the excellent book Green Dean by Ibrahim Abdul-Matin. The

word deen is an Arabic word for religion, path or way. Within his book, Abdul-Matin

outlines six principles of a ‘green dean’ for followers of the Islamic faith, which can be

summarised as the below:

1. Commitment to being caring stewards of Earth.

2. Understanding the oneness of God and God’s creation.

3. Recognising the signs/presence of God everywhere and in everything.

4. Moving towards eco-justice.

5. Protecting and living in balance with Nature.

6. Honouring the sacred trust given to humans by God to protect Earth.

For all Muslims the whole of Earth, which has been entrusted to humans by God (Qur’an

2:30; 6:165; 35:39) to protect and preserve, is seen as a divine gift and blessing from

God. In an essay on Islam, humankind and Nature, Mohammad Aslam Parvaiz mentions

how this blessing “provides sustenance, shelter and other necessities to all creatures

12

through the perfectly balanced and self-sustaining systems operating in nature according

to Allah’s Laws”. Earth itself is looked upon as an expression of beauty. Beauty being an

attribute of God, and ‘the beautiful’ being one of God’s ninety-nine divine names in

Islam. In the book Sufi Light, Ahmad Javid points out that, “The universe reflects the

stunning beauty of its supreme Creator and displays His qualities constantly in every

moment … Not only [do] all things come from God but in a way they also manifest

God”.

The religion of Islam views all activities in the natural world and its solar system as signs

(ayat in Arabic) of God’s presence. “In the succession of night and day, and in what God

created in the heavens and earth, there truly are signs for those who are aware of Him”,

surah/section 10:6 in the Qur’an informs us.

Inspiration from God’s Creation

Parvaiz points out that, “As we learn about nature, it becomes abundantly clear that the

entirety of nature is an integrated whole”. The Qur’an itself mentions both environmental

and cosmic harmony created by God: “The sun and the moon follow their calculated

courses; the plants and the trees submit to His designs; He has raised up the sky. He has

set the balance …” (55:5-9). Other passages in the Qur’an recommend reflecting on the

workings of Nature and attaining flashes of insight (16:67-68):

From the fruit of date palms and grapes you take sweet juice and wholesome provisions.

There truly is a sign in this for people who use their reason. And your Lord inspired the

bee, saying, ‘Build yourselves houses in the mountains and trees and what people

construct. Then feed on all kinds of fruit and follow the ways made easy for you by your

Lord.’ From their bellies comes a drink of different colours in which there is healing for

people. There truly is a sign in this for those who think.

The contemporary Sufi teacher and scholar Pir Zia Inayat Khan reminds us that,

The livingness of the elements is attested in the sacred texts of Islam. The Qur’an invokes

earth, water, and fire as signs of God’s power and benevolence. ‘And the earth shall

shine with the light of its Lord’ (39:69). ‘Of water (we) fashioned every living being’

(21:30). ‘(He) has made for you, out of a green tree, fire’ (36:80). Concerning air, a

13

hadith, or prophetic tradition, says, ‘Do not curse the wind, for it derives from the breath

of the All-Merciful.’

Because of such mystical insights as the above, including the quotation by Ibrahim

Abdul-Matin at the start of this chapter, it can be seen that the whole Earth offers

profound and constant opportunities for Muslims to be aware of God’s presence (though

some conservative Muslims may be uncomfortable with references to Sufi masters and

Matin’s use of the word ‘sacred’). A famous passage in the Qur’an in fact tells us that

God is closer than our jugular vein (50:16).

Environmentalism

The Qur’an calls for all Muslims to “walk humbly on the earth” and promote “peace” to “the

foolish” (25:63). From an Islamic perspective, because God has created the heavens, Earth,

the sun, the moon, the stars and all species, all forms of life ultimately need to be cherished

and preserved. The Qur’anic saying advocating “no compulsion in religion” (2:256) reminds

Islam’s followers and others that the Muslim tradition, in its purest form, is about unity,

harmony, peace-making actions and nonviolence, which applies not only to humans but to

the world at large. The idea of unity (tawhid) in particular, which is traditionally seen to be

about God’s oneness, Muslim environmentalists also consider to be about all-

inclusiveness, Richard C Foltz (2006) informs us.

Verses from the Qur’an also invite Muslims to “remember God’s blessings” (7:74), to

“not corrupt the earth after it has been set right” (7:55), and to “not seek to spread

corruption in the land” (28:77). Although some may interpret these passages to be only

concerned with blessings God has bestowed on humans and human justice and

nonviolence, it is accepted amongst green conscious Muslims that they can be expanded

to include wider issues of environmental awareness, care, corruption and damage. In his

masterful collection of teachings Spiritual Gems of Islam, Imam Jamal Rahman

beautifully expresses the fact that, “Once we have begun to see ourselves as

manifestations of the Creator, the next step along the spiritual path is to view our fellow

beings with the same compassionate eyes”.

Foltz (2006) also informs us how, “It is often argued by Muslim environmentalists today

that the Islamic legal tradition (sharia), in both its Sunni and Shi’i variants, if applied to

the letter, contain adequate restrictions to ensure a use of natural resources that is both

14

sustainable and just”. Abdul-Matin mentions how mosques themselves, as centres of

religious community, are perfect places for promoting and being examples of green

awareness, such as considering how much energy is used to light and heat mosques, and

using better alternatives to plastic and paper cups and plates for any mosque based

activities. At the holy mosques of Medina and Makkah in Saudi Arabia, the water used

for ritual bathing (wudu) is recycled. In India, some mosques have huge tanks/pools for

large crowds to use for ritual ablutions for the purpose of saving and reusing water. Not

being wasteful is looked upon as a particular virtue within Islam. Surah 6:141 in the

Qur’an reminds Muslims about God creating “gardens, date palms, crops of diverse

flavours, the olive, the pomegranate, alike yet different. So when they bear fruit, eat some

of it, paying what is due on the day of harvest, but do not be wasteful”.

Living at a time when people would have naturally recycled, the Prophet Mohammed

himself would have obviously lived a much simpler life than most of us today and would

have wasted little. According to his wife Aisha, he recycled things when they could be fixed

and repaired his own shoes and mended his own clothes, even though he would have had

people around him who could have done these things for him.[1] Yet the closer even a 21st

century Muslim can emulate the life of the Prophet, the nearer he or she is seen as living a

righteous life and being an active example of what it means to be a true Muslim.

Ecological Responsibility and Acts of Kindness

In a chapter on the contribution of Muslim theology in Bernard Anton’s Living Earth he

recalls a known saying of Muhammad’s, remembered by El Berraa Ben Azib, that promotes

giving water and food to thirsty and starving people and animals, and points out how such

acts are seen to open the gates to paradise. Anton also informs us that, “The caliph Abou

Baker would get his inspiration from the Quran’s verses when recommending kindness

towards all the species and all the beings: ‘Do not cut a tree, do not soil a river, do not hurt

an animal, and always be gentle and humane towards God’s creatures, even if they are

your enemies’”.

Numerous sayings of the Prophet Muhammad show him promoting compassion towards

animals and ecological responsibility such as maintaining the fertility of the soil,

replacing what had been destroyed, using water sparingly, planting a new tree if cutting

down another for a just reason, and not polluting streams with sewage. In Tariq

15

Ramadan’s insightful book In the Footsteps of the Prophet, he points out that from the

very “first years of the Prophet’s life he developed a specific relationship with nature that

remained constant throughout his mission”. Regarding animal rights, Ramadan’s book

highlights a key saying of Muhammad’s about Resurrection Day: “Whoever kills a

sparrow or a bigger animal without respecting its rights to exist will be accountable to

God for it on the Day of Judgment.”

Anton mentions that, “One of the Hadith from the tale of Anas Ben Malik cites words

from the Prophet that encourage Muslims to take care of the creation: ‘Any Muslim who

plants a tree or sows a field, which later nourishes a human, a bird, or beast, sees himself

[/herself] attributed as [given] many alms’”. Alms-giving (zakat) being one of the five

principal pillars of Islam. Muhammad himself often reminded early Muslims that those

who performed acts that benefitted others, including the abundant life of the natural

world, would be blessed and rewarded. Any Muslim who is reckless towards and harms

the environment could in fact be seen as unfulfilling his or her divinely assigned role as a

caring and protective steward of God’s creation.

Continuous Creation

Regarding contemporary Muslim’s stance on how creation occurred and continues to evolve

a recognition of adaptive stages is accepted, which acknowledges changes occurring since

Adam was created by God as the first human from dry clay (Qur’an 55:14). Clay/earth being

involved in and part of Adam’s and all humans’ physical birth is about as close as the

Qur’an gets to acknowledging Nature as a biological parent. Terms such as ‘Gaia’, ‘Mother

Earth’ or ‘Mother Nature’ can be problematic for some eco-Muslims because of their links

with paganistic and animalistic ways of seeing the natural world that deify aspects of Nature

and shift the focus away from Islam’s understanding of monotheism. The Qur’an itself

mentions how God created humans “stage by stage” (71:14), how every day God is at work

(55:29) and has been continuously creating since the very first days of creation (7:54). A line

by the renowned Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi shows him having an almost contemporary

understanding of science: “Since God hath made Man [and woman] from dust, it behoves

thee to recognize the real nature of every particle of the universe …” However, it might not

be star dust but clay dust that Rumi is referring to. Like others before him, his poetry shows

a belief in the great chain of being instead of an interconnected web of life.

16

Writing from a Sufi perspective, one of the world’s leading experts on Islamic thought and

spirituality, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, points out that, “The Sufis also speak of creation not only

as an act in the past but also as a continual process. This is what is called the renewal of

creation at every instant”. Seyyed Hossein Nasr himself is particularly known for

speaking out about environmental concerns since the 1950s. “In addition to being the first

Muslim and Islamic intellectual to address the environmental crisis, Nasr is also the first

person ever to write extensively about the philosophical and religious dimensions of the

crisis”, Tarik M. Quadir informs us in his book on Nasr’s ecological teachings,

Traditional Islamic Environmentalism. As well as Nasr, Mawil Y Izzi Dien, an adviser to

the Saudi government, is another noted Islamic figure to make environmental issues a

central concern.

Contemporary Dilemmas and Creative Activities

The postmodern world brings new dilemmas for followers of the Islamic faith,

particularly for oil-rich Muslims from the Middle East, because of the growth of the oil

industry in the region and wide spread consumer based lifestyles that have sprung up

around the globe that rely on oil consumption and plastic based products that are harming

natural environments and Nature’s ecological balance. Along with other consumer

focused and industrialised countries, Muslims equally share collective responsibilities for

diminishing species and deteriorating regions of the natural world. Yet as I write this

chapter, news has broken about plans for a new city in the United Arab Emirates that will

be completely free of carbon emissions, and for Saudi Arabia to invest, research into and

consciously switch over a period of time to alternative and more environmentally friendly

energy sources. In Istanbul in August 2015, Islamic scholars, experts and teachers from

20 countries launched a new declaration on climate change, calling for Muslims around

the world to work towards phasing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

In the informative book What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam, John L Esposito

mentions how Saudi Arabia has implemented Agenda 21, which not only aims to reduce

pollution and improve management of natural resources, but also preserve and protect the

marine ecosystem in the Kingdom. Esposito brings reader’s attention to organisations

such as “The Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES), an

17

internationally recognized charity based in Birmingham, U.K., [which] utilizes Islamic

principles to create and promote activities to preserve the environment and fight the

ecological crisis”, and the “Green Mosque project, which encourages Muslims worldwide

to build eco-friendly mosques”.

In an article on Islam and Environmentalism in Iran, Foltz points out that, “In Iran today the

government’s stand on the environment … [is] impressive. It may be that Iranians will have

much to teach the rest of the developing world about environmental protection”. The internet

also reveals an encouraging wave of new eco-conscious Muslims forming their own

environmental groups, writing informed and insightful articles from Islamic perspectives,

promoting global awareness of damage being done to the planet and practical ways Muslims

can reduce their global footprint by reusing water, eating less and adopting animals (see

‘The Eco Muslim’ website for example). The term eco-jihad has even been coined in

relation to such important shifts in green focused Islamic awareness. Books, articles and

activities by people such as Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, quoted and mentioned in this chapter,

focus on the responsibilities that all humans share to keep God’s creation intact, as

Allah/God specifically entrusted humans to care for Earth’s environment and maintain its

ecological balance.

I have been writing this chapter while teaching at a university in the Middle East. Several of

my Muslim colleagues and students hold strong passions for animal rights and

environmental conservation and sustainability. Since being in this part of the world I have

met various green conscious and vegetarian Muslims (including one British Muslim who has

supported the Green Party in the UK for many years). Ideally, vegetarianism causes few

problems for Muslims, as there is nothing that is seen as haram

(forbidden) in eating fresh vegetables and fruit and no special ritual preparation required.

Vegetarianism itself isn’t a new concept in Islam, as various Sufis in Medieval India and

North Africa were known to practice it.

18

Notes

Apart from quoted authors who include passages from the Qur’an, all other

quotations from the Qur’an are from The Qur’an: A New Translation

(translated by MAS Abdel Haleem), Oxford University Press, New York

2005 (Oxford World Classic revised edition).

1. Zaufishan, 10 Green Ahadith, Ecological Advice from Prophet

Muhammad, from The Eco Muslim website:

www.theecomuslim.com/2012/05/10-green-hadith-muhammad.html.

Other References

Abdul-Matin, Ibrahim, Green Dean: What Islam Teaches about Protecting

the Planet, Barrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco 2010.

Anton, Bernard, Living Earth (translated from French by Julie Van

Themsche), WestBow Press, Bloomington 2011.

Esposito, John L, What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam, Oxford

University Press, New York 2011 (2nd edition).

Foltz, Richard C, Islam and Environmentalism in Iran, and Islam, Animals,

and Vegetarianism, in The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Nature: Vol 1

(edited by Bron Taylor), Continuum, New York 2008.

_______, Sources of Islamic Environmentalism, chapter on Islam in The

Oxford University Handbook of Religion and Ecology (edited by Roger S

Gottlieb), Oxford University Press, New York 2006.

Javid, Ahmad (Sarwari Qaderi), Sufi Light: The Secret of Meditation, Self-

published ebook 2011.

Khan, Pir Zia Inayat, Persian and Indian Visions of the Living Earth, chapter

in Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth (edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-

Lee), Thomson-Shore, Point Reyes, California 2013.

19

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of

Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition, HarperOne, New York 2007.

Parvaiz, Mohammad Aslam, Islam on Man and Nature, in The

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Nature: Vol 1 (edited by Bron Taylor),

Continuum, New York 2008.

Quadir, Tarik M, Traditional Islamic Environmentalism: The Vision of

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Press of America, Lanham/Boulder/New

York/Toronto/Plymouth, UK 2013.

Rahman, Imam Jamal, Spiritual Gems of Islam: Insight and Practices from

the Qur’an, Hadith, Rumi and Muslim Teaching Stories to Enlighten the

Hearth and Mind, Skylight Paths Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont 2014.

Ramadan, Tariq, In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of

Muhammad, Oxford University Press, New York 2007.

Rumi, Jalal al-Din, quotation from a chapter on Islam by Richard C Foltz, in

The Oxford University Handbook of Religion and Ecology (edited by Roger

S Gottlieb), Oxford University Press, New York 2006.* * *

20

21

22