The Arab American News
RAMADAN 2011
22
B
eginning as a mee ng once upon a me in
Mexico, Trees Give Life is the co-effort of Arif
Malik and performing ar st Mohammed
Yahya. Less than a year old, the Trees Give Life cam-
paign began with a trip to La n America, one of the
latest parts of the underprivileged world to embrace
the Muslim faith. Founder of the campaign, Arif
Malik, was inspired by Islam’s environmental princi-
ples to reach out and make a difference.
He says, “As Muslims we need to be more aware
of our planet as we have been entrusted to take care
of the planet and that includes you as an individual,
as a society and community and state. So I decided
that If I was to make a difference then I would not
rely on anybody apart from myself and the Creator
and that this was my small contribu on… in trying
to save the planet.”
Trees Give Life stems from an Islamic concept
called ‘sadaqah‘ (sadh-ah-ka) which literally means
charity. Unlike tradi onal Muslim chari es that focus
on mosque renova ons or installing new water
pumps, Trees Give Life plants trees to heal the nat-
ural environment.
According to their website, Trees Give Life aims to
provide basic training “in the use of plan ng trees
and other vegeta on” to the poverty-stricken com-
muni es who can go on to share this knowledge
with local communi es. Such empowering skills are
hoped to assist the newly-recruited tree planters to
generate an income and “improve their quality of
lives”.
And what about the environment?
In the pursuit of protec ng and serving all forms
of life, the campaign hopes to “conserve the local
environment of La n America, and other parts of
the world including the UK, which are affected by
natural and man made disasters by ensuring that
certain species of trees and vegeta on do not be-
come ex nct.” By plan ng more vegeta on in
derelict farmlands, this ensures that trees are grown
specifically to regenerate the eco system and thus
reduce the effects of global warming, CO2 emissions
and reducing carbon footprints.
Environmentalism in a majority of the Muslim
world is seen as a novelty. Malik believes that Mus-
lims have an important role to play in keeping the
earth ‘green.'
"Muslims must stand up… and lead the way for-
ward," he says. "If we do not and sit back then we
will also suffer and our future genera ons will suffer.
We are all accountable and will be held accountable
for our ac ons, [even] towards our plants.
We have a social obliga on, a moral obliga on, a
religious obliga on and a spiritual obliga on. The
birds and plants and the eco systems are dying be-
cause of our ac ons. Muslims believe that God cre-
ated everything in due measure and without flaws,
but if we ignore the planet’s laws and neglect it, we
may not have a future."
What does he think is holding Muslims back from
doing more for the planet?
"My personal opinion is that many of us have lost
what it means to be an ac ve Muslim. A Muslim
must have an ac ve connec on with 1. God, 2. The
communi es that we live in, and 3. The environ-
ment.
"We cannot just pick one of these three and say 'I
will only concentrate on this one.' These are a must
for all of us to be involved with; they are all intrinsi-
cally linked. Mankind is the caretaker of the planet
and [Muslims believe] the first caretaker of the
planet was Adam. All the prophets [in Islamic his-
tory] cared for the environment too.
"If there are constraints to your ac vism then I
would advise you do the next best thing and re-
member that anything posi ve you do will have an
effect on the earth – it’s like the ripple effect when
you throw a stone in water – just like any nega ve
thing you do will affect your surroundings."
Trees Give Life does not currently have any Mid-
dle Eastern projects helping communi es protect
their own environment.
"At this stage we do not have any trees that we
can plant in the Middle East, however if we are able
to establish and get contacts then we would be glad
to assist. We are an organiza on that is based on a
need and not to get poli cally driven to any one par-
cular area or region."
How can we support Trees Give Life?
"Buy a tree through our website,
-
givelife.org, and assist us through dona ons. If you
cannot afford a one-off payment, then at the least
offer your support by raising awareness, and if you
cannot do that then pray the Trees Give Life project
is successful."
— Illume Magazine
Meet the Mexican Muslim tree huggers
“We really don’t know the true value of a tree and
(the value of) its effect on the environment; if all
the Muslims just planted one tree, can you imag-
ine what that would mean to the world?”
— Arif Malik
