Working
together

You know,

from their very beginning

humans had to find ways of feeding themselves,

and they soon found out that rather than just gather

the fruits and vegetables that were growing around them

they could sow and reap crops for a more reliable source of food,

and it soon became clear that working together

had all sorts of advantages when applied to agriculture.

Communities need to come together to gather crops

during the short time that they are ripe and ready for harvest,

and need to share resources such as water.

And as muslims spread around the world

they came across a wide variety of new plants

growing in all manner of different landscapes,

and as their knowledge grew it was gathered together in huge agricultural manuals.

Nearly a thousand years ago,

Ibn al-Awwam wrote "The Book of Agriculture",

explaining the culture of 585 plants

and over 50 fruit trees,

describing plant diseases and treatments,

parasites and weeds, and fighting insect pests,

He explains how to graft trees

and cross plants to produce new varieties,

and classifies different soils,

saying how to treat them by ploughing, and hoeing,

digging and harrowing.

As such knowledge spread around the empire,

from the steppes of Asia to the Atlantic ocean,

so too did the variety of crops.

Oranges from India were brought to Oman,

and from there spread around the Mediterranean,

along with other fruits,

like peaches, apricots and pomegranates.

Other foods, like rice and sugar cane

also spread across the empire,

as well as crops having different uses,

such as cotton from India.

And with that shared knowledge,

they learned how to change the way they farmed,

greatly reducing food poverty

and raising the standard of living in the community.

From each field only harvesting every two years,

by using crop rotation and irrigation

they could produce four crops a year.

But this is where agriculture meets ecology,

because a muslim's role is not just to take from nature,

but to care for it,

to leave it better than you find it.

The ground needed to be fertilised,

and the best fertiliser was considered to be pigeon droppings,

so huge pigeon keeps were built,

more than 20 metres high,

like castles made from mud bricks,

where they could nest and breed.

It used to be said that there were more than 3,000 pigeon keeps

around the city of Isfahan alone.

And of course, the pigeons were also useful for long distance messaging.

Care for the land,

Khilafate,

is a religious duty in Islam,

as humans have been placed at the centre of a creation

over which they have been given power,

a creation which feeds them

nurtures them,

but which depends on their duty of care

to be able to continue doing that.

By being taught the names of all things,

humans were given power over them,

but this power is given so that they can be

the instrument of God's Will,

caring for God's creation.

When humanity's inner being turns to darkness and chaos,

nature is also turned from harmony and beauty

to disorder and lack of balance.

A person sees in nature what they are themselves,

and caring for nature is a sign of caring for self,

and it is looking inside that shows the truth of this.

Those who live only on the surface of themselves

can study nature as something to be manipulated and dominated,

but it is necessary to look inward to see nature as it truly is,

the Signs with which we are intertwined.