We are pleased to announce the launch of Al-Mizan: Covenant for the Earth which took place yesterday, Tuesday 27th of February, at the Media Center at the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) compound in Nairobi under the patronage of H. E. Ms. Leila Benali, President of UNEA(United Nations Environmental Assembly) and other dignitaries. The launch was live streamed on this Channel. Al-Mizan can now be downloaded in Arabic and English from the Al-Mizan page and also at https://www.almizan.earth/.
Al-Mizan is the work of a large group of Muslim scholars from across the globe and different Islamic backgrounds led by the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES/EcoIslam) UK, Islamic World Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (IESCO) Morocco, Uskudar University Turkey, Hamad University and Quranic Botanic Gardens Qatar and Anaq el-Ard Saudi Arabia. The Covenant in addition to being endorsed by the Muslim Council of Elders has been reviewed by more than 300 Islamic scholars and institutions. This endeavour was facilitated by UNEP’s Faith for Earth Coalition.
The Covenant presents an Islamic outlook on the environment in a bid to strengthen local, regional, and international actions to combat the triple planetary crises defined by the United Nations as climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. It is a global endeavour to engage Muslims from all levels of society in the development and adoption of this call.
Environmentalism is deeply embedded in the veins of Islam. It is about personal behaviour and how it manifests itself in our association with others and also about being considerate in our relationship with the natural world and other sentient beings.
These principles grew out of the foundations established by Prophet Muhammad into a range of rules and institutions that manifested an expression of life that was truly holistic. It was based on the Qur’an and it could be distilled into three categories namely encouraging public good, forbidding wrong action and acting in moderation at all times:
“Let there be a community among you that calls for what is good, urges what is right and forbids what is wrong, they are the ones who have success” (3: 104)
AL-MIZAN (‘Balance’ in English) is based on Surah Ar-Rahman (The Merciful) in which Allah Almighty describes the creation in its perfect balance:
"The Most Merciful,
Taught the Quran
Created Humankind
Taught him Eloquence
The sun and the moon move in precise calculation
and the stars and the trees prostrate
and the heaven He raised and imposed the balance (Mizan)
That you not transgress within the balance (Mizan)
and establish weight in justice and do not make deficient the balance (Mizan)”
(Quran 55:1-9)