Our Almighty Lord has allowed us to see another beautiful month of Ramadan in health and safety together with our Muslim brothers and sisters so that we can enjoy this beautiful time of worship again. Allah gives countless beauties and blessings to people throughout their lives, as the verse in the Holy Quran makes it clear: “And in a part of the night exalt Him and after (the setting of) the stars.” (Surat at-Tur: 49)
Everything that exists comes from Him. All the beauties, goodness and gifts are the manifestations of Allah’s infinite wisdom: And He gave you from all you asked of Him. And if you should count the favour of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is (generally) most unjust and ungrateful. (Surat Ibrahim: 34)
As the verse makes it clear, in every moment of our lives, we enjoy innumerable blessings from our Lord and our Lord wants us only to give thanks to Him for all these gifts.
There are so many beauties, blessings and gifts in this world, but they all have a purpose behind their existence. They don’t exist so that people can simply consume them without ever thinking about them in a wasteful manner. With all these blessings, Allah shows His compassion and love for His servants. And they are also intended to make the servant that receives those blessings turn to Him. People should not forget that they will be asked about all the blessings given to them by our Lord, the Most Merciful.
Allah wants His servants to benefit from the blessings He creates but forbids them from wasting them. Ramadan is a month of blessing, but Muslims have to be especially cautious against the risk of increased food wastage in this month.
Allah warns against wasteful behaviour in a verse as follows: And give the relative his right, and (also) the poor and the traveller, and do not spend wastefully. Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and ever has Satan been to his Lord ungrateful. (Surat al-Isra: 26-27)
Our Almighty Lord prohibits all kinds of wastefulness, be it great or small. Therefore, throwing away food or goods without even thinking about it is not an action that Allah would have approved of. Allah brings out thousands of different types of product from the same soil and creates infinite blessings for human beings. If Allah takes away these blessings, we have no power at all to bring them back. Allah tells us about this fact in a verse: Say, “He is the Most Merciful; we have believed in Him, and upon Him we have relied. And you will (come to) know who it is that is in clear error.” (Surat al-Mulk: 30)
Allah created enough blessings for everyone on Earth. One of the main reasons behind hunger and poverty in the world is the inability to prevent waste. It is crucial to find ways to consume food before they go bad. At the moment, more than 800 million people in the world are suffering from hunger, whereas in many Western countries truckloads of food are being thrown out everyday.
We should also not forget that satan is the one that encourages prodigality. Satan knows that wastefulness is a behaviour that Allah doesn’t approve of, and therefore lies to people that there is nothing wrong with throwing away and wasting things. It is important that believers act with extra caution regarding this and invite each other to do the right thing that would please Allah.
Adnan Oktar's piece on The Gulf Today:
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/f218c4fc-1385-4ae3-bfe3-b7a48ef19ea2.aspx
