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Climate change (or climate chaos as some people call it) is a reality which will increasingly dominate the 21st century. As citizens of Britain’s second city, we can help create a city to be proud of, leading the way in reducing global warming to help save the planet for future generations.

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199 ways to please God

Nov 17th, 2009 by Chris Duggan | 2 comments

199 ways to please God: how to (re-)align your daily life with your duty of care for Creation’ by Rianne Ten Veen.

The book is arranged in four sections: beliefs (aqaaid), worship (ibadah), transactions (muamalat) and moral character (akhlaq). Within each section there are several chapters, e.g. under beliefs there are chapters about unity (tawheed) of Creation (which is wider than unity as in 1 God) and our duty of guardianship (khilafa). The section on worship includes chapters about prayer and fasting. The section on transactions includes chapters on shopping and investment (including info on what banks do with our money & reflect on whether that is something we might want to have on our record as it’s our money). The section on moral character includes chapters about supplication (dua) and etiquette of eating (impact on environment of pesticides, quantity of food we eat).

Each chapter

  • gives a background of the matter from a factual perspective (e.g. water shortages and unfair trade on malnutrion),
  • shares from life of the Prophet PBUH (e.g. how little water he used for making wudu), his companions and others over time (from Ibn Rushd, Al-Ghazali to President of Pakistan Ecology Council),
  • gives  examples of actions (e.g. make supplication for species at risk of distinction, use only the amount water the Prophet PBUH used) based on my ideas, but also on the many good examples already out there (‘Green Muslims in the District’, Washington DC, USA, and London Islamic Network for the Environment).

I also include several anecdotes from my own experience (e.g. my time in Argentina, my experience with an allotment, organising organic iftars).

There’s a review of the book at another-green-world.blogspot.com.

Rianne lives in Birmingham and is active in IFEES and the Birmingham multifaith climate initiative based at Friends of the Earth.

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2 Comments on “199 ways to please God”

  1. On November 30th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
    Rianne ten Veen said:

    Thanks Chris for the mention! BTW: the Faith & Climate Change initiative recently won an award in The Guardian’s Community Heroes and a special mention from B’ham Council’s Local Hearts Awards. Thanks to all involved. In peace, Rianne

  2. On November 30th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
    Chris Duggan said:

    There’s an article about Rianne at http://www.thestirrer.co.uk/overcoming-green-fatigue-1707081.html