Lessons from Nature

One of the things we are always encouraged to do by our teacher is to draw wisdom from nature, meaning seeing nature as a reflection of the human experience. The world acts a huge book that if read with the correct insight and aligned to proper understanding leads to a greater appreciation of the author. Since moving to the country this way of thinking has become heightened in me, not because I am any great spiritual genuis (far from it!) but because you come across natural phenomenon a lot more. In the city there is only so much you can learn from concrete (although in fairness there is a lot there too).

Anyway, yesterday I was cleaning out the greenhouse and pruning my wilting tomato plants when I came across this. The instant I saw it I drew a comparison to the continual debate in the media and Muslims themselves about how Islam can integrare with British society.

For those who can't see the picture is of a tomato that has grown into and around a piece of wire.

To me the following jumped out at me - it is natural for things when facing restriction to mould themselves, change, accomodate and adapt to their surroundings and situation. This wire did not stop the tomato growing, all it did was change the way it normally goes about things.

Muslims in the UK should be the same. There is no need to be rigid, inflexible and fight against the situation we find ourselves in. As it is natural for the tomato, so it is natural for the Muslim to adapt to local conditions. This is the way of the forefathers such as those who left Yemen to places like Malaysia and Indonesia. They did not spread Islam to the hearts of those people by jumping ashore and shouting and screaming with banners and demanding sharia law! We need to remember that Islam, a religion in tune with nature, is not fixed but fluid, not firm but flexible, not fierce but forgiving. I am not saying we should ever compromise our religion in matters that are obligatory but merely stating that is it the natural state to work around things - in that there is great wisdom and benefits.

Or, I could have just been going a bit doolally due to fasting and working yesterday and this is all a load of nonsense.