Devotees gathered in a majestic modernist building, where thousands of men in skullcaps and women in veils sat shoulder to shoulder. Their leader took his place and issued a stern warning.
“Our fatal flaw as humans is that we see the earth as one object,” said Grand Imam Naseeruddin Omar. “The greedier we are for nature, the sooner the world will end.”
He then formulated a treatment plan based on their beliefs, which guide nearly a quarter of humanity. Just like fasting during Ramadan, this is Fard al-Ayn for every Muslim, Or duty to be a guardian of the earth. Like alms, his congregation should give waqf (a religious donation) to renewable energy. Just like daily prayer, planting trees should become a habit.
The environment is a central theme in the sermons of Mr Naseeruddin, the influential head of the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, who has tried to lead by example. He was frustrated that the river where the mosque was located was polluted by garbage and ordered a cleanup. Alarmed by astronomical utility bills, he installed solar panels, slow-flow faucets and a water recycling system in Southeast Asia’s largest mosque, changes that made it the first place of worship to receive World Bank green building honors.
The Grand Imam said he was simply following the instructions of the Prophet Muhammad that Muslims should care for nature.
He is not the only one trying to ignite environmental awareness through Islam in a country of more than 200 million people, most of whom are Muslims. Senior clerics have issued fatwas, or decrees, on how to control climate change. Community activists implored friends, family and neighbors to incorporate environmentalism into the Koran.
“As the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, we must set a good example for Muslim society,” Grand Imam Nasharuddin said in an interview.
While other Muslim countries also share the influence of this “green Islam” movement, Indonesia can serve as a guide for the rest of the world if it can transform itself. As the world’s largest coal exporter, it is one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Thousands of hectares of rainforest have been cleared to produce palm oil or mine for minerals. Rising temperatures are causing extreme weather, with wildfires and floods becoming more severe.
Lasting change is a difficult task.
Its abundant nickel reserves could be used in electric vehicle batteries and are a pathway to a cleaner future. But processing nickel requires burning fossil fuels. President-elect Prabowo Subianto has been pushing to expand biofuel production, which could lead to deforestation. As the capital Jakarta sinks into the sea, outgoing President Joko Widodo is building a new capital billed as a green metropolis powered by renewable energy. But in order to do this, he cut down the forest.
Some clergy consider environmentalism to be peripheral to religion. Surveys show that Indonesians generally believe climate change is not caused by human activities.
But supporters of the Green Islam movement say educating 200 million Muslims can drive that change.
“People don’t listen to the law, they don’t care,” said Hayu Prabowo, head of environmental protection at the Indonesian Ulama Council, Indonesia’s top Islamic authority. “They listen to their religious leaders because their religious leaders say you can escape the laws of the world, but you can’t escape the laws of God.”
The fatwas issued by the council are not legally binding, but he said they have had a significant effect. He noted that research has found that people living in areas rich in forests and peatlands are now more aware that clearing these lands is wrong because fatwas outlaw these activities or prohibit them.
Clergy did not always support the movement. Twenty years ago, a regional branch of the Ulama Council issued a fatwa against Aak Abdullah al-Kudus, an environmentalist in East Java province who tried to The tree planting drive was combined with celebrations of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. He also received death threats.
But over time, support for Mr Acker grew, and he subsequently formed the Green Army, a group of tree-planting volunteers dedicated to reforesting Lemon Hill, a small volcano, where 2,000 hectares of protected forest Has been cut down. Today, it is covered with verdant bamboo and fruit trees.
“Our mission is to be the khalifa, the guardian of the earth,” Mr. Acker said. “This is the mission of Islam.”
Elok Faiqotul Mutia was inspired by the same sentiment. When she was 6 years old, growing up in a city in central Java, her father took her to teak forests, where she saw trees being cut down for her family’s furniture business. She said she wanted to “return my father’s sins to the earth.”
Her first job was as a researcher for Greenpeace. She later founded Enter Nusantara, an organization that aims to educate young people about climate change.
Ms. Mutiya said she believed Islam could convey a gentler message about environmental protection to Indonesians, pointing to a survey that found Indonesian Muslims paid more attention to religious leaders than scientists, the media and the president.
“Environmental campaigns always use negative terms, like ‘Phasing out coal, saying no to coal plants!'” Ms Mutiya said. “We want to show that in Islam we already have values that support environmental values.”
Last June, her group raised more than $5,300 to install solar panels on a small mosque in Yogyakarta. More than 5,500 people donated money to the Muharram Mosque, where worshipers often sit in the dark due to chronic power shortages.
Mosque leader Ananto Isworo said the new panels had helped cut the mosque’s monthly electricity bill by 75 percent, to $1. Devotees have begun using collected rainwater to cleanse themselves.
Mr Ananto said many of his peers called him a “crazy Ustaz” or “crazy Muslim teacher” and said preaching on environmental issues had nothing to do with religion. He countered that there are about 700 verses in the Quran and dozens of hadiths or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad that talk about the environment. He quoted the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad: “Allah is Merciful and loves mercy; God is Clean and loves cleanliness.”
“This is an order to protect the environment through cleanliness,” Mr. Ananto said.
Istiqlal Mosque is proof of what we can achieve. Mr Nasaruddin said the installation of 500 solar panels had reduced the mosque’s electricity bill by 25 per cent. With slow-flow faucets and water-circulating systems, worshipers have far less time to clean their own water before praying.
It is the first place of worship in the world to receive a Green Building Certificate from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. The grand imam said he hopes to help 70 percent of Indonesia’s 800,000 mosques transform into “eco-mosques,” or ecological mosques.
The Green Islam movement is also boosted by the country’s largest Muslim grassroots organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, which fund schools, hospitals and social services. Nahdlatul Ulama hired Mr. Aker, an environmental activist, to run a “spiritual ecology” program that uses Islamic teachings to promote environmental protection.
One of the efforts is to help madrasas upgrade their waste management. The school encourages girls to use reusable tampons and has a system in place that allows students to turn waste into items such as organic fertilizer.
On a recent Tuesday, Mr. Acker led more than 50 sixth-grade students up a hill on a Green Army mission. Many students were carrying backpacks, panting and sweating profusely.
“Let us pray to Allah and sow often because the Prophet Muhammad once said that even if you knew the end of the world was tomorrow and there were still seeds in the ground, he would command: ‘Sow them,'” Mr. Aker told them .
Mr. Acker stopped near the top of the mountain and knelt down to plant a banyan sapling. A gentle breeze rustled the nearby leaves.
Hasiya Nindita Contributed reporting.
