Eco-conscious Muslims urge community to adopt green habits this Ramadan

Ramadan is a month about going without. But for many Muslims, it often involves over-eating, over-drinking and over-spending.

That excess has consequences. Studies estimate that at least 15 to 20 percent of food prepared for Ramadan in the Middle East is thrown away before it ever gets eaten.

And a 2022 poll of Muslims in the United Kingdom found that 54 percent have thrown away food during the holy month. However, that same report said that 9 in 10 British Muslims believe throwing away food goes against the true spirit of Ramadan.

Amid rising climate crisis concerns and a renewed emphasis on environmental responsibility, many Muslims have been taking care to waste less during Ramadan.

As Nazish Qureshi writes for Muslim Climate Watch, Muslims should be at the forefront of the right for climate justice because "Islam mandates a sacred duty to steward the Earth...and a significant proportion of Muslim populations are currently enduring severe repercussions from climate disasters."

Someone who agrees with this premise is Imaan Mohammed, a geography student in London who said that looking after the planet goes hand-in-hand with observing Ramadan. Speaking to TRT World, she added:

"Growing up, Ramadan was all about stuffing our bellies, making way too much food and just generally not being very conscious about what we produce and consume. But as I grew up and took an interest in the planet and particularly getting involved in environmental activism at university, I can now see that limiting the amount of food we waste during Ramadan can itself be an act of worship."

'Rational behaviour'

Government officials have also begun speaking up about the need for "rational behaviour" in Ramadan. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia's environment ministry urged people to eat more sustainably during the holy month, saying large quantities of meat fill landfills and pose a problem for the country's agricultural sector.

The average person in the Kingdom wastes more than 184 kg of food each year, which totals 4 million tons nationwide and amounts to a loss of $10.7 billion.

Meanwhile, to counter food waste in the UK, groups like the Green Deen Tribe are seeking to reconnect to the traditional Islamic teaching of tending to the Earth. Organisers said they were inspired by Ibrahim Abdul Matin’s book Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet, to hold ethical iftars.

This involves a three-pronged approach to boost environmental consciousness in the month of Ramadan: reduce reliance on single-use plastics, cut meat consumption and eliminate food waste.

Many other Muslims around the world have been approaching Ramadan with the same focus, employing simple strategies to cut food waste such as eating leftovers or donating uneaten food.

An end to single-use plastics

In the United States, Safa Ali successfully lobbied her small masjid to ban single-use plastics and instead install water coolers.

A single-use plastic is a disposable plastic that's designed to be used only once before being thrown away or recycled - although most end up in landfill. In fact, only 9 percent of the world’s plastic waste is actually recycled and over a half goes straight to landfill.

Speaking to TRT World, the California-based teacher said, "For years, our mosque was giving away plastic water bottles to worshippers coming for tarawih, but every night, they would just be left on the carpet, not recycled or even thrown on the floor outside."

She added, "It was messy, it was a disruption to our neighbours and I couldn’t help but feel like getting through that much plastic every single Ramadan somehow contradicted the essence of the month itself."

After Ali and her brother used crowdfunding to cover the cost of the water coolers, the masjid board agreed to install them.

The teacher said, "Since then, the masjid is cleaner and tidier, there's less noise with the crunching water bottles and we can pray in peace in the knowledge that we aren't contributing to the damaging use of single-use plastics."

Prophetic tradition

On the surface, it might appear that this increased focus on environmentalism during Ramadan is a new tradition, borne of recent climate justice movements across the world. But for many Muslims, eco-friendly approaches to Ramadan actually stem from prophetic traditions that provide a framework for how people should behave all year.

Omar Ilyas is a British convert to Islam who currently lives in Abu Dhabi. He began curbing his consumption of meat and what he considers other luxuries when he started to learn about Islam.

Speaking to TRT World, he said, "The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, taught us that we should keep our stomachs a third empty at all times; that we aren't Muslims if we are stuffing our stomachs whilst our neighbours go hungry. Looking at his example, I could no longer justify my old lifestyle of eating and drinking until my stomach was completely stuffed."

He added, "Funnily enough, moving to a Muslim country actually opened my eyes to how little attention most Muslims pay to the prophetic tradition when it comes to food and drink. When halal food is readily available, it seems to make it okay to over-indulge, to waste and to be greedy. Seeing that culture first-hand made me vow to be different."

Now, Ilyas said he eats meat only on Fridays and tries to be vegetarian during the week.

"And instead of eating until I can’t move, my wife and I cook healthy meals in bulk and just serve ourselves small plates to fulfil the prophetic example. I see my Islam going hand in hand with my eating habits now."

Meat consumption is a particular focus for environmental activists because it contributes disproportionately to both deforestation and the release of dangerous levels of carbon dioxide which in turn accelerates global warming. In fact, meat production accounts for nearly 60 percent of all greenhouse gases from food production.

In countries like Britain, Muslims make up some of the largest consumers of meat. It is estimated that despite constituting around 6.4 percent of the general population, Muslims buy and eat around 20 percent of all lamb and mutton in the country.

Thinking of Gaza

This year, the war on Gaza has also been prompting many Muslims to take a second look at how they spend Ramadan.

In Ottawa, Canada, Khadija Rehman and her family members have decided to remove all luxuries from their Ramadan this year and donate any money saved to help the people in Gaza. This includes cutting down on meat and excess food.

Speaking to TRT World, Rehman said, "It didn’t feel right this year to decorate my house, to buy lots of exotic and expensive ingredients or to go overboard with Ramadan gifts for friends and family. Everything just feels wrong when we know our siblings in Gaza are fasting without even knowing if they’ll have any food to eat at sunset."

She added that she hopes one small silver lining from witnessing the hardships in Gaza is that people start to see Ramadan in a more austere way, "as a season of paring back, of learning to survive on little, of being more mindful about what we have whilst others do not."

Even though she wasn't thinking about the environment at the time, the conscious decision to consume less has resulted in less food wastage in her household, Rehman said.

"It’s like, if we follow the Prophetic message we will naturally be looking after our world."