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The Encouragement in Islaam to Utilize and Till the Land

The Encouragement in Islaam to Utilize the Land

 & to

Till the Land

Taken from

‘Silsilah Ahadeeth As-Saheehah’

By the
Muhaddith, Shaykh, Allamaa’
Muhammad Nasir uddeen al-Albaani

Translated by

Abbas Abu Yahya

‘There are many Ahadeeth regarding this, I will mention a few of them:

7 – From Anas the Prophet -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam- said:

‘There is no Muslim who plants a plant or a tree, or sows a seed and no bird, or human or animal eats from that except that it is a charity for that person.’
[Collected by Bukhari, Muslim & Ahmad]

8 – From Jabir from the Prophet -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam:

‘There is no Muslim who plants a plant or a tree, except that whatever is eaten from it is a charity for him.  Whatever is stolen from that is a charity for him.  Whatever is eaten from it by an animal is a charity for him.  Whatever a bird eats is a charity for him, no one suffers a loss except that it will be a charity for him till the Day of Judgement.’
[Collected by Muslim]

No. 9 – From Anas -Radi Allaahu anhu- from the Prophet -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam- said:

‘If the final hour comes and one of you has a small date-palm plant in his hand, and if you can plant it before you stand then plant it.’

‘Imam Bukhari brought a chapter heading in the previous book (al-Adab al-Mufrad) for this Hadeeth, where he said: ‘Chapter: The Production of Wealth’ then he narrated from al-Harith bin Laqeett who said:

‘There used to be a man from amongst us who would get his horse to reproduce, and then slaughter it. And he would say: ‘Why should I live so that I ride this thing? [i.e. The Day of Judgement is very close].’
Then a letter came to us from Umar:
‘You should cultivate and prosper with that which Allaah has provided you, since indeed in this regard there is enough time.’
Its chain is authentic.

Bukhari also narrated from Dawood with an authentic chain, who said: Abdullaah bin Sallam said to me:

‘If you hear that the Dajjal has exited and you are about to plant a small tree, then do not delay tending to cultivating it, because the people will have a sustenance from that later.’

And Ibn Jareer narrated from ‘Amaarah bin Khuzaimah bin Thaabit who said:

‘I heard Umar bin al-Khattab say to my father: ‘What prevents you from tilling your land?’
My father replied to him: ‘I am an old man and I may die tomorrow.’
So Umar said to him:
‘I swear that; indeed you must plant on your land.’
Indeed I saw Umar bin al-Khattab plant a plant or tree with his own hands along with my father.’
[From ‘al-Jamia’ al-Kabeer’ by Suyootee]

This is why some of the Companions used to regard a man who works on his land as a worker from the workers of Allaah – Azza wa Jal.

Bukhari narrated in ‘al-Adab al-Mufrad’ from Nafi’ bin ‘Aasim that he heard Abdullaah bin ‘Amr say to his nephew, when he was coming out of his [al-Waha] farm:

‘Are your workers doing their jobs?’
He replied: ‘I do not know.’
Abdullaah said: ‘As for me, if I was skilled and trained I would learn the job your workers do.’
Then he turned towards us and said: ‘Indeed if a person works along his workers in his home [and the narrator once mentioned: ‘with his wealth’]; then that person would be a worker from the workers of Allaah – Azza wa Jal.’
Its chain is ‘Hasan’ InshAllaah.

‘al-Waha’ in the Arabic  language means: a garden, and it was a very large piece of land which was owned by ‘Amr bin ‘al-Aaas in Taif about three miles from Wajja, and it seems he left it for his children.


Ibn ‘Aasakir collected in his book ‘Tareekh’ with an authentic chain from ‘Amr bin Dinar who said:

‘Amr bin al-Aaas entered a farm which he owned in Taif which was called al-Waha, it had a million stakes of wood [which were used to prop up the grapes], he had bought every stake of wood for a Dirham.’

These are some of the general benefits from those Ahadeeth from the Salaf as-Salih -Radi Allaahu anhum.

Bukhari wrote a chapter heading in his ‘Saheeh’ for the first two Ahadeeth by saying:

‘Chapter: The excellence of growing plants if they are eaten from’

[Taken from ‘Silsilah Ahadeeth As-Saheehah’ vol. 1 hadeeth no 7-9 p.37-40]

Non-Muslim Sunnah

BismIllah.

When looking at how we would focus our lifestyle and consider the changes and improvements we needed to make in our lives, we looked firstly at the Qur'an and the Sunnah. In this case, not the Sunnah of manners and worship, but the Sunnah of lifestyle of our Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam. The reason we looked at this is because our Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, was sent down at a specific time and lived a specific lifestyle, which was in harmony with the earth (a focal part of our Islam). We then looked at what environmentalists and sustainable living veterans were doing - the crunchy movement.  We came to this question: "Why are all the non-Muslims raving about the Sunnah?"

What, you ask? Is there a group of non-Muslims that have learned about the Sunnah and love it? No. There are masses of non-Muslims who swear by living the Sunnah - but they don't know it is the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet. They just know it is the best way to live. Why do they know and practice, and we, as an Ummah, rarely do?

Why is it that when we go to the doctor, they tell us to eat whole, unrefined grains, natural foods, fruits, vegetables, like olive oil? Sunnah food! We are warned day in day out about avoiding chemical-laden, refined and processed foods like white sugar, white flour, white rice, etc. Why do they tell us to use honey, which we have ahadith and Qur'an ayaat about? Why are they giving us tips about how to eat mindfully, when we have extensive ahadith about the etiquettes of eating that tell us these things?

Why is it that the Green Revolution is telling us to build houses out of earth, just as they built the first masjid in Madinah? In the secular world, we are reminded that every day is Earth Day. In Islam, every day IS Earth Day because we have been given this earth as an amanah (trust) from Allah. They tell us not to use dangerous and harmful chemicals...subhaan Allah, it's as if they read the ayaat in the Quran "and do not destroy yourselves."

We turn up our noses at the "primitive" squat toilets used in the Middle East, but the west says that they are the healthiest toilets to use for proper elimination and even sell steps to use in front of western toilets to give the same effect of crouching. Subhaan Allah! We are even told that conventional toilets are a huge waste and composting toilets are the way to secure our earth's future.

Just go online and you will see articles and blogs about giving up material things, getting rid of the clutter. Non-Muslims are raving about the virtues and value of giving up unnecessary things to better appreciate what is important in life. So now, we have non-Muslims taking practical steps towards Az-Zuhd, when we are out shopping and filling our homes.

Non-Muslims are recycling, living for a year without throwing anything away to see how they can reduce their impact on the earth. They have gone back to the materials used in the time of the Prophet - iron, steel, glass, pottery - and shunned the plastic, aluminum, and teflon found to be so dangerous to our health. They even went back to the Sunnah in the materials they use - cotton, hemp, linen, wool, silk, leather, while we buy Japanese polyester abayas and thobes.

What have we come to that the rest of the world is doing what was sent us by Allah, in the form of our Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam) and his Sunnah, as the best example of how to live? As you will see in the posts about our lifestyle changes and evolution, we are taking the best example of how to live as our model for living our lives, now and ultimately on our land bi ithn Illah.

Nineteen Years in the Making

Before I met my husband, in 1992 he had this dream of buying land in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His initial vision was 140 acres of land, in an area known as Canyon Milagro. The years passed but the dream remained. In 2002, we married and he shared his dream with me and I greened the dream. We didn't know exactly how we could make the dream a reality with the hustle and bustle of the American lifestyle.

In 2003, out of sheer necessity, we turned our back yard into a natural/organic garden as we were both poor and hungry. This was one of the first steps in preparation to learning how to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Over the years we went on camping trips, visited Native American museums, Energyfests, Plimoth Plantation, and other historical places that would teach us about the simple, homesteading life.

In 2009 we left the United States so my husband could take a position at Taibah University, Madinah al Munawarrah,  to put us in an environment more conducive to our spiritual well-being. In two years, the blessings of Allah brought us 51 acres of land located in Roy, New Mexico. The price was within our grasp so we began the process to purchase the land. On July 18th, 2011 the next stage in our dream became a reality...we were now land owners.

It is our plan to continue to reside in Saudi Arabia and return to America to develop our land during the summer breaks. We hope to have a final transition to the land by 2019, inshaa'Allah. On this blog we hope to share with you the steps we've taken and continue to take to make this dream a reality.