Earth day, is an event celebrated every year by Wessex Jamaat since 2009. It is the climax of the week long celebrations of "Dahwul Ardh". - The phrase "Dahwul Ardh" literally means "The spread of the earth". The 25th of Dhulqa'dah, according to a tradition of the Holy Prophet (saw) is the day when the earth was spread for the advantage of human beings.
Hence it is avery important occasion indeed. According to a tradition of the Holy Prophet (saw), whosoever fasts on this day his fast would equal 70 years of fasting.
Earth day, is an event celebrated every year by Wessex Jamaat since 2009. It is the climax of the week long celebrations of "Dahwul Ardh". - The phrase "Dahwul Ardh" literally means "The spread of the earth"
The 25th of Dhulqa'dah, according to a tradition of the Holy Prophet (saw) is the day when the earth was spread for the advantage of human beings.
Hence it is a very important occasion indeed. According to a tradition of the Holy Prophet (saw), whosoever fasts on this day his fast would equal 70 years of fasting.
Having known these merits, at Wessex Madrasah this event has become a focal point of our madrasah activities where the students get an opportunity to reflect on the Earth and its bounties.
This year, in 1431, on Saturday 13th November, we celebrated this holy day with a range of outside visitors to AL MAHDI. It was an event that included both the children and adults, giving everyone a chance to take part in the occasion. Our chief guest was Toby Williams. Toby is a social entrepreneur who works in conservation and has been an advocate of our local country side, Wickham Common. Toby lead an activity with us; teaching all the Madrasah students about the outside world in our back garden. We found out the ancient ways of candle making and how the unique flowers in the Wickham Common were contributing the richness of bio-diversity in the area. Toby said about the day: “It was great to see the children using the grounds to change the way the children relate to their natural world.”
The children got involved with a range of activities, ranging from walking around with your eyes closed, to looking at the garden with a mirror on your nose!
This activity showed the children that there is so much of God’s creation that, we take for granted every day, and it gave us the opportunity to look at the world from a different perspective. Toby then enlightened the Madrasah with an excellent PowerPoint presentation, teaching teachers and the students about the natural world that we all value so much.
Shabbir Walji, an active elder of the Community, whose knowledge of the nature is well known locally said: “We reap what we sow. The earth belongs to us and we belong to the earth. Such programmes give us an opportunity to teach our youth the importance of the Earth and ensuring its sustainable future.”
Sheikh Fazle Abbas Datoo, Resident Alim of Wessex Jamaat said: “Dahwul Ardh is an example of how we can show our neighbours how Muslims demonstrate in practice the stewardship of this gift – our home the planet earth - given to them. The Earth is our cradle and we need to take care of this cradle. This year, the involvement of our local nature advocate, Toby Williams, was an example of how we all come together to celebrate such events as people of faith and no faith. We do so because we care of the gift given to us by the Almighty.”
Abbasali Moledina, a student at Wessex Madrasah said: “I really enjoyed the day especially the Chief Guest, Toby Williams contribution. I think we should have more such days where we come and learn about the nature.”
Fatema Nasser
Wessex Media Team