By AbdulWarees Solanke
We surely will overcome this invasive infection that has locked down our world.
With it, we now see how we all are helplessly vulnerable.
In fighting it, we have followed all courses, tried every means, adopted all methods, from the bizarre to the ludicrous and the baseless; the scientifically rational, the speculative and the spiritual.
What has emerged from this plague of our age is that we all love life; we love our world.
But this same life and and world, we have all done incalculable damage. How?
We have threatened our own survival. In what way?
We have compromised our existence. To what extent?
We have indeed mismanaged the earth. Really?
Well, check the contents of the millennium development goals, the sustainable development goals.
The resources of the earth constitute the entire Trust for Man to manage and preserve.
Our land, air and water, indeed Our entire humanity and our biodiversity and how to preserve them are the essence of the MDG/SDGs.
Would we have been talking about climate change if we had not altered the balance of the earth?
Would we be hyping sustainable development if we had not undone ourselves in our bid to develop?
While exploring the earth resources, our concern mainly is consumption and enjoyment, at fast pace, with ease and convenience and minimum cost.
In these, we employed science and developed technologies that will distort and disrupt nature, indeed denature our world.
Now, the sea is complaining; the clouds charging, the air grumbling and the land crying.
In the mourning of nature, its impoverished and angry soldiers are unleashed on our world.
Now, nature is fighting back and we are taking cover from it’s army.
We are praying to God that we abandon in our obsession to shield us from the affliction of our earth, the earth that we exploited and abused in our consumptive recklessness.
Allah is ArRahman. He will recall this army of nature, in listening to our prayers.
When Corona returns to its Garrison, would we have learnt some lessons?
The lessons are in our vulnerability, in the supremacy of nature and the mercy of God.
If we survive this scourge with the care and precaution we are taking now, we must sustain the spirit of caring for the earth and respecting nature.
We must begin to see the earth as a Trust, tapping its resources with conscience, treating nature as a Creation with its own soul and spirit.
As we take from the earth, we must give back to it in rejuvenation and rehabilitation.
We must clean our air. We must stop pollution of our oceans. We must cease degrading the land.
We must rethink endless enjoyment that has been our preoccupation in mercilessly raping the earth.
We must now CONCRETELY think Sustainable Development if we must delay the Apocalypse that the Corona army is unleashing on us.
If we all live through Corvid-19, we will all thank Allah for sparing our lives by being more responsible in the way we use His blessings wrapped in nature, the nature we’ve being abusing while enjoying it.
AbdulWarees, an assistant director, Strategic Planning & Corporate Development at Voice of Nigeria volunteers for the Muslim Public Affairs Centre MPAC Nigeria as Director, Media & Strategic Communications.
