Ashoka
Indonesia 🇮🇩
One day, an ustad in my class told me something significant that I always remembered until today. He talked about the tragedy of the waste explosion in Leuwigajah dumpsite in West Java that happened in February 2015 and as a consequence, killed 157 people. The question he then asked gave me a jolt, “What if you are the one who contributed to killing those people because of your waste?” I know his words sound too strong, but at that very moment, I felt scared. This is such an important reminder for me as a practicing Muslim that, “After I die, later in the Hereafter, I will be held accountable for every single action I have done in the world including how I manage my waste.” Being responsible with our waste was not finished with only throwing it into the trash bin as I was always told since a kid, but it will follow as far as it could travel.
In fact, in Islam, the Prophet (peace be upon him) has also taught us more than 1,400 years ago through his practices to protect the well-being of the environment as we are assigned as vicegerents. From all this, I was personally inspired by the way he consumed his food. He took only what he could eat, he never ate alone and always shared with others, and feel blessed with whatever he had on his plate. Because of that, no food waste in his house. Now when we are faced with food waste problems, I believe the key solution is to come back to those practices: being grateful for your food and sharing with others.
Those made me think, “do I want to be a person contributing to the earth's destruction? Would I be able to defend myself in front of God if He asked me why I destroyed His earth?”
So little by little I changed my behavior, to not only clean the garbage but also try my best to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste myself. I gave myself a mini-challenge every day: not taking a single piece of plastic from the market, collecting organic waste from the kitchen and composting it, using the reusable menstrual pad instead of buying disposable ones, etc. Until it becomes a habit and doing otherwise makes me guilty. The rewarding thing for doing that is when my surrounding including my mom, brother, and friends started to challenge themselves to do the same. And even became more rewarding when the sellers in the market started noticing our behaviors and asking why we are doing so.
My journey to contribute to protecting the environment then developed when I, together with friends in the community collaborated with the Ashoka Fellow school in West Java to hold an event called Petualangan Pangan (A Journey of Food) to educate the young people regarding sustainable food system. We recruited volunteers and created a simple curriculum from tracking our food including rice, tasting the indigenous food that had been forgotten, and composting the leftovers after having lunch together. That simple event actually gave me and my community a new understanding that first and foremost we should instill a strong why in the people before expecting their behavior to change of them. For me, the WHY for doing this is because it is the way I show gratitude to Allah and I fear His Punishment for not taking care of His Earth.
By reflecting on this, I realized how my changemaking journey was so much influenced by my faith in Islam. The more I learn about Islam the more I feel inspired to do good for the environment. Vice versa, the more I do something to protect the environment, the more I feel close to God and the Prophet PBUH.