Make Your Nikah Eco-Friendly (Green Islamic Wedding)

In true simple Sunnah tradition, check out these alternative ideas for greenifying your Muslim wedding ceremony, without losing any of the spiritual magic.

Muslim marriage is like a garden. After tilling the land and planting seeds, you hope you've grown flowers and not weeds. In the planning of a wedding however, the budget control is not as organic. With peak wedding season this summer, take a gander at alternative Nikah and Walimah* ideas to colour your marriage that much greener. Begin with Bismillah!

Get married outside
Instead of booking an expensive venue, pick a meadow, a national park, and have yourself a wedding in a forest.  Hold a picnic style buffet, hang lanterns and bird feeders and tie your own names made from card, off of tree branches.

Have an alfresco boho wedding.

*Nikah - the legal Islamic wedding ceremony. Walima - the reception party.

Is Growing Food In Car Tyres Toxic?

"I've never met a potato I didn't like." - Irish traditional saying.

Permaculture is about closing loops, removing waste from profligate systems and finding innovative ways to reuse things. We throw away lots of car tyres every year, so finding things to do with them must be good.

One food-growing technique that seems to embody this principle of reusing waste is using old tyres as a container to grow potatoes and other vegetables in, but is it a good idea? Academic research into shredded tyres suggests that there maybe a problem. This article explores the practice of growing vegetables in used tyres.

Why grow food with tyres?

The Germination Process

A beginner's guide to recognising new shoots in plants.

A cucumber seed will take less than 10 days to germinate. If placed in a greenhouse or a conservatory, you'll end up with looking something like this. A new baby plant with delicate roots and young leaves.

8 Leadership Lessons From A Shepherd's Life

I am a shepherd, and my students are my flock. Lessons from being a shepherd (Ra'ee) of sheep and people.

At the mosque I'm teaching at with my sister, we held an outdoor lesson in the park. It was titled Green Prophets Of Islam. We looked at Ibn Kathir's biography (Seerah) of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and more specifically, the various lessons taught from the prophets' shepherding duties prior to being given prophethood (Risalah).

“All of you are shepherds and each of you is responsible for [your] flock. An Imam is a shepherd and he is responsible for those in his care. A man is a shepherd in respect of his family and is responsible for those in his care. The woman is a shepherd in respect of her husband’s house and is responsible for those in her care. The servant is a shepherd in respect of his master’s property and is responsible for what is in his care. All of you are shepherds and each of you is responsible for his flock.”

Agreed upon – From Riyad Al-Saliheen of Imam al-Nawawi.
Reported by Ibn ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with him.

Video: How You Can Become Greener Muslims

London based organisation, Inclusive Mosque Initiative (MI), invited me to their 'Nature In Qur'an' event in April. As a small-time eco-Muslim living 250 miles up north, it was quite a feat getting there. But I was very humbled to attend a small congregation of listeners. I gave a short presentation on what it means to me, to be a more nature loving Muslimah. (Videos below)