Selected themes of nature and the environment for adult participants are taken from: The Qur’an – A New Translation by Thomas Cleary (Starlatch Press, 2004).
1.The Family of Imran (3:190-191)
Surely in the creation
Of the heavens and the earth,
And the alternation of night and day,
Are signs for people of understanding—
Those who remember God
While standing, sitting and on their sides,
Contemplating the creation
Of the heavens and the earth:
“Our Lord!
You did not create this in vain!
Glory to You!
Keep us, then,
From the torment of the fire!
2.Cattle (6:141)
And it is God who originated gardens, trellised
And untrellised; and the date palm,
And the sowing of various edibles; and the olive;
And pomegranates, similar and dissimilar.
Eat of their fruits when they bear,
And pay what is due on them the day of harvest.
And do not be wasteful,
For God does not like the wasteful.
3. Light (24:41)
Don’t you see
That all creatures in the skies and on earth
Glorify God,
Even the birds on the wing?
Each one knows it’s prayer,
And it’s manner of praise.
And God is fully cognizant
Of what they are doing.
4. Light (24:43)
Don’t you see that God propels the clouds,
Joining them and making them into masses,
Then you see rain emerging from within them?
And God makes mountainous ones come
Down from the sky with hail in them,
Striking with it anyone at will,
And diverting it from anyone at will,
The brilliance of its lighting
Nearly taking away the sight.
5. The Criterion (25:53)
As God is the One
Who loosed the two waters,
One fresh and sweet,
One salty and bitter,
And put a gap between them,
And a forbidden barrier;
6. The Criterion (25:61-62)
Blessed is the One who put constellations in the sky,
And put a lamp therein,
And a light-giving moon;
And that is the One who made the night and the day alternate
For those who want to be mindful,
And those who want to be grateful.
7. The Benevolent One (55:5-6)
The sun and the moon
follow calculated courses,
And the trees and the grasses bow down
8. The Announcement (78:6-7)
Haven’t We made the earth an expanse
With the mountains as pegs?