By Karimah bint Dawoud, Muslim chaplain and ECO Warrior 

Just reading back ECO Warrior, well in my small way but its small consistent ways that Allah loves.

Waste peelings, tea bags and eggs shells
Waste peelings, tea bags and eggs shells

“Aisha (Allah be well pleased with her) narrates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “Perform your deeds properly and in moderation, and know that one’s deeds will not cause any one of you to enter Heaven, and that the most beloved of actions to Allah are the most consistent ones even if little in amount.” [Bukhari]”

Some times this hadith can be a bit confusing and some of us allow shatan to whisper in our ear “then why both to do good deeds at all? This needs a more scholarly mind that mind to explain, however deep in my heart I know that we still have to compete with each other for good deeds as Abu bakr and Umar ibn al kitab, may Allah have mercy on them both ameen, did.

How does this relate to being an ECO Warrior and how can we apply this to our lives in the urban jungle?

Emptying Kitchen Waste into the Compost Palettes
Emptying Kitchen Waste into the Compost Palettes

If we say we are in touch with Allah creation, that we care about creation why are we still abusing the earth? Do we recycle? What do we recycle? How do we recycle?

Many of us live in houses with no gardens but we still produce waste and or excess.

Let us deal with kitchen  waste, anyone who cooks or is involved with the preparation of food makes wastes, food waste. Prevention is better than sure, so planning and knowing your limitation is one sure effective way to reduce waste of any kind.

There is a practice called zhud, in Islam  its a kind of restraint  thinking”do I really need to aquire such and such?”I  pray to the Creator , to make is easy for me to have restraint and its works, you could give it a try.

Still even with the best will in the world, there will still be waste.

In the UK Alhamdulillah some councils provide food recycle bins and some don’t. If you live in an area where the council don’t provide bins you can still DIY recycle food waste.

Get two bins from the local cheap plastic shop, every high street has one; a small bin about 25cm with a lid and ideally a handle and larger bin about 45cm with a lid and handle.

The small bin leave it on your kitchen window ledge if you live in a flat or out on the balcony, you may need a big flat stone to keep the lid on and stop it falling  off the ledge if the wind blows.

The larger bin you place outside the flat, either downstairs in eh front garden, in the car park, somewhere shelter but not right next to eh kitchen door. This bin you can either empty into a compost hole in your garden or take it to the local community garden like we do.


Every area has some sort of community garden, formal or informal or there are allotments, we take ours to meanwhile gardens on Ladbroke Grove. Over the nearly two years we have been taking our recycled tea bags, peelings, left over salad, olive pips and eggs shells, we have bonded with the staff and volunteers there who occasionally get to sample our culinary delights. This has now progressed into them giving us produce to do a sort of ready steady cook.

In short there is more that we can do if we are sincere in accepting our role of being custodians of the earth.

Green Deen By Ibrahim Abdul Matin
Green Deen By Ibrahim Abdul Matin

There is a new publication called  Grean  Deen? By Ibrahim Abdul Matin, an Afro- American brother. It’s published by Kube, of course, mashallah.

This is my holiday reading material so you will have to wait till we come back to get more of an insight or buy it and we can compare notes……


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