Pak Tea House

by Green Sufi

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Trees are being cut down in cities everywhere in Pakistan, by the hundreds. Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Hyderabad seem the worst hit. But I’m sure it’s all over.

This is the way of the modern city alas.

Although many factors are behind it such as greed, and fantastic manias of the Development Authorities, odd notions of “progress”- mostly implying shiny metal and glass structures with a few manicured shrubs in front of them- I think the fundamental problem is a Sickness of the Soul called modernity. So the loss of trees is a loss of Barkat [blessing] in our lives.

Sure, Someone is making a buck out of this wood too.
Sure many modern secular people love trees, the cleaner air, beauty, greenery too.

But we cannot just blame the Developers, it is also the ordinary citizens who are losing patience with trees and nature. I cannot tell how often I’ve heard ordinary, educated people say, depressingly, cut this tree down, as it

blocks the streetlight
causes too much litter, leaves and what not
birds sit on it & poo [as if they won't on the wires & cement you replace it with]
obstructs the view
hides the ‘beauty of the building’ [?!]
its growing ‘too wildly’
it’s been known to cause asthma in Islamabad
etc. etc.

What nonsense!
When will we look at them as God’s ne’mat [gift] rather than as “resource” or a nuisance, or even pretty scenery?

In the secular paradigm, trees are obstructions, inconveniences to such abstractions as ‘traffic flow’ and ‘pedestrian safety’- an organic disorderly growth in an angular, geometric, mechanical world [rubbish!]. In our increasingly indoor, gadget involved and mechanized lives, the natural world is more and more an inconvenient if necessary source of raw material. Occasionally aesthetic satisfaction, but that is best relegated to a “scenic spot”, complete with ice-cream & fast-food & paan vendors with disposable cups. Trees if left to themselves, get in the way of Development.

But for the old, simple religious-minded people, us superstitious, Sufi-types, Trees are God’s creatures, who glorify Him night & day, as the Qur’an tells us. As shades, they are symbols of the Mercy of God, His hand above us as in our parents, our Pirs, etc. We value things for their symbolic importance too, for us it is not something other than ans separate from their actual presence.

As such it is considered a minor sin to cut a fruit-bearing or a shade-giving tree in Traditional Islam. It is considered good to plant something near or on a grave, for this tasbih [glorification] that the plant makes according to the Holy prophet PBUH helps the one buried there.

The Prophet PBUH also likened the ones who remember God as green, living trees and those who don’t as dried up dead ones.

Planting trees, especially fruit bearing ones is considered a good deed in Islam. In fact the Holy Prophet said, peace be upon him, that if you had a plant in our hand, and were about to plant it in the soil, and the Day of Judgment came nigh, first plant that in your hand.

For Sufis its a major no-no to cut a green branch. So aspiring Sufis, be warned, do not hurt any living creature.
[Yes sacrificial meat can be eaten, but it is best not to overdo it!*]

To be honest, I’m not too hopeful about the future of Trees and Nature. May God forgive me, but I don’t see the modern, ‘CocaCola Enjoy’ consumer-culture and the hi-tech 21st Century City having too much time for rambling old nature, sprawling trees, good plain-old earth, birds and bugs, wild grass.

So steel your heart my last Sufi & Romantic friends. Remember the only trees you can save are the ones in your own little yard. Maybe 25 years later they’ll come for them too. [threat to neighborhood health & hygiene!] But inshaAllah, we can save some trees. God have mercy on us.