Faith and Environment in Religion

Building on the success of previous years, Al-Mahdi Institute hosted its 4th Big Iftar event on Friday the 1st of June 2018. The aim of the event was to invite people of all faiths and none to participate and experience an Iftar with people of all religious and cultural backgrounds. In keeping with the spirit of the holy month of Ramadhan, the aim of the event was to encourage multi-faith dialogue within a diverse range of faiths and beliefs through talks and poetry discussing the practice of fasting in different religions. As with previous years, the event continued to receive a high turnout of members of all and non-faith to share the ceremonial breaking of the fast.

The event was chaired by Zain Abbas – a 3rd year student on the Hawza Programme at AMI. The theme this year was on ‘Faith and Environment in Religion’, starting off with a beautiful recitation of the Quran by Brother Muhammad Ali, followed by a talk on the Buddhist take on the Environment by Yann Lovelock. Acharyaji Yadav Samaj then spoke on the Hindu perspective on the Environment, after which  the Judaic view by Aviv Glaser was touched on with the Talmudic texts being referred to. The Christian understanding was elaborated by Ruth Tetlow, culminating with Shaykh Arif Abdulhussain explicating the Islamic perspective on the importance of being Environmentally friendly. The session ended with a beautiful recitation of Dua Kumayl in English by Abbas Lalji. It was agreed that as human beings, and as religious people we must be mindful of the environment and positively impact it.

The evening drew to a close with Zain Abbas giving the closing remarks, and a raffle ticket for a lucky participant being picked by Shaykh Arif, which was then followed by congregational prayers and breaking of the fast.

To watch the full recording of the event, please click here

To view more images from the event, please click here.