大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Yousra Samir Imran

Good morning.

Did you know that today is Don鈥檛 Step on a Bee Day? Other than encouraging you not to step on bees, today was created to raise awareness about the alarming rate at which the world鈥檚 bee populations are declining, due to pesticides, parasites, disease and habitat loss.

David Attenborough is a champion of bees. He has been relentlessly campaigning for the preservation of Britain鈥檚 wildflowers 鈥� they are essential to bees and part of the problem of declining bee numbers. According to him one out of every three bites of food we eat are a result of pollinators like bees and certain crops such as cherries and blueberries are 90% dependant on bees.

Not many people know that over 1,400 years ago bees got a special mention in the Qur鈥檃n. An entire chapter is called 鈥淭he Bee.鈥� In The Bee, Allah asks us to ponder on the miracle of bees, how they construct their own homes and produce honey from their bellies which we eat. Allah reminds us that His design is perfect 鈥� a perfect ecosystem in which each part of the food chain is dependent on one another. In the Qur鈥檃n Allah appoints humans as His vicegerents on Earth to take care of all living things.

In today鈥檚 climate emergency, I feel the weight of responsibility of being God鈥檚 warden. I live in Yorkshire and feel fortunate to be surrounded by stunning natural beauty; each day is a reminder of God鈥檚 creation, yet humans seem hell-bent on destroying it.

So today I won鈥檛 just be careful to not step on any bees, I will also ponder upon bees as God鈥檚 wonderous creation and on my responsibility towards conserving our precious ecosystem. May we never take our beautiful bees for granted.

Ameen.