As the earth day approaches and people celebrate green week lets us educate ourselves and our kids that Islam considers cleanliness to be one of the fundamentals of belief. It thus makes a direct connection between belief and cleanliness. It is because of this that throughout the ages cleanliness has been one of the Muslims’ most striking characteristics. In one Hadith, God’s Messenger (PBUH) says: “Cleanliness is half of belief. Bukhari, i, 86.Some of the earliest verses revealed to him by God were: O you wrapped up [in a mantle]! Arise and deliver your warning! And your Sustainer magnify! And your garments keep free from stain! And all abomination shun!Muslim, Tahara, 1 It is He Who sends down rain from the skies; with it We produce green [crops], out of which we produce grain, heaped up [at harvest]; out of the date-palm and its sheaths [or spathes] [come] clusters of dates hanging low and near; and [then there are] gardens of grapes, and olives, and pomegranates, each similar [in kind] yet different [in variety]; when they begin to bear fruit, feast your eyes with the fruit and the ripeness thereof. Behold! in these things there are signs for people who believe.Qur’an, 6:99 It is He Who produces gardens, with trellises and without, and dates, and tilth with produce of all kinds, and olives and pomegranates, similar [in kind] and different [in variety]; eat of their fruit in their season, but render the dues that are proper on the day that the harvest is gathered. But waste not by excess; for God loves not the wasters.Qur’an, 6:141 It is He Who sends down rain from the sky. From it you drink, and out of it [grows] the vegetation on which you feed cattle. * With it He produces for you corn, olives, date-palms, grapes, and every kind of fruit. Verily in this is a sign for those who give thought.Qur’an, 16:11 These verses thus mention the rain, trees, earth, gardens, vineyards and date groves, and clouds; they point out the Divine balance between all the elements making up nature, and want us to take lessons from them. To put it another way, we are being required to raise our heads in our personal and daily lives and to look at the world about us in a different way. For through their order and systems and ecological balances, all creatures point to their Creator. In another place, the Qur’an draws our attention to the balance of nature, then indicates that we should be careful to observe the balances and rights in the life of society. That is to say, rights and balances are universal rules that we have to observe. The sun and the moon follow courses [exactly] computed; * And the herbs and the trees — both [alike] bow in adoration. * And the firmament He has raised high, and He has set up the balance [of justice], * In order that you may not transgress [due] balance. * So establish weight with justice and fall not short in the balance.Qur’an, 55:5-9. It is clear that the Islamic world view could not endorse any view of man’s vicegerency of the earth which destroys and spoils the ecological balances and the order and systems of nature, which it teaches that God has created and put as signs of His own existence. For vicegerent (khalifa) means ‘deputy’. And this in turn means that man is the sole being whom God holds responsible for the earth, to whom He has entrusted its preservation. Such a deputy would not betray the trust of the One who created the world with a particular order, balance, and harmony. If he was to spoil the order and harmony and destroy them, he would be known as an unreliable and perfidious deputy.