Re: Who is the bigger sinner
Some people think that the easiest way to elevate oneself in the society is to wear hijab, grow a beard give attendance to the mosque and perform Hajj..and as expected they are bestowed with acceptance and admiration from their community and are indemnified of their responsibilities of being a good human and citizen. Never heard an Imam talk about sustainable living, Green house gas emissions and climate change.
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Adherence to the pillars (salah, hajj, etc) or hijab/beard are done for Allah not societal status. I will reiterate again that Muslims, like people of other religions, are not saints. And if you are in the habit of watching beard and hijab sporting Muslims like a hawk for their errors so that you can label them as "bigger sinners" *or invalidate their prayers and other forms of worship, then that's something you need to reflect over. The natural environment is not the only one which can be polluted. When one's heart is teeming with arrogance, it will lead to a pollution of the social environment.
Yes, Islam has qualified sins into major and minor, but judgment is still very complex. To my knowledge, Islam forbids us to even call another Muslim a hypocrite. Hypocrisy is just one aspect of human nature, and here you want us to "judge" a person on the whole as to whether they are a bigger or lesser sinner....why? It is said that anyone with even a grain of pride in their heart won't have a place in jannah. So going by this hadith alone, anyone with this spiritual *malady, be it a 5-time namazi or a stauch tree-hugger who thinks he/she is a better muslim than others is doomed.
There have been wars that have wiped out communities and devastated ecosystems, and they resulted from feelings of arrogance and contempt....so there are bigger sins than being careless about the environment. There are multimillion dollar agricultural companies poisoning our food, spraying pesticides which are possibly killing of the bees that pollinate more than half of our crops. The average people can only do so much, what about the people on the top? And as for clearing the rain-forests, I imagine confronting the companies or forces behind this destruction would be an arduous battle. Are the Muslims to blame for that too? What about people of other religions? Or how about we remove religion from the equation, and maybe it's a natural feeling of fear that corruption tends to induce.
Did the convention you attended entail a debate on who is the bigger sinner? Well, judgment tends to create animosity which divides people, it doesn't bring them together for a common cause. How do you know if a Muslim that is littering is doing so because they're just not thinking or because they have a deliberate disregard for the environment or evil intentions? Perhaps speaking to them kindly with religious references may make them more aware. That would be more productive than telling them that "Of what use is your salah/hijab/beard if you're gonna trash the environment"...or...to look down on them and their ibadat because they are making a mistake that they may even be open to rectifying had someone humbly reminded/guided them.
It would have been one thing if you had said that our salah should also lead us to take care of the planet. That way you'd be encouraging various good acts and not diminishing or invalidating namaz/beard/hijab based of one action. Your approach/method was not tactful and you cannot seem to recognize that. There are only 3 members supporting you. The majority are put off......so maybe take this as a sign that you should reflect on your method/approach.