Don’t step on bees

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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Yousra Samir Imran Good morning. Did you know that today is Don’t 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’s 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’s wildflowers – 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’an. An entire chapter is called “The Bee.” 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 – a perfect ecosystem in which each part of the food chain is dependent on one another. In the Qur’an Allah appoints humans as His vicegerents on Earth to take care of all living things. In today’s climate emergency, I feel the weight of responsibility of being God’s warden. I live in Yorkshire and feel fortunate to be surrounded by stunning natural beauty; each day is a reminder of God’s creation, yet humans seem hell-bent on destroying it. So today I won’t just be careful to not step on any bees, I will also ponder upon bees as God’s wonderous creation and on my responsibility towards conserving our precious ecosystem. May we never take our beautiful bees for granted. Ameen.