Snowy Owl

Embracing extinction

This majestic creature is called the Snowy Owl. Amongst people from my generation, the Snowy Owl is better known as ‘Hedwig’, Harry Potter’s loyal and wise companion. Previous generations knew the bird as a medium between the physical and spiritual world and as an embodiment of wisdom. But generations to come may not have any cultural references to relate to this beautiful bird, because it is threatened with extinction.

The Snowy Owl, as its name and plumage suggest, lives in the snowy regions of our planet. It resides in the Arctic Circle during the summer and often migrates down to the snowy parts of North America and Eurasia during the winter. Snowy Owls are excellent hunters that, unlike many other Owls, are not nocturnal but diurnal, meaning they prefer to hunt during the day as opposed to during the night. They primarily feed on small rodents, most importantly lemmings, and are solitary creatures. Only when it is time to mate do Snowy Owls team up with their partners. Most Snowy Owl partnerships are lifelong. Female Snowy Owls have brown spots in their feathers and are slightly bigger than their male partners, whose plumage over time loses its spots to become pure white. Fun fact: therefore, despite being a female character, Hedwig is actually clearly identifiable as a male Snowy Owl.

In Surah Al-An‘am, ‘The Cattle’, the sixth chapter of the Qur’an, God explains to us: “All living beings roaming the earth and birds soaring in the sky are communities like yourselves” (Qur’an 6:38). Snowy Owls are solitary creatures for most of their lives, but just like us, they are inevitably part of a greater community: their ecosystem. Ecosystems are communities of beings that exist within a delicate balance of interdependence. Creation contains a great diversity of ecosystems in which human beings fulfill numerous regionally diverse roles. Surah Ar-Rahman, ‘The Most Merciful’, the fifty-fifth chapter of the Qur’an, calls on us to honor and protect the natural balance the Most Merciful has created: “The Most Merciful. Made known the Qur’an. Created humanity. Taught them clear speech. The sun and the moon move by precise calculation. The stars and the trees bow down in submission. He raised up the sky and set the balance. So you must not transgress within the balance. Measure with justice and do not make the balance deficient” (Qur’an 55:1-9).

The Islamic tradition teaches us that the Creator speaks all of creation into existence, as He simply says “be, and it becomes” (Qur’an 2:117). As such, Muslims throughout history have recognized that God’s revelation is not limited to the Qur’an and other sacred texts alone. Rather, all of creation is revelation: ‘the Qur’an of creation.’ The Most Merciful spoke the Qur’an of creation into existence, and, in doing so, created humanity. He then taught humanity the divine quality of speech and gave us a revelation within a revelation: the Book - the Qur’an. In the Book, the Most Merciful teaches us that the balance in creation is the result of a meticulous calculation. This just balance shows up in all aspects of creation: within ourselves, in our families, in our societies, and in our ecosystems. In essence, in all these parts of God’s poem of creation, we are asked to find the balance of justice and sustain it, to find the meter and not corrupt its rhythm.

Unfortunately, many of us are not very good at this, unlike the Snowy Owl. Most beings within an ecosystem intuitively ensure that the balance is maintained. For example, if for whatever reason one year the population of lemmings is drastically smaller than in other years, as a result, Snowy Owls lay fewer eggs than in years when food is abundant. The next year, then, there will not be as many predators hunting for lemmings, and as such, the population of lemmings has a chance to recover. In this way, eventually, all beings in the ecosystem may thrive, for their thriving is interconnected. Many human beings, however, are too often only concerned with their self-centered short-term benefits.

Especially since the age of colonization, our species has descended to an all-time low. Indigenous populations often have a well-developed understanding of the ecosystems of which they have been a part for generations. Settlers, on the other hand, usually do not. Or worse - they do not even care. Their relationship to the ecosystems they colonize is one of exploration and exploitation rather than one of sustainable co-existence and dependency. But to make matters worse, even people who still live on their ancestral lands have become detached from their ecosystems through modern processes of industrialization and globalization. In modern societies, most people don’t even realize they are part of an ecosystem. If we did, perhaps we could see that our short-term convenience is actually our long-term demise, as we destroy everything we are dependent upon.

Knowing our weakness and arrogance, the Most Merciful highlights that He unfolded the creation of the earth for all living beings, not just for humanity: “He laid out the earth for all living beings” (Qur’an 55:10). Still, many people, Muslims included, prefer to think that the earth is theirs alone. We prefer a worldview in which we are the served ones, rather than a servant. A worldview in which we set our own balance, rather than having to respect the balance set by the Creator.

As a result of heavy industrialization, overconsumption, and the self-centered greed of the Global North, human beings have irreversibly shifted the balance of ecosystems worldwide, and continue to do so in an increasingly destructive way, as we are struck by the consequences of human-caused climate change. As a result, lemmings are struggling to survive. They survive by hiding under the snow, but since their environment is heating up, their safe cover is melting. Simultaneously, the increase in rainfall as opposed to snowfall makes the remaining snowpack and soil as hard as ice and very difficult for the small lemmings to make their way through. As the lemming is threatened with extinction, so are all animals that depend on it for food: snowy foxes, white weasels and, of course, Snowy Owls.

Humanity has quite a long history of causing the extinction of other species. My people, the Dutch, are famous for having caused the extinction of another impressive and popular bird: the Dodo. There are many shameful and dark pages in my people’s history book, and this is definitely one of them. The Dodo was a native bird only to the island of Mauritius. Mauritius has no indigenous human population but was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century, who named it after Maurits, the Prince of Orange. In a typical colonial land relation, Dutch settlers exploited the island and destroyed its ecosystem. They forced enslaved people to work on the island to cut down large areas of forest for ebony wood, hunted down as many Dodos as they could, ate their eggs, and introduced pests and competing species. Eventually, after about fifty decades of rampage, the Dutch left the island because their destruction was no longer a ‘profitable’ endeavor. These Dutch colonists were the first and last people to ever be neighbors of the Dodo. What terrible neighbors they were.

The environmental crisis of our current time has led to what Elisabeth Kolbert and others have described as The Sixth Extinction. In her heartbreaking book, she describes how humanity’s destructive and self-centered behavior has led and continues to lead to an ever greater loss of biodiversity as entire species are forever erased from the face of the earth. “It is estimated,” she says, “that one-third of all reef-building corals, a third of all fresh-water mollusks, a third of sharks and rays, a quarter of all mammals, a fifth of all reptiles, and a sixth of all birds are headed toward oblivion.”

One could argue that when parts of creation fade away, signs of God are lost. The Qur’an of creation is corrupted when entire species are taken out, and as such, we should be outraged, just like we would be outraged if entire verses of the written Qur’an were lost forever. I believe there is great truth to this insight, and it adequately captures the sadness of the loss of biodiversity. But on a deeper level, I believe it is also false. On a deeper level, I believe extinction in and of itself is also a sign of God. Silence is also a part of the poem. The extinction rates and biodiversity loss we see on a global level today are deeply problematic and undeniably human-caused. But long before humanity’s failures, extinction was already a part of the fabric of creation. We know that dinosaurs went extinct long before human interference, and we were only left to meet their distant relatives: birds.

After describing the beauty of the earth and all its inhabitants, after poetically painting a picture of pearls and corals, palm trees, fruits, and the meeting of the seas, Surah Ar-Rahman gives us the ultimate reminder: “Everything on earth is bound to perish. All that remains is the Face of your Lord, the Owner of Majesty and Honor (Dhul-Jalali wal-Ikram)” (Qur’an 55:26-27). This reminder always gives me chills. It’s something about that phrase ‘Dhul-Jalali wal-Ikram’. I’ve sat with it for quite some time, and I can’t help but feel the translation ‘Owner of Majesty and Honor’ doesn’t do it justice. The Arabic phrase suggests that there are two unique qualities that the Most Merciful possesses. The first is tied to the root of the Arabic letters jim-lam-lam. This root connotes a meaning of being supremely great, majestic, sublime, or independent. I like to think this relates to God as being the One beyond cause and effect, the One who truly is greater than everything we know, the Truly Independent. The second quality relates to the Arabic root of kaf-ra-mim, which is associated with the meanings of being noble, honored, generous, and bountiful. For me, this refers to the fact that from God’s Generosity, all of creation blossoms forth, like an overflowing cup. If anything is honored with the gift of life, for however briefly, it is only because of His Overflowing Generosity. All of creation is a banquet shared by the Most Generous.

One of my favorite aspects of Surah Ar-Rahman is something I’ve actually never heard anyone else talk about. After the powerful reminder that everything will perish and only the Face of God will remain (Qur’an 55:26-27), the chapter goes on to briefly but terrifyingly describe the horrors of hellfire. After that, there is a seemingly endless poetic description of paradise, or as the Qur’an calls it, ‘the gardens’. There’s another phrase there that always gives me chills, “Is there any reward for goodness except goodness?” (Qur’an 55:60). But it is what happens after that breathtakingly beautiful description of paradise that stops me in my tracks every time. It’s the closing verse. “Blessed is the Name of your Lord, the Owner of Majesty and Honor” (Dhil-Jalali wal-Ikram) (Qur’an 55:78). After just describing how everything will fade away and only the Owner of Majesty and Honor will remain, it is as if the full chapter itself becomes an embodiment of that description. As all other verses have faded away, the Owner of Majesty and Honor remains, reminding us that even our ideas of hellfire and paradise are bound to perish. Even our ideas of the meaning of the Name ‘the Owner of Majesty and Honor’ are bound to perish. And only the Truth of that Name, the Face of our Lord, will remain.

Surah Ar-Rahman beautifully teaches us that everything but God will inevitably perish. In this way, extinction is inevitable. But why, then, would we undertake the effort of delaying it?

It is for the same reason we look for a cure for cancer, we struggle for peace, and we treat our written Qur’ans with care - because it is the right and beautiful thing to do. We all know our lives will one day end, but still, we wish for a long life so we can do many beautiful things. Similarly, we wish for the longevity and thriving of all of God’s creation because we love it as we love its Creator. Because it is beautiful.

Creation allows us to draw closer to the Creator. The Qur’an teaches us that the Creator, in His True Essence, is unknowable. In Surah Al-Ikhlas, ‘Purity’, we are taught, “Say God is One. God is the Sustainer of all. He has no effect and no cause. And nothing is comparable to Him”. Where there is only the One, the One cannot be known. The very act of knowing requires at least two entities: the knower and the known. That’s where the beauty of creation comes in. “I was a hidden Treasure longing to be known. So I created creation to which I made Myself known.” This famous saying, often referred to as a hadith qudsi, the speech of God Himself, is a beautiful illustration of this idea.

The Most Merciful created a beautiful creation, so we might catch a glimpse of His Beauty. The Most Merciful created a world with as much diversity as possible, in which every being is unique. Why? In Surah Al-Hujarat, ‘The Rooms’, the forty-ninth chapter of the Qur’an, God tells us: “O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may (get to) know one another.” (Qur’an 49:13). God created diversity so we may know one another. For there can be no knowledge where there is no distinction between knower and known. The diversity of human and non-human beings allows us to gain as much knowledge as possible, reaching closer to knowing the infinity that is God. Just like the more decimals of pi (π) we know, the closer we get to its true value, and the more accurate our understanding of it becomes. And similarly, the deeper we dive into the oceans of our own beings, the closer we get to our Creator, for “whoever knows himself, knows his Lord,” perhaps because both of these forms of knowing are equally rationally impossible.

So let’s truly get to know ourselves and seek the beauty in our own faces, whilst we can. Let’s seek the beauty in each other’s faces, whilst we can. Let’s marvel at the beauty in the face of the Snowy Owl, and protect it, whilst we can. For the Qur’an teaches us “Whichever way you turn, there is the Face of God” (Qur’an 2:115).