By Khadeejah bint Malik H., Earth Charter Young Leader
Each of us wants to live a happy and comfortable life. We wish that everything could be accessible. We wish to have the ability to buy anything we desire. What we really need is to understand humanity and nature and transform kindness to a way of life.
The world at this moment is filled with light and darkness. Light is our natural form of a clean mind. All of us were born with a clean mind and we are living with nature. Darkness is made by one’s egoistic mindset exposed to the unkindness of our current world. Have we never asked ourselves, “does my actions bring me inner joy and satisfaction? Does my attitude make me successful in the end?”
We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more.
The Earth Charter Preamble – The Challenges Ahead
Being a human, we get the advantages to think more than what we can see, to think about how we have to live, we have the ability to choose our actions, and these actions come back to us. We have to realize that everyone around us wishes to live a happy life as we ourselves, this means that we are connected to a universal goodwill. If we use these advantages to the goodness of not just ourselves, but to others as well, it is the beginning of kindness. Being kind is a way of expressing love to mankind, including our own selves. Unkindness towards others is not loving one’s self.
In the past, there were many of us caring for nature and in return, nature has poured its bounty upon us. We used to eat from nature’s products, breathe fresh air, and drink fresh water. By choosing nature, we had opted for a happy and long healthy life. As time passed, many have switched to lazy lifestyles in the city. Almost everything is at the distance of a click. We have not shown our love and care to nature. Because we are part of nature, this has affected us in many ways which we can obviously see today. Humans are now literally trying to stay away from nature, thus, we now eat from man-made chemical products, we breathe in smoke released by
man and pollution from our environment. This has dramatically lowered long life expectancy.
Kindness is the nature of humanity. It is much more than merely smiling and helping, it is the sense of being part of humanity. Humanity is our inner conscience. We are many souls living on one earth. If a part of our ecosystem is not well, it affects us, even slightly. What differs a
person, is not being aware of this sense. Use the goodness of nature as an example. Shine out your inner kindness. Let nature do the rest for us. We must begin from within ourselves then make it part of our life.
The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering.
The Earth Charter Preamble – The Global Situation
True kindness brings the soul closer to nature, closer to humanity. Little acts of kindness are hidden savings that will one day appear as a reward. It is the time to replant the seeds of kindness into our hearts. It is not too late and will never be. As long as we live, we still have the time to get back to our inner conscience and “turn this conscience into action for a thriving
Earth.” (The Earth Charter Slogan – 2020)
The time has come to realize that kindness, is the meaning of humanity. Many have already developed kindness after realizing this, will you be next on the list?
Khadeejah bint Malik H. was born in Dubai, U.A.E. to a Jordanian father and a Filipino mother. She is doing homeschooling guided by her parents. She has a strong passion for arts, education, culture, sustainable development, and recycling. She enjoys reading, writing, drawing, calligraphy, gardening, and poetry.
In 2005, her father Prof. Malik bin Mohammed delivered a lecture “Education: the means towards global security and peace” in Dubai Knowledge Village for the Earth Charter and Soka Gakkai International when she was three years old. As early as three years old, she participated in workshops and events and started to memorise the holy Qur’an.
Her father Prof. Malik bin Mohammed founded “Share Centre for Cultural Understanding and Arts” (2008-2011) in Dubai. Offering different courses and services, it was considered a community college while promoting Earth Charter principles, peace, education, cultural understanding, and save earth issues.
In 2017, she delivered her poem “Heart of Tolerance” in an annual event “The Poetic Heart” by Soka Gakkai International. In 2018, she conducted her first workshop titled “Success of Leadership in Sustainability” for 25 girls from 14 different nationalities held at Canadian University Dubai.
She currently resides in Manila, Philippines, where she seeks to continue her education and look for ways to promote the Earth Charter and sustainable development in her community and globally.