I'm not quite sure what the Country Coalition march was about, but I imagine it was triggered by talk about fox-hunting, as that always seemed to raise a great deal more heat and passion than the really hugely important ecological issues putting all our lives at stake. But the need to rip some poor fox apart as an excuse for a ride in the country seems finally to have taken a political back seat.

I suspect that for many people, wondering about the meaning of life in a way once thought of as the province of religion is more likely to be encountered nowadays when they are watching David Attenborough. So perhaps we should not be surprised that the Countryside March on London gathered together such an eclectic assortment of sometimes seemingly opposed viewpoints. Words like utility, viability, and development, preservation and tradition, mingled with wildlife, nature, and ecology, all set in an underlying concern for our purpose in life. Of course, most of our religions have been dealing with such fractious variety and strength of opinion since their inceptions.

Muslims, of course, have had their bit to say about nature and the environment, and much of it would sound familiar to the Country Coalition. For example, the holistic approach essential to what muslims call Tauhid - the Unity of God, the One, Transcendent Creator of the Universe and what it contains - the Source of all values to Whom man is responsible for his actions. This Unity is all pervasive in Islamic thought and behaviour. It’s the guiding principle of Islamic science, and is at the centre of a muslim’s curiosity with regard to nature.

From Tauhid emerge the concepts of Stewardship and Trust, and the need to consider what is beneficial or harmful in terms of justice, moderation, temperance, balance, equilibrium, harmony, and public welfare. Nature is created “orderly and knowable”, for our stewardship relies on knowledge, but the pursuit of knowledge cannot be separated from morality.

Muhammad said: “There is no muslim who plants a tree or sows a field, and a human or animal eats from it, but it shall be reckoned as charity from him.”

While Qur’an says: “It is He who sent down out of heaven water, and thereby We have brought forth the shoot of every plant, and then We have brought forth the green leaf of it, bringing forth …grain, and …dates thick-clustered, …and gardens of vines, olives, pomegranates, ... Look, as they set fruit and ripen! Surely in all this are signs for a people who believe” .