There is a serious issue with climate change and the attitude many people have toward it, according to Dr. Ovamir Anjum, the Imam Khattab Chair of Islamic Studies at The University of Toledo.

He will deliver the annual Imam Khattab Lecture on Islamic Studies titled “Planting Trees the Day Before Doomsday: Islamic Reflections on Tomorrow’s Ethics” Wednesday, March 26, at 7 p.m. in the Driscoll Alumni Center Auditorium.

Anjum said his lecture is inspired by the words of the Prophet Muhammad: “If you are planting a seed and the doomsday comes, finish planting it.”

What that means is don’t give up the good works; continue to work to benefit others in the future even if you don’t stand to benefit from it, Anjum explained.

His talk will focus on the challenge of man-made global climate change that is facing the world and the cataclysmic effects that are being seen.

Anjum will then speak about the ethics and attitudes that will be required by all caring and thinking human beings in the coming decades and the guidance that monotheistic religions in general, and Islam in particular, need to provide to cope with the emerging world.

“The new ethics will have to become community-centered and will have to overcome consumerism and the ideologies behind it,” Anjum said.

For more information about this free, public lecture and other events sponsored by the Center for Religious Understanding, visit utoledo.edu/llss/philosophy/cfru.

Click here to download a photo of Anjum.