In Sekem: A Sustainable Community in the Egyptian Desert by Ibrahim Abouleish, we learn that:
- In 1977 the Sekem initiative was established with the setting up of agriculture, and over the years there followed commercial businesses, education centres and medical centres to complete the venture.
- Now Sekem has spread throughout Egypt. Many people, hearing about it, talk about the ‘miracle in the desert,’ or a dream too good to be true.’
- In 2003, Sekem was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize, the Right Livelihood Award as ‘a business model for the 21st century,’ combining social and cultural development with commercial success.
- Egypt was a wealthy country during the 1920s and 1930’s. The rich looked after the poor. Consideration for others, courageousness and a deeply moral attitude towards humans and animals were typical qualities of the Egyptian people. Because of the low population of 18 million people, Egypt was a beautiful country and Cairo a thriving city.
- Under the reign of Nasser agriculture was a catastrophe. The excessive and uncontrolled use of artificial fertilizer led to oversalting and compression of the earth and financial dependency. Inheritance laws led to smaller plots of land with each generation. Farmers could hardly produce enough to survive. Added to that was the appalling spraying of pesticide onto the cotton fields. The Aswan dam, completed in 1961, led to disastrous results for agriculture.
- Biodynamic agriculture was developed out of anthroposophy by Rudolf Steiner, and has been practised successfully in Europe since the beginning of the 20th century. I understood that biodynamic farming could transform Egypt’s agriculture.
- I developed a vision of a holistic project able to bring about a cultural renewal. As well as the farm it would need one or several economic projects, a school and different educational institutions and offer cultural projects and medical care. My first priority was to educate people.
- I could not find anyone willing to join me. So I decided to go it alone. Because of my three abilities – the ability to learn; social skills; and my energy for doing things – I felt that I would be able to change this situation of hopelessness. I hoped to find people who followed the same ideals and would support me with their abilities and energy.
- My faith in God gave me an inner strength which had grown out of years of meditation on Allah’s qualities in particular. I was able to develop inner peace through my devotion to Allah.
- All my experiences showed me the importance of moral deeds as an example for these people living primarily in their feelings. At the same time it was important to awaken people’s wonder by exposing them to art and science, which leads them to independent questioning.
- After I had positioned the first roads, plotted the fields, drilled two wells for water, I planted shade-giving trees. Water is too precious for washing and cleaning and is substituted by sand.
- Because of unreliability people meet each other with mistrust when dealing with business matters. One of the important tasks of Sekem is to consciously trust people with their work so they can reveal their honesty. A new morality in dealing with each other can be developed. It has to start with little and requires daily supervision – but it is a worthy task!
- With the increasing interest in biodynamic farming we saw the necessity to expand our farming and marketing products beyond the medicinal herbs we cultivated.
- We are not only called upon by Allah to care for the earth, but to heal what has been destroyed. People have sunk ever deeper into materialism during the last century.
- Scientists emphasized the importance of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus for growing plants. But the amount of artificial fertilizer had to be increased continuously and the plants became more susceptible to pests, which had to be controlled using poisonous chemicals.
SEKEM
A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY IN THE EGYPTIAN DESERT
IBRAHIM ABOULEISH
FLORIS BOOKS 2004
PART I
Foreword
- In 1977 the Sekem initiative was established with the setting up of agriculture, and over the years there followed commercial businesses, education centres and medical centres to complete the venture.
- Now Sekem has spread throughout Egypt. Many people, hearing about it, talk about the ‘miracle in the desert,’ or a dream too good to be true.’
- In 2003, Sekem was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize, the Right Livelihood Award as ‘a business model for the 21st century,’ combining social and cultural development with commercial success.
- The public recognized Sekem’s activities as offering answers to significant questions of our time in the Arab world. How can an efficient economy, a healthy social fabric and a living culture develop together? How can partnership between west and east build peace and prosperity? What is the modern understanding and practice of Islam?
- The aim of this book is to write about Sekem’s complex relationship in more detail.
The Vision
I carry a vision deep within myself: in the midst of sand and desert I see myself standing at a well drawing water. Carefully I plant trees, herbs and flowers and wet their roots with precious drops. The cool well water attracts human beings and animals to refresh and quicken themselves. Trees give shade, the land turns green, fragrant flowers bloom, insects, birds and butterflies show their devotion to God, the creator, as if they were citing the first Sura of the Koran. The Humans, perceiving the hidden praise of God, care for and see all that is created as a reflection of paradise on earth.
For me this idea of an oasis in the middle of a hostile environment is like an image of the resurrection at dawn after a long journey through the nightly desert. I saw it in front of me like a model before the actual work in Egypt started. And yet in reality I desired even more: I wanted the whole world to develop.
I thought long and hard about what to call this project which I wanted to implement following the vision. Because of my interest in ancient Egypt I knew that at the time of the pharaohs there were two different words for the light and warmth of the sun. And the sun also had a third element attributed to it: Sekem, the life-giving force of the sun, with which she enlivens and permeates the earth’s entire being. I chose this name for the initiative I planned to start at the edge of the desert. This book tells the story of how it all developed.
PART 1: THE STORY OF MY LIFE
Chapter 1: Formative years
Departure from Egypt
- I wrote the following farewell words to my father, in the hope that he would understand my decision.
- ‘…When I get back, if God wills, I will go to Mashtul. I will build factories where people can work, different work than they are used to from farming… I will build workshops for women and girls… I will establish shops that sell everything the people need… I will build a large theatre on your grounds, where renowned artists can give performances for the people of my village… I will build a hospital which I will fill with specialists… I will need teachers as I want to build schools for the children, from kindergarten to high school… Mashtul has got men and young people of higher learning whom I am sure will enthusiastically help me establish my idea, so that the village of Mashtul can become a shining centre in Egypt.
The ninety-nine Names of Allah
- One thing remained from my childhood and adolescence which filled me with strength, like a strong current from my past, carrying me through lonely times: my religion. The Koran accompanied me through my daily meditations and praying times, which I had kept throughout childhood.
- In the Sura ‘The Cow,’ Allah is praised with the words: ‘Allah, there is no God but him, the living, the eternal.’ I trusted in this constancy now.
- Islam is a monotheistic religion and accepts Allah as the one and only God. But he receives different names, ninety-nine in all, which the Muslim can meditate upon.
- In one verse the prophet says that we should strive towards attaining Allah’s qualities: ‘The ideals of Allah are the highest in heaven and on earth.’ I meditated on these ideals and they gave me the strongest support in those years of studying in Graz.
- I was often confronted with experiences which brought Allah’s qualities to mind: ‘Allah is the patient one,’ so I practised patience.
- I never saw any of the difficulties I encountered as an attack on myself. It was always a chance to practise self-development.
- Allah is not a God who sits alone and unattainable on his throne in heaven without contact to his beings. Through my inner exercises I tried to establish a relationship to him.
- I do not want to be known as a religious person, but rather as a striving, practising person. I had a goal, an ideal – Allah’s qualities, his ninety-nine names.
My time as a student
- I became thoroughly involved with European culture. I existed in two worlds: the oriental spiritual stream and the European. I started experiencing moments when these two streams met in my soul so I was neither completely the one or the other.
- I was a Muslim but lived in a strong catholic community, and did not mind attending the catholic mass where I experienced the religiousness of this belief deeply. I could live with both religions in my previously described state as existing as a ‘third’ entity.
- Before my marriage I told the priest that I wished to remain a Muslim. But now I wanted more – I wanted to achieve this state of being a ‘third’ in religion too, to be able to live within both and through this transcend to a higher level of being.
A lecture in St Johann
- In 1972 I was asked to give a lecture on the Israel-Egyptian conflict. The problems underlying the conflict cannot be solved by a war, only through education. People need to learn to advance themselves and give their children the chance to do so too. If humans are not able to think, who is going to think for them?
- Neither Nasser nor the Israelis are acting out of an overview of higher ideas, but out of their emotions. I would say to them: “Put all the energy, all the money into schools, into establishing the infrastructure and creating jobs. Discuss questions of cultural exchange and research and not themes that divide the people. Do not act until you are mature enough to decide!”
- After the lecture a lady asked me if I knew about anthroposophy. She invited me to her house and showed me The Philosophy of Freedom by Rudolf Steiner. I developed a deep love towards this anthroposophy. I had the feeling that through it I had grasped a tiny part of the whole world, and humans and nature were revealed to me in a new light.
- I came across Steiner’s talks about the Old and New Testament. I wanted to work through the Koran using anthroposophy to achieve a new, deeper understanding. This was the seed which led to my later efforts of interpreting the Koran in a spiritually deeper way.
- By studying other works by Steiner my philosophical interests were given new nourishment and impulse. Because of the intense mental effort involved an unnoticed change took place in my soul.
Chapter 2: Return to Egypt
- Egypt was a wealthy country during the 1920s and 1930’s. The rich looked after the poor. Consideration for others, courageousness and a deeply moral attitude towards humans and animals were typical qualities of the Egyptian people. Because of the low population of 18 million people, Egypt was a beautiful country and Cairo a thriving city.
- Under the reign of Nasser all businesses had been nationalized. Once thriving businesses were working with deficits; most people had jobs they did not enjoy; the social structure was increasingly falling apart, leading to immense misery.
- Agriculture was a catastrophe. The excessive and uncontrolled use of artificial fertilizer led to oversalting and compression of the earth and financial dependency. Inheritance laws led to smaller plots of land with each generation. Farmers could hardly produce enough to survive. Added to that was the appalling spraying of pesticide onto the cotton fields.
- The Aswan dam, completed in 1961, led to disastrous results for agriculture. Schools presented a hopeless picture. The state did not concern itself with the resulting problems as it was preoccupied with war. Illiteracy was on the increase.
- 40% of children did not go to school because they had to work to support their families. Those who did go to school learnt by rote, rather than by creative, artistic methods – a pedagogy which had to lead to further misery.
- Translated, Islam means ‘submission to God,’ and this attitude is deeply embedded in the Islamic-Muslim tradition. But there is a discrepancy between the inner, religious human who would never harm the ground, plants, animals or fellow humans and the person acting in the world.
- People attach themselves to material things, and even treat their children as if they possessed them. They often made great speeches but seldom followed them up with the right kind of deeds.
- The deeply felt religion was usually limited to a personal, private area and did not radiate into practical life.
- I was shocked by the contrast between the greatness, wisdom and elevation shown thousands of years ago by the pharaohs, and modern Egypt.
My heart tries to understand