This man may have the secret to solving world hunger. His revolutionary ideas are
changing the world as we speak. He attracts thousands of students from around the world
and he has the skills and knowhow to turn sandy deserts Green! Geoff took that to
that he can bring life to barren plains. "By the will of Allah". By the will of Allah,
his name is Geoff Lawton and this is his story. He's taught me more
than any other person and he's a big part of my reason for um reverting to Islam as well.
Many people asked us why are new Muslims eligible for zakat? Well, when you help a new Muslim you're
not only helping them find their place in our great beautiful Ummah, but you're also helping
them grow and flourish in ways you could never imagine. Just like you're going to see in this
video. so if you would like to help new Muslims here in Australia, pay your zakat locally to
National Zakat Foundation "NZF". Let's get back to the video. We're here in Zaytuna Farm, a 66
acre property in the northern rivers of New South Wales Australia in a village called the Channon.
At first glimpse it looks like a wild forest with densely populated trees shrubs and and bushes all
over the place. And a lot of people would look at this and not understand what's going on because
it's quite complex. But it's in fact strategically designed deeply interconnected and one of the most
sustainable farms you'll ever come across. There's fruit trees of all different types and there are
food plants in all sorts of layers. Avocado here we have black sugar cane we have mango we have
figs and pomegranates. There's an enormous amount of fruit. How was this all achieved? Through an
innovative idea known as 'permaculture'. Permaculture was a word that was made up
by this man Bill Mollison the direct teacher of Geoff Lawton. It's basically a methodology of
managing land in the most sustainable and natural way. So forget everything you know about farms,
tractors and machinery. Permaculture looks towards nature as the ultimate teacher. Nature's been
sustainable for millions billions of years all on its own. It didn't need a tractor, didn't need
a fertilizer, soil stayed fertile. So just for the record Zaytuna Farm, there's no pesticides,
no herbicides? Nothing, no synthetic fertiliser. We don't have to water. We don't have to fertilize
and we don't have to weed. Only thing we have to do is pick it won't pick itself. Geoff's been
practicing it for over 40 years, intricately studying the way nature works to come up with
better ways to design land. Whether it's through managing the flow of water or choosing the right
plants to grow in the right location we're surrounded by bamboo everywhere you look you
see bamboo there's a lot of different bamboo but along here this is Allelopathy. this stops things
growing underneath it so right here it's like a control mechanism on the edge of this system. You
get the point, the guy is an expert. Just to give you an idea of how powerful his knowledge is this
was Zaytuna Farm in 2002 nothing more than a dry and dusty paddock and this is what it looks like
to today. That's where it started and that's where it is and that's where it is. Geoff took that to
that turning the desert green. It's become a flourishing ecosystem home to a plethora of
plants wildlife and frogs. Lots of frogs. There's 15 varieties of rare frog and there's 112 Birds
species 112 Birds It started off with 53 species of bird now we're at 112. This is a medicinal tree
that the Prophet used to use called Senna. The seed came from Madina. WOW! A seed from Madina
all the way to Zaytuna farm in Northern New South Wales. Geoff's work has been so impactful he's
attracted an entire community onto the farm to live here as well. Just like the owners of
this tiny home here who have a drinkable swimming pool. Yes you can drink it. ...Spirulina, there's
a little bit of algae around but that's but we'll do it together right that that's nice water yeah
that's great that's fresh water from a swimming pool a natural swimming pool that is completely
running off the Earth. His work has carried him across the world in over 50 countries but by far
his most ambitious project to date is this one right here The Greening the desert project in
Jordan where he was successfully able to convert a Desert Valley into a green Oasis filled with
fruit vegetables and even chameleons. Rare Middle Eastern chameleons. We don't know where they came
from. It was a miracle transformation but it was nothing like the transformation Geoff was about
to experience in the same Dusty desert. I was at the end of four years designing Consulting and
teaching in the Jordan Valley and then we had 9/11 right and then we invaded Afghanistan it's like
what are we doing and then we invaded Iraq right and George Bush is saying you're either with us
or against us. "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists" and I'm thinking well I'm not
with you I'm definitely not with you that's for sure because I see all this stuff and it's just
like this doesn't make any sense and I know these people so I'm like okay. I asked some brother,
they are brothers now, "Can you take me to a mosque? I just really want to understand
about bit more about Islam." and that's where journey started. They took me to the Hajji school
on Friday prayers taught me the shahada, asked me if it sits well with me. I said yes it sits
okay with me. Can you learn it? So I learned the shahada and they took me to Friday prayers. The
head Imam walked straight up to us in amongst everybody and said to my friends, who's this?
He said his name's Geoff. He asked - what's his name? he said Geoff and he just laughed and he
said no his name is Jamal-Uddin, which I know the translation of now right. So and I'm like okay
everything seemed pretty cool almost seemed quite alternative in some ways it was very peaceful it
was very easygoing it wasn't rigid as I thought. It was quite hippie actually! Peace be with you!
you know Salam Alaykum You know don't show don't have an ego and show off your body. You could say
Islam was perfectly natural for him. Speaking of which it was only natural that THIS was going to
happen too. Geoff met Nadia. A Palestinian woman from Jordan. When I came and I told my mum look
you remember that blue- Eyes Guy Geoff, the one teach Permaculture, she said yes. I said well,
he's interested on me and he want to marry. And then I'm just really like oh Mum what to do he
said ah leave it with me and she went to my dad and she said look one lady here in the village
uh a guy he become a Muslim and he interested to marry her but her dad refused. And he said
why? he said like (is he a donkey?) she basically he should like like he's become a Muslim he will
have a big Ajr (Reward) and all that stuff like My mum smiled and she said actually this is your
daughter. And he said - Oh okay I better ask a judge about it. I had to go to get a certificate
to be a Muslim. I have a certificate of the Muslim faith. So I had to recite Fatihah in front of a
Quran judge in the capital city of Amman and since then we're together and we traveled. The
first trip we went to Iraq and that actually our honeymoon so it was a war zone honeymoon
start war zone. But you've never been on a plane before, it was really romantic. Absolutely! Today
Geoff and Nadia manage Zaytuna Farm which by the way also runs a research institute attracting
thousands of students every year from across the world and all walks of life all the while keeping
everything Halal. *I'm Halal like that chicken from the butcher* He's produced students like
this young chap right here- Sam Parker Davies, a young conservationist from the Blue Mountains
in New South Wales. I've learned more from Geoff than I've learned from any other person. He's been
my greatest teacher and my one of my best Mentor. He's taught me more than any other person and he's
a big part of my reason for reverting to Islam as well. I found Islam through permaculture. Wow. So
so actually in high school I studied Islam. We studied Islam through the lens of it being an
environmental religion so I had a I went to a hippie School. A bit of an alternative out
there school. I'm sensing a lot of hippie vibes on the farm I'm not going to lie. I do sense it here
and there yeah and so I got taught by this lovely Buddhist lady about Islam and so she we did this
part of it about how it related to the environment and for me being environmentally inclined when
I started to learn about how environmental Islam was it was very clear it was it gave
me a clarity of understanding morality that I couldn't get from another from another faith.
Subhanallah definitely God is great. It was incredible but it wasn't until he traveled to
Palestine did his love for Islam take a whole new level. And Palestine was perhaps the most
impactful country I've ever been to In My Life. Wow. I went to Hebron um Khalil, Khalil yeah man
that place shocked me to my core. Wow. I got to a vantage point I could see over the wall
I could see the rubble of old Arab houses Town blocks that had been destroyed and I could see
like City yeah 150,000 people just next to like 500 settlers that were surrounded by military,
18year Olds wielding machinery they should not be wielding. Oh wow. And then I walk out onto
the street there these little 5-year-olds walk up run up to me with no shoes on offer me food
straight away. First thing that happens like these kids with no shoes you know they they're obviously
not uh not got a lot of money and the first thing they think to do to me a Westerner walking out of
an occupied area first thing that happens is I get offered food. And that's got to say something yeah
so I think the kindness of the Palestinians more than any other people I met um showed me truly
what the Islam was. To young Sam Islam is a way of life that fortifies his love for the environment
and his creator - Allah. The more and more I was here the more and more I saw Islam as something
holistic and complete to to the point where even the time you woke up it was the healthiest time
and the time you went to bed it was the healthiest time and then I went through Ramadan being uh only
eating raw food and I started to see a side of Islam that Islam is built for the person
who stewards the land. Islam is built for the person who works with their hands and I truly
believe because SubhanAllah the Prophet (peace be upon him) he worked with his hands and he
knew these truths yes for us to interact with and try to understand the vastness of creation,
and the profundity of creation, the absolute awe of creation. I think we would never truly
understand or never even start to grasp how beautiful this creation is without interacting
with it. If we live a disconnected life a life disconnected to Creation we work a 9 to-5 job;
we sit in an office, we think about mundane things that we must do in order to survive,
in order to put food on the table. We're not thinking about wow how did these tomatoes
grow from that tomato plant and end up on my plate like I would if I picked a tomato from
a plant you know, that's not something that's easily thought about when you're just sitting
at a table when you're tired from work. And the closer and closer you live to Nature the more
and more easy it is to be an absolute awe of the life that you live of the world that we live in;
to be in absolute connection with God which is what awe is. If we're in awe
of creation how can we not be in awe of our creator. How can we not be in love with God!
It was a holistic way of life and understanding of religion and it ran right across Zaytuna Farm.
One thing I noticed about Islam was it takes the complications out of life. If you take
it as pure Sunnah, you know, and and try and live like the Prophet, right, as best you can,
right, peace be upon him you're taking the complications out of life. And when you read
and I've read the translation of the Quran of course it's like an instruction manual of how
to live. So it sets out the Sharia law in such a peaceful way that that's all done for you. Right,
so you just get on with life after that. It's very peaceful feeling toward the Islam and toward the
Prophet and toward the permaculture. I feel like this is the only way we could actually live and
if it's not living this way I think it's part of the Sunnah is missing. Oh she's taught me a
lot of wisdom about life in general. All of life. There's lots of wise words come out of my wife's
mouth I can tell you. She's my rock. I go back to rock and ask she's got the solid base. It was
a deeper understanding of religion that so many of us living in the cities were detached from. If
you do the right thing in this life and you live a good life and you get judged well you end up
in Paradise where there's a forest of food and fruit and clear water running underneath. Yeah
where are we right now? In the garden. We've got water running you're sitting in a swell right that
when the rain going to have water in it. *The gardens come in which beneath the rivers flow*
Surrounded by fruit right so it it's in respect of what we from doing the right thing that's
what we're going to get. The prophet Muhammad Aallallahu alaihi Wasallam he would say that if
one of you was to see the hour approach and within his hand was a seed he should plant it even if he
knows then and there that everything was going to end he should still plant that seed. When you pass
away what Legacy do you want to leave behind? This Farm hopefully will be a legacy and that's
why I made it an Eco farming community and registered as a cemetery on the farm.
I particularly feel that the children need - you know there's so many innocent children that need
this as a Beacon of Hope that they can live a really good life and feel like they're very
meaningful part and beneficial part of life on Earth and God's creation. That would be
the best Legacy ever. May Allah make Geoff's life and work a Perpetual charity. A tree
from which people benefit from and one that never ends. Zaytuna Farm until we meet again.