We all saw in one of the world cups how Japanese families gathered in a stadium to watch a football match and once it finished, they naturally collected their rubbish and left the stadium clean.

Incidentally, one of my teachers used to say to students as they turned up to class: “Leave your rubbish at the door!”

And, with my own eyes, I have witnessed two great scholars, each belonging to a different culture and religion, making the same action of collecting rubbish on their way. One was a Muslim, the other one was a Shinto. There was close to forty years’ time gap between the two actions. Yet, both actions looked timeless. There was a soul to them.

So when, at the end of Eid prayer’ sermon, the announcer said:
“Brothers and sisters, please take your rubbish with you!”,
it just made my day.

Or as the great Rumi, may Allah be pleased with him, puts it:

“I am burning.
If anyone lacks tinder,
let him set his rubbish ablaze with my fire!”