Mushtaq Yusufi, at the launch of AK Khan’s book, The Gardener, in his inimitable style, elaborated the distinction between a bagh [a large garden], a baghicha [a small garden], and a baghia [a very small garden]. Because a little spot of nature is a cherished place for most people even if it’s a few pots on a balcony.

Unlike natural landscapes, gardens need to be planned, designed and managed, even if it is as simple as deciding which window grill to grow a money plant over. Planning starts with a study of the land, its terrain, fertility of the soil, and climate; defining the purpose and usage; observing what is worth keeping and what needs to be added, discarded or modified; working with available resources, and being aware of how much maintenance will be possible.

These could equally be the steps taken when taking over a business or being elected to run a government, or undertaking a spiritual journey. This is what has made gardens and landscapes an oft-used metaphor through the ages.

Jerzy Kosiski’s novel, Chance the Gardener, is full of references to gardening seen as political wisdom. Such as: “As long as the roots are not severed, all is well”, and “if you love your garden, you don’t mind working in it and waiting. Then, in the proper season you will surely see it flourish.” As well as: “trees have to lose their leaves in order to put forth new leaves.” Pablo Neruda wrote, “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.”

Sheikh Saadi chose to name his famous collections of moral teachings Bostaan [Orchard] and Gulistan [Garden]. “The people are the root and the king is as the tree and the tree, O’ son, gains strength from the root”, and “When thou sowest seed, hope only for the fruit of the very seed.”

Gardens are referenced in the Bible: “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot.”

Heaven in Islam is described as the gardens beneath which rivers flow and are a symbol of the bounty of Allah. Muslims speak of earning the garden through good deeds. As Saadi writes, “The fire of His friend He turneth into a flower garden.”

This became the inspiration for garden design throughout the Muslim world. Originating around 7 BCE Persia, the pairidaza or walled garden — which gave us the word paradise — became the template for all designed gardens. Islamic gardens are places for contemplation, a calm oasis evoking all the senses through scent, colour, texture, the sounds of birds and flowing water and a reminder of the life hereafter.

But more significantly, they reveal how the smallest elements are intrinsically connected and affect each other. The scent of a well-placed orange blossom carries across the landscape, assisted by the breeze. The sound of bubbling water directs our steps to experience the physical sensation of its cooling effect. Vistas lead from one garden to another. It is a complex experience. Despite the formality of their designs, Islamic gardens are never severed from surrounding nature.

Understanding how the design and function of a garden evolves, and how to tend it, highlights principles that can apply to almost every aspect of human life and assist in structuring society. Conceiving a country as a garden that will yield fruit and flowers, livability, create a structure in which even the smallest components contribute, and that will be maintained to constantly evolve, can translate into the building of institutions; short, medium and long term development plans; health, education and security; the value of individuals to the whole.

Immunologist Irun R Cohen chose to title his seminal book Tending Adam’s Garden, in which he proposes all phenomena are constantly self-organising in relation to one another. A teaspoon of penicillin can eradicate an infection, a single glance can change the course of a lifetime.

He writes that “humans like to analyse, breakdown complexity. Nature likes to go the other way — simple emergent systems synthesise grand emergent systems, cells to organisms to societies.” Thus, inspiring us to develop the skills to tend an ever-changing garden.

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist. She may be reached at durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, February 20th, 2022