How to Design Islamic Garden | Elements of Islamic Gardens

Suppose you want to experience the exotic, divine garden with a touch of ancient Muslim culture in it. Learn How to Design an Islamic Garden here!

Gardens throughout the world are made to create harmony and relaxation from the chaos of daily affairs. An Islamic Garden signifies Peace, Meditation, and rest. The Holy Quran has many quotations related to gardens, and “Almighty Allah blesses the believers with garden beneath the river flows.”

You can still experience Islamic gardens in a few archeological sites in continents like Asia, Persia, Turkey, Morrocco, and Egypt. The purpose behind creating an Islamic garden was related to the Quran’s teachings and to get relief from desert conditions where most Muslims lived.

How Islamic Gardens are Designed

The concept behind the design of an Islamic garden was quite symbolic and also had religious beliefs. These gardens had all the essential features that the Holy Quran mentions, such as the concept of Chahar Bagh, i.e., a four-square garden linked with four rivers of paradise. Ancient gardens were constructed with water bodies, aligned trees, Islamic decoration, pathways with running water, scented flowers, and tasty fruits.

In these pious gardens, Muslims gather for religious congregations, meditation, and the discussion of religion-based topics. Some Islamic gardens still exist with a glimpse of 16-century architecture. Some excellent examples of Islamic Gardens Art are still present in Persia and India.

Create Your Own Islamic Garden

Developing an Islamic garden is not as difficult as it seems. The first thing is to decide the place where you wish to create your garden. If you do own a landscape, then you can easily design it there, but in case you don’t have a landscape area, then you can also create a garden on the terrace. The Elements of Islamic Gardens mainly includes:

1. Water bodies
2. Date tree
3. Herbs
4. Jasmine
5. Lilies
6. Pomegranate tree
7. Cucumber
8. Lemon or Orange tree
9. Rose

Prepare a Water Body

Water is life, a symbol of purity and wealth in ancient Islam. It is considered very precious in Islam as the arid climate of gulf countries and desert regions lack a proper amount of it. To provide relief from the scorching heat, these gardens were designed with proper water rills. These water pond helps irrigate the plants in the garden. There is also an aspect related to the water, linked with the Quran ( Four rivers of heaven). Thus it is necessary to create a water pond or rills in the Islamic garden, considering both aspects.

To design a water pond in your Islamic garden, you can create it by dividing the running water with a passageway into four parts. If you don’t have enough space, then create a small pond or stream. Water brings life to your garden and also adds magnitude to it.

After portraying water channels and pathways, now can you can move to the plantation of tall shade trees.

Dates

Dates are treated as Islamic fruit, and growing it in the garden will provide shade and fruit also. Though the dates tree is very low demanding, it also doesn’t ask for much water. You can harvest fruit by climbing on the tree with the help of a rope and store the fruit for year long.

Herbs

Herbs can be used in the preparation of different Unani medicines. In the ancient era, gardeners had grown several kinds of herbs for healing purposes. It was primarily recommended in those times to stay in the scented atmosphere, as it was termed as a mood booster that cures headaches and other diseases. You can grow mint in your garden, it is a fast-growing herb used in the preparation of meals, and its charming fragrance gives it a special place in the Islamic garden.

Jasmine 

It is usually a regular in an Islamic garden for its amazing fragrance. You can plant jasmine around the edges of the waterways. Select a sunny spot to grow jasmine; however,  they do well in a shaded location too.

Lilies

They are famous for the same reason as the jasmine-aroma. It brings peace of mind while meditating in the surroundings of these divine flowers.

Pomegranate Tree 

It is a heavenly fruit, as per Islam, and its leaves and fruit of the plant are considered of much importance. The fruit from the pomegranate tree is useful in many ailments.

Cucumber

Cucumber vines provide a cool breeze that calms the mind and soul. Additionally, the cucumber fruit has several health benefits that give this vine a special place in an Islamic garden. If you have shorter space, click here to know how to grow them vertically.

Lemon or Orange

These trees are important in Islamic gardens because of the citrus fragrance and for tasty fruit with many benefits. Lemons are famous for lemonade and cooling effects also. Oranges, on the other hand, spread exotic scent in an atmosphere and produces tasty fruit.

Roses 

Roses are favorite due to their gentle and mind-blowing fragrance. Growing roses is not difficult; you can easily grow this beautiful plant and grace your garden with many color roses.

After sketching water rills and growing fruits and flowers, the next important thing is covering the garden with boundary walls. In the Islamic garden, walls are an essential part that cannot be ignored. You can create walls by using lattice carved marble; it will give the garden an antique look and provide ventilation too.

Islamic garden has an aura that creates an atmosphere that serves peace of mind by relaxing the soul and body. The task of creating an Islamic garden requires proper planning, designing work, and execution. In these undisturbed, calm gardens, you can heal your mind and soul from the stress of routine work.