A garden inspired by Quranic verses

The Unesco Office in Doha is developing a project to establish a botanical garden based on the scientific and aesthetic concepts contained in the Holy Quran.

The features of this botanical garden will be decided based on the verses (more than 150) that mention the Gardens of Paradise (Jannat al-Firdaws) in holy Quran.

Over the centuries, these meaningful verses have inspired a good number of Islamic gardens, embodying a physical recall of heaven on earth, and have influenced some of the most beautiful landscape architectures all over the world, said a press statement issued yesterday.

The Quranic verses effectively describe the basic role of water and shade, as well as plants, walls, gates and pavilions. The proposed project would help achieve important objectives in the fields of environmental conservation, scientific research, education and recreation.

A living display of plants mentioned in the Holy Quran, arranged as a traditional quadripartite garden, will be extremely useful to carry out appropriate training programmes in the field of environmental conservation, as well as to spread the knowledge on the Holy Book, said the release.

Unesco Office is in the process of preparing a comprehensive project proposal, collaborating with a select team of architects, botanists, engineers, and Muslim scholars.