Ziraat and its Implications for Addressing Climate Change

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Ziraat and its Implications for Addressing
Climate Change
By Kainat Sharifa Norton

‘Humankind is far removed from nature both within and
without and has become an exile from the ideal state of life”.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Ziraat, the last activity inaugurated by Hazrat Inayat Khan
in 1926, provides a powerful accommodation for planetary
awakening and evolution. It serves the harmony of heaven
and earth by teaching us how to come in tune with our
natural being and find our unity with the sacredness of all
life. Its purpose, is to realize, taking responsibility as
carriers of the Message, that we may be a powerful force,
as a “small band of sowers” to transform the way
humanity thinks and relates-- with reverence and
intimacy—to the natural world.
Ziraat places a great emphasis on manifestation, and very
specific activities of responsibility, necessary to “do one’s
work” in the sacred field of life, with ways of preparing the
field, ploughing the ground, sowing seeds and reaping the
harvest of planetary awakening. Some specific activities
include:

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1. A Daily Communion with the Elements. We give
gratitude for the gift each element brings, feeling our
sacred connection, and deepening a mutual relationship of
care, reciprocity and beneficence. We open to the earth
as a profound living being, a goddess both powerful and
delicate, and the elements as archangelic intelligences,
imparting gifts to all beings. We would not pollute the
water we drink from, or pollute the air we breathe. We
take great care to be watchful and protect and honor the
elements.

2. Returning to the Natural State/Clearing the
Field of the Mind
As Hazrat Inayat Khan emphasized, the suffering in our
world is greatly magnified by our ways of thinking and
priorities. He noted:
“The present spirit of humanity has commercialism as its crown
and materialism as its throne…. The world's progress, with
selfishness as the central theme, will never lead to the soul's
desire and aim; it will culminate in destruction. …..The
happiness and peace of each individual depends on the
happiness and peace of all.” Religious Gathekas #17 - The
Message of Unity

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Pir Vilayat has said he thought Ziraat was instituted
because Murshid foresaw the very destruction to our
natural world that we are witnessing today. In response,
Hazrat Inayat Khan left five ‘lessons’ in Ziraat, three of
which deal directly with the need for the purification and
cultivation of the mind. He quoted Buddha, emphasizing
the need to plough up old roots and “uproot the weeds of
Illusion.” These roots and weeds he identified as greed,
fixed concepts, hardened opinions and beliefs (and hearts).
Once these remnants of past harvests are removed, the
field is made fresh, and fertile, able to receive and sow the
seeds of new inspiration, creativity and insights into
harmony with life, both within and without. With the
mind purified of all that is foreign to it, we are more able
to act with greater clarity and vision to help restore
harmony on our fragile earth. Pir Vilayat spoke of ‘the
bind in the mind’ and the ‘pollution’ in our thinking’. Do
our values and choices honor the inherent unity and
interdependence of all life or are we autistic to this basic
law of life, and lost in motives of greed and profit.

3. An Earth Based Ceremony in which, through a
‘dialogue’ we reflect on the purpose and scope of our
soul’s journey- “as long as time and as broad as space’, our
attitude towards our work, and our cultivation of the
capacity to read and listen to the sacred manuscript of
Nature, aligning our work to Her cycles. Here we
remember and honor our sacred covenant with our

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Lord/Rabb/Cultivator, our vows to feel responsibility, to
find joy and integrity in all that we do, to thereby become
mature and fruitful gardeners in the journey of the soul.

4. Doing our Own Work
The first and last lessons of Ziraat address “doing our
work”. The first lesson speaks of finding and working
from a place where jemal and jelal, beauty and power or
feminine and masculine, receptive and active, are working
harmoniously. The final lesson reminds us that each soul
has its own unique “work” to be fulfilled individually but
also in interdependence with others. It provides a code of
how to bring seeds to full blossom, to fulfill and
accomplish our inspiration.

Ziraat’s central contribution to the climate crisis is that it
is a force for a change in our thinking, a change in our
attitude, an emphasis on not giving into despair but
continually joining inner cultivation with hope, in the
tradition of the prophets, who brought hope, possibility,
and new thinking in our world.
With a deep understanding of Ziraat’s emphasis first on
inner cultivation, we become aware of how crucial service
is at the present time. It is not only a valuable act of
moving beyond our selfish interests, it is, as the Ziraat
service emphasizes, the way to “perfect freedom”. What

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is more, it is an exciting step for each of us, opening a
focus and concentration on ‘what we want our world to
be’ rather than a paralysis of fear and hopelessness.
Responding’ with care, wise choices, and tending to each
field we find that each and every human being can do
something to eradicate damaging climate change.
 Some examples we know of, from our own Sufi and
Ziraat families and from beyond, are inspiration for all of
us as to what people are doing and what we might do:
We join, demonstrate and walk for clean air, water, for
putting an end to deforestation and pollution, and
continually bring environmental issues to the attention of
decision makers. Many of us joined in walking in the
People’s Climate March this past September in NYC along
with others participating in other locations throughout the
world to draw attention to the issue of climate change.
We compost, even in the tiniest kitchen, and initiate green
initiatives in our work places, support local farmer’s
markets, bicycle to work, carpool, recycle.
We choose one thing we would like to change in our
immediate environment on behalf of the health of our
earth and follow through with this. Gathering a group of
fellow workers on the project.
We become ever vigilant to never harm any element, to
give back to the earth, not deplete Her. We can be ever
more keenly aware of our everyday actions and the effects
these have.

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We support, join with and donate resources and efforts to
groups working on behalf of the planet. Some groups who
have already laid a good groundwork we might
join/collaborate with include: 350.org, the Food and
Water Watch, the Rainforest Action Network,
Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and Pachamama Alliance.
We can seek to better discern between need and greed,
consuming less, transforming our surface desires and using
the energy of desire to deepening the inner cultivation of
our being.

Fresh Vision
‘May we be among those who are to bring about the
transfiguration of the Earth…who make all things fresh’
Zoroastrian Saying
The root meaning of the word Ziraat as cultivation, can
also be linked with “Sirat”, the straight path and the
“rainbow bridge” to a new reality resulting from the
conscience which Shahabuddin Surawardhi described as
‘Sirat…the bridge finer than a hair and sharper than a
sword….over which we all must pass”.
Ziraat teachings help us see that our denial, despair and
our collective addiction to consumption can both paralyze
us and drain the passion and energy we need for real
change. Recognizing our deep pain about the world and
the part we play in contributing to the problems around us

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may cause us to awaken. With compassion for the
suffering on earth, and with an ever constant vigilance to
keep purifying our mind, we are able to restore and
maintain awe and root ourselves in the beauty of the
earth—and of all aspects of the soul’s journey—so that we
may be a force for fresh vision, creativity and healing.
May each of us inscribe a love letter to the earth through
our words, thoughts and deeds. What other action is left,
but to do all we can to uphold the integrity of our planet
by joining our inner cultivation and awakened conscience
with outer care and cultivation of our beautiful planet.
Warm Blessings,
Kainat Sharifa Norton
sharifanur@earthlink.net
For the Ziraat Activity

For more info about the Ziraat Activity see:
www.Ziraat.org
We offer workshops and retreats that address our
relationship to the sacred manuscript of nature and to
honoring and deepening our intimacy with the
interdependence of all life.