page 3 - Operationalising Ziraat - Firos Holterman ten Hove

Ziraat is therefore a group of people who do not wait until a crisis forces them to work a field, but who voluntarily give up their normal freedom and find new happiness and richness in agriculture.

Going overboard in the industrial drive, humans lost their grip of the sensitivity of his live being, the earth. Raped, hard-driven, over-exploited, abused, Mother Earth yields denatured produce on the conveyor belt. The price we pay for artificial fertilizers, pesticides and pollutants has been widespread and alarming: endangered or even extinct species, and health problems culminating in cancer. As a result of the warning of the better-informed few, an age-old observance has now been raised into modern concept; in ecology, a new consciousness is arising. It is this consciousness that Ziraat embodies.

Ziraat is therefore a group of people who do not wait until a crisis forces them to work a field, but who voluntarily give up their normal freedom and find new happiness and richness in agriculture.

Going overboard in the industrial drive, humans lost their grip of the sensitivity of his live being, the earth. Raped, hard-driven, over-exploited, abused, Mother Earth yields denatured produce on the conveyor belt. The price we pay for artificial fertilizers, pesticides and pollutants has been widespread and alarming: endangered or even extinct species, and health problems culminating in cancer. As a result of the warning of the better-informed few, an age-old observance has now been raised into modern concept; in ecology, a new consciousness is arising. It is this consciousness that Ziraat embodies.

If we buy and consume the products of this industrial agriculture, we are complicit in rape of the environment! In 2011, the international Istanbul Convention made it a punishable offence to penetrate another person's body sexually, vaginally, anally or orally. If the "living being earth" is to be understood as a person, the sowing of genetically manipulated maize year after year on the same field is a clear case of rape. And that is exactly where Pir Vilayat wants to lead us. He was deeply disturbed in 1981 by the growing use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. The following picture shows how worldwide production has doubled since 2000:

In 1981 he warned of the danger of cancer because of the growing application. This has now been scientifically proven, but the German government torpedoed a Europe-wide ban on glyphosate. This is probably not even the most dangerous spray. The public remains silent about gene alterations caused by CCC.

The ecological awareness among the population is growing inexorably. But will the world community ever be able to cope with the enormous damage? How do we manage not to despair?

Only if we take our spiritual education seriously will we find a way out. Murshid describes this way out using Orpheus' abilities as an example:

1. “Orpheus loved Eurydice, who was among the degenerated people. This shows that love even tried to raise a soul thrown down so deep in the depth of the earth.” Hazrat Inayat Khan 

A great love is needed for the healing of the earth. In the Inayatiyya Order we find all the help we need to expand our love. How do we shape this love for the earth when most of us live in the city? We have to connect with the fields.

2. "And then Orpheus knew that Eurydice was taken to the other world ...” Hazrat Inayat Khan 

A deep-rooted intuitive knowledge is necessary. How can we see the invisible? In the Inayati Order we learn to understand the effect of the elements. The Arabic name for Orpheus is Arif: the one who knows. Our task is to trace the laws of earth, water, fire, air and ether in agriculture.

3. "... and he began to sing a song by the power of which he won the gods of the lower worlds. And that shows us what power the word has, what power sound has, and how it appeals to cosmic forces ...” Hazrat Inayat Khan 

A developed sense for music and sound is the trademark of the Chishti Order. Its use in agriculture is only just beginning. To heal exhausted soils and degenerated plants with sound and mantras: a completely new field of work.

4.  “Orpheus pleased the gods of the lower world, and they gave him the promise, "Eurydice will follow you, she follows you. The condition is that you will not look back ...

… the development of faith is trust in the unseen which is called trust in God, that when you do not see before you any sign of something that should happen and yet you think, "Yes, it must happen, it will happen, it certainly must happen," and you have no doubt, then you trust is in God...” Hazrat Inayat Khan

This quote implies that paradise, the garden in which man lives and works in harmony with everything, is a state that can be realized on earth. In Sufi spirituality, paradise is not shifted to a life after death. 

Rather than a mechanistic instrument that can be manipulated at our whim and for our gain, the earth exhibits all the characteristics of a sensitive, conscious being endowed with her own will and emotion and tendencies. As a fellow being, she exalts in her interrelationship with humans. The magnetism of the human touch enhances the growth of plants from her soil (this is the meaning of „green fingers“). Her magnetism makes humans thrive, regenerates worn and rundown body tissue, and gives radiance to the mind. If our consciousness is high, we sanctify the earth as hierophants and shamans have done since the beginning of time. If we commune with her soul rather than extort her yield, she sanctifies us, making us whole, and therefore holy an healthy.

It cannot be said more clearly: the earth is a person equal to human beings with consciousness, feeling, character and goals. And the relationship to this person is changing. As scientists from different directions confirm, the Holocene is coming to an end. A quiet period of about 10,000 years is replaced by the Anthropocene, in which the good-natured "mother" earth mutates into an unpredictable but fascinating "partner" earth.

Also in this matter Pir Vilayat was a visionary. He describes the new relationship between man and earth as giving and taking and as mutual fertilization. It is no longer about a relationship between parents and children. An equal relationship is called for.

The earth needs us: we are called upon to cultivate and increase our magnetism so that the plants can grow. The different healing methods from our order are in demand in a future agriculture. With the healing power of our hands, our gaze, our hearts and thoughts we will be able to alleviate the stress that plants are exposed to due to climate fluctuations.