Sufi Wisdom for Climate and Nature
By Sahil Razvi, New Age Islam
22 July 2026
Sufi saints in India protected nature by planting trees and constructing stepwells as charity. Inspired by Islamic teachings, their efforts like Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s baoli provide practical lessons in sustainable water use and greenery for addressing climate change.
Main points:
- Sufi saints planted trees as acts of charity and worship.
- They built stepwells and wells for public water relief.
- Nizamuddin Auliya’s baoli stands as a lasting example.
- Practices drew from the Hazrat Prophet's teachings on planting and care.
- These traditions offer models for today’s water and climate challenges.
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In the face of intensifying climate change, with erratic monsoons, depleting groundwater, and scorching summers across the Indian subcontinent, ancient wisdom often holds surprising relevance. The Sufi tradition, with its emphasis on love for the Divine, service to humanity, and harmony with creation, offers a rich legacy of environmental care. Sufi saints and their followers did not merely preach spiritual detachment; they actively planted trees, dug wells, and constructed stepwells (baolis) as acts of charity (sadaqah) and community welfare. These practices, rooted in Quranic teachings and Prophetic traditions, addressed both immediate human needs and long-term ecological balance.
Islamic teachings form the bedrock of this approach. The Quran repeatedly describes nature as ayat (signs) of Allah, urging believers to reflect on trees, water, and the earth’s bounty without waste (israf). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) emphasised practical stewardship. One well-known hadith states: “If the Hour (the day of Resurrection) is about to be established and one of you was holding a palm shoot, let him take advantage of even one second before the Hour is established to plant it.” Another declares: “Every single Muslim that cultivates or plants anything of which humans, animals or birds may eat from is counted as charity towards them on his behalf.” Planting trees or crops was thus framed as sadaqa jariya, ongoing charity that benefits creation even after one’s death. These sayings, preserved in collections like Kanz al-Ummal and Sahih Bukhari traditions, underscore that caring for the environment is an act of worship.
Sufi saints internalised and lived these principles. Their khanqahs (hospices) often featured gardens and trees, providing shade, fruit, and spiritual solace. In Kashmir, Sufi rishis (ascetics) of the Rishi order, influenced by figures like Hazrat Shaykh Nur al-Din (Nund Rishi), planted fruit trees across valleys. Emperor Jahangir later praised the resulting lushness, famously noting the region’s paradisiacal quality. Such efforts combined spiritual discipline with tangible ecological improvement, creating microclimates, supporting biodiversity, and ensuring food security for communities.
A striking example comes from Hazrat Baba Fakhruddin of Penukonda (Andhra Pradesh), a Qalandar saint of the 13th-14th century. After renouncing kingship and travelling widely in search of spiritual guidance, he settled in Penukonda. There, he planted a miswak (toothbrush tree) twig given by his murshid (spiritual guide). Centuries later, this tree still thrives at his dargah, drawing pilgrims who touch its trunk reverently. The living tree stands as living testimony to the saint’s baraka (spiritual blessing) and his commitment to nurturing life.
Modern echoes persist. In recent years, appeals from Sufi shrines like Khanqah-e-Hydari in Srinagar have sparked widespread tree-planting drives across Kashmir, urging devotees to plant native species and care for them for the first three critical years. These initiatives frame environmental action as a collective religious and moral duty in the face of climate-induced changes in the valley.
Water conservation features even more prominently in Sufi history. Access to clean water was, and remains, a profound act of mercy in arid and semi-arid regions. Sufi saints often prioritised public utilities alongside spiritual guidance. Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (1238–1325), the revered Chishti saint of Delhi, exemplifies this beautifully.
During the reign of Sultan Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, Delhi suffered severe drought. Moved by the people’s suffering, Nizamuddin Auliya decided to build a baoli (stepwell) near his khanqah. He reportedly began digging the earth with his own hands. A legendary blessing is associated with it: “He who drinks one drop of it should have no fear of the fire of hell.” Construction faced royal opposition, the Sultan had banned other public works to focus labour on Tughlaqabad Fort and later prohibited oil sales to stop nighttime work on the baoli. Undeterred, workers laboured secretly at night. When lamps could no longer be lit, Nizamuddin blessed the baoli’s water; miraculously, it burned like oil in the lamps. His disciple, Hazrat Khwaja Nasiruddin Mahmud (later known as Roshan Chiragh-e-Delhi), oversaw this. The baoli was completed and provided relief for generations.
Nizamuddin’s own words reflect his emphasis on simple hospitality involving water: “Every visitor should be served something; if there is nothing to offer, a cup of water may be offered.” This saying highlights how even the most basic provision of water was seen as noble service (khidmat). The saint also reportedly cursed the ambitious Tughlaqabad Fort with desolation (“May it remain desolate, may it be inhabited by Gujjars”), and history records its early abandonment, partly due to water scarcity, while his baoli endures over seven centuries later, still fed by underground springs and revered for healing properties. Hazrat Amir Khusrau, Hazrat Nizamuddin’s beloved disciple and poet, celebrated the baoli in verse, linking its miraculous water to the saint’s spiritual ecstasy.
The Nizamuddin baoli is not an isolated case. Medieval India saw significant contributions to water infrastructure under Muslim rulers and Sufi influence. Baolis, tanks (hauz), and canals became integral to urban and rural life, especially in water-stressed areas like Delhi, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. These structures harvested rainwater, recharged aquifers, provided cool community spaces, and supported agriculture and wildlife. Unlike modern borewells that often deplete groundwater rapidly, traditional baolis worked with natural cycles, their deep, stepped designs allowed access at varying water levels while minimising evaporation and contamination.
Sufi philosophy reinforced this practical work. Saints viewed the natural world as a manifestation of the Divine. Hazrat Inayat Khan, the Indian-origin Sufi who spread the message in the West, wrote: “There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader… To the eye of the seer every leaf of the tree is a page of the holy book that contains divine revelation.” He and his successors in the Inayati tradition spoke of trees as “cosmic poles grounding Heaven in the soil of Earth.” Nature was not separate from spiritual life but its living scripture.
In broader Sufi thought, drawing from figures like Ibn Arabi and Hazrat Jalaluddin Rumi, creation groans and rejoices in harmony with the human heart. Rumi’s famous reed flute laments its separation from the reed-bed, carrying deep ecological resonance: severance from one’s natural abode brings suffering. Sufis thus cultivated a sense of interconnectedness (wahdat al-wujud influences) that discouraged exploitation and encouraged care.
Today, as climate change exacerbates water crises and heatwaves, these traditions gain fresh urgency. Restorations of historic baolis, such as those undertaken by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture around the Nizamuddin area and in Hyderabad’s Qutb Shahi complex, demonstrate their continued functionality. Cleared of centuries of silt and debris, these structures now harvest monsoon runoff, recharge aquifers, and even supply water for conservation work and landscaping. One project noted collecting millions of litres annually, enabling tree plantations and reducing reliance on tankers.
Stepwells and wells built or patronised in Sufi contexts were never merely engineering feats; they embodied rahma (compassion) and foresight. They created resilient communities less vulnerable to drought while fostering social mixing at cool, shaded gathering spots. Tree-planting by saints ensured shade, fruit, soil stability, and carbon sequestration, benefits we now quantify in climate terms.
The Sufi approach to the environment was holistic and humble. It rejected waste, prioritised the needs of the poor and travellers, and treated acts of planting or providing water as worship. In an age of ecological crisis, these examples invite us to recover a spirituality of care, where protecting trees and water sources is not peripheral activism but central to faith and humanity.
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-spiritualism/sufi-wisdom-climate-nature/d/140907
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