The paradise gardens of Heian Japan reflected the natural beauty of the forested hillsides that surrounded the city of Heian-kyo. While somewhat stylized, these gardens blended with the surrounding landscape. Most Japanese gardens reflect a culture which sees nature as a paradise; this is in sharp contrast with the attitude behind Islamic paradise gardens. Islam is rooted in the Arabian desert, an environment where shade and water mean the difference between life and death. While Japan is a land of forests and streams, Islamic gardens are a dream of such a place. Many cultures, such as that of the ancient Egyptians, pictured the afterlife as a continuation of the world that they lived in, just without pain and hardship, but the Islamic concept of paradise is very different from the Arabian desert; it is a reward for enduring life in a hostile environment and an escape from that environment .
It is important to understand that devout Muslims have traditionally believed that the Koran is the word of God. The Koran describes paradise as a garden, therefore God has said that paradise is a garden. Islamic gardens are not symbols of paradise, they are a reflection of paradise. Islam promises eternal life in a beautiful garden that is exactly like an earthly garden but more pleasurable.
The Koran describes Heaven as garden over thirty times. The Prophet Muhammad doesn't go into a lot of details about the garden of paradise, the following passage is typical: "God hath promised to Believers, men and women, Gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein, and beautiful mansions in Gardens of everlasting bliss. But the greatest bliss is the Good Pleasure of God: that is the supreme felicity." The Islamic concept of paradise is of a well watered garden shaded by fruit trees. Believers will be rewarded "with a Garden and garments of silk. Reclining in the garden on raised thrones, they will see there neither the sun's excessive heat nor the moon?s excessive cold. And the shades of the Garden will come low over them, and the bunches of fruit, there, will hang low in humility".
The Koran's most frequently repeated description of paradise is "Gardens under which rivers flow". There are four main rivers in paradise, one of water, one of milk, one of wine, and one of honey. This is reflected in the design of Islamic gardens, which typically are divided into four parts by channels of water, with a pool at the garden?s center. The idea of the world having four rivers is very ancient: the "Bible's book of Genesis says that "a river went out of Eden; and from thence it was parted and became four heads", and some Persian ceramics that were created six thousand years ago show the world divided into four sections with a pool or spring of life at the center. Early Persian hunting parks reflected this concept by being divided into four parts with a mansion at the center and Islamic gardens are their direct descendents. The ancient Persians called their hunting parks pairidaeza; the ancient Greeks adopted the word as paradeisos, and in the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible dating from 300 years before the birth of Christ), the word is used instead of Eden to describe the Garden of Eden; early Christians used this translation and it reinforced the connection between paradise and gardens.
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