Saadi Shirazi - A Story

Saadi returned to his native city of Shiraz, after his education and long and diverse travels, and started to share his knowledge on daily basis. He exchanges his ideas through people’s gathering, belonging to all segments of society. He preaches to farmers, merchants, preachers, ascetics, students, teachers, and even to thieves and robbers. This exchange of ideas was based on moral values and encouraging people for good deeds, respect, peace and justice through his poems, texts, stories, and quotes from Islam.

Saadi belonged to the group of few world renowned scholars, having command over both poem and poetry form. He composed beautiful lyrics, qasidas and ghazals in Persian language using some Arabic words in, too. His most celebrated works in Persian language are (amongst few works the literary masterpieces of world) Bostan (The Orchard) and Gulistan (the Rose Garden). These two literary jewels are popularly known as “Bostaane Saadi” and “Golestane Saadi”.

Here is one of his story shared with people. Scholars those days used story Telling to drive home their messages.

Yours truely wrote the story in Telugu.

There are a few more stories of Sadi in this blog. You can reach them through thel abels on the right side panel.

Happy reading!

Removing the Rubbish - A Story by Sadi

WHEN THE YOUNG TRAVELER got off the boat, they saw that he looked so wise, devout and humble that there was only one place at which he could possibly stay.

They deposited his luggage at the monastery. There the youth was made welcome by the pious community.

One day the head of the community said to the youth:

‘Would you please sweep the rubbish away from the mosque?’

That was the last they saw of him. All were puzzled, but decided that he had no aptitude for work.

But next day, one of the servants of the community happened to catch sight of the youth, and stopped him.

‘It was foolish of you to go off like that,’ he remarked. ‘Don’t you know that it is only by service that you climb the ladder?’

At this the youth wept.

‘Oh my friend,’ he cried, ‘what could I do? I looked around and the place was spotless. I therefore concluded that the head of the community was referring to me! I removed myself so that the place should remain pure and spotless.’

Sadi Shirazi - Stories

Boss is always right!

The cabinet ministers of Nushirowan were debating an important affair of state, and each delivered his opinion according to the best of his judgment. In like manner the king also delivered his sentiments, and Abu-zarchamahr, the prime minister, accorded in opinion with him. The other ministers whispered him, saying, "What did you see superior in the king's opinion that you preferred it to the judgment of so many wise heads?" He replied: "Because the event is doubtful, and the opinion of all rests in the pleasure of the most high God whether it shall be right or wrong. Accordingly it is safer to conform with the judgment of the king, because if that shall prove wrong, our obsequiousness to his will shall secure us from his displeasure.—To sport an opinion contrary to the judgment of the king were to wash our hands in our own blood. Were he verily to say this day is night, it would behoove us to reply: Lo! there are the moon and seven stars."

They have related that at a hunting seat they were roasting some game for Nushirowan, and as there was no salt they were dispatching a servant to the village to fetch some. Nushirowan called to him, saying, "Take it at its fair price, and not by force, lest a bad precedent be established and the village desolated." They asked, "What damage can ensue from this trifle?" He answered, "Originally, the basis of oppression in this world was small, and every newcomer added to it, till it reached to its present extent:—Let the monarch eat but one apple from a peasant's orchard, and his guards, or slaves, will pull up the tree by its root. From the plunder of five eggs, that the king shall sanction, his troops will stick a thousand fowls on their spits."

Blind man walking into a pit! - Sadi Shirazi

Here is a piece from Sadi's Gulistan

XXXVIII

At the court of Kisra, or Nushirowan, a cabinet council

was debating some State affair. Abu-zarchamahr,

who sat as president, was silent. They asked him,

“Why do you not join us in this discussion?” He

replied, “ Such ministers of State are like physicians,

and a physician will prescribe a medicine only to a sick

man; accordingly, so long as I see that your opinions

are judicious, it were ill-judged in me to obtrude a

word.—-While business can proceed without my interference,

it does not behoove me to speak on the subject;

but were I to see a blind man walking into a pit, I

would be much to blame if I remained silent.”

కిస్రా లేక నౌషేర్వాన్ ఆస్థానంలో మంత్రుల సమావేశం జరుగుతున్నది.

ఏవో రాచకార్యాల గురించి మాట్లాడుతున్నారు.

అబూ జార్ చమార్ అధ్యక్షుడుగా ఉన్నాడు.

కానీ నిశ్శబ్దంగా ఉన్నాడు.

"చర్చలో ఎందుకు పాలుగొనవు?" అని వారు అతనిని అడిగారు.

"మీ వంటి రాజ్య మంత్రులు వైద్యుల వంటివారు.

వైద్యుడు, రోగం వచ్చిన మనిషికి మాత్రమే మందులిస్తాడు.

కనుక, మీ అభిప్రాయాలు న్యాయబద్ధంగా ఉన్నంత వరకు

నేనొక మాటతో అడ్డు రావడం తప్పవుతుంది.

నా ప్రమేయం లేకుండా పని కొనసాగుతున్నంత వరకు,

విషయం గురించి మాట్లాడడం సరిగాదు.

కానీ, గుడ్డి మనిషి గుంటలో పడుతున్నట్లు

కనబడితే మాత్రం, 

మాట్లాడకుండా ఉంటే నేను తప్పు చేసిన వాణ్ణవుతాను"

అన్నాడతను.

Let us enjoy words and works of wisdom

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Paradise - A story by Sadi

Shaikh Sa’di Shirazi (about 1194-1292 CE), originally named Muslih-uddin, was born in Shiraz and studied at the Nizamiyya seat of learning in Baghdad. He remained there for about 30 years, where his fame as a great Persian poet and popular writer was established. He took the name Sa’di in honor of his patron Sa’d b. Zengi. Between 1226 and 1256 he traveled widely, visiting Europe, Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Armenia, Turkey, Arabia, Iran, and beyond the Indus to Hindustan. Sa'di had one son, whose early death caused him great grief and led to a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.


Sa'di spent some years at Damascus where he became known as an excellent pulpit orator. He then became a recluse wandering in the desert near Jerusalem until he was captured by Frankish soldiers and condemned to forced labor in the trenches of the fortress of Tripoli. He was ransomed by a rich friend from Aleppo who gave him his daughter in marriage. Her quarrelsomeness spurred him to leave her and continue his travels, finally returning to Shiraz in his seventies. He remained there until the end of his life, studying Sufic wisdom and writing poetry.

His travels and observations of the characters of the people he met, backed by his extensive learning, led him to compose two masterpieces—The Bustan [The Fragrant Place, i.e Flower Garden] and The Gulistan (The Flower Garden). The second, from which extracts are given here, is a prose work interspersed with verses that touches on practical wisdom and moral questions in an easy and entertaining style. In 'May and January' we can see a foreshadowing of Reading Lolita in Tehran. Much of the other material is autobiographical.

స్వర్గం అసహ్యం కాదా?


ఒక రాజుగారు పడవలో ప్రయాణం చేస్తున్నారు. అదే పడవలో ఒక పర్షియన్ బానిస కూడా ఉన్నాడు. ఆ పిల్లవాడు ఎన్నడూ సముద్ర ప్రయాణం చేసినవాడు కాదు. పడవ ప్రయాణంలోని చిక్కులతనికి తెలియవు. అందుకే వాడు ఏడుస్తూ ఉండిపోయాడు. అతని శరీరమంతా భయకంపితంగా ఉంది. ఎంత మంది ఎంత ఓదార్చినా వాడు మాత్రం ఊరుకోలేదు. రాజుగారి పరివారానికి అది చికాకుగా ఉంది. కానీ వాళ్లు పిల్లవానికి సహాయం చేసే ప్రయత్నం మాత్రం చేయలేదు. ఆ ఓడ మీద ఒక వైద్యుడు కూడా ఉన్నాడు. అతను రాజుగారితో “మీ ఆజ్ఞ గనుక అయితే, నేనతడిని ప్రశాంతపరచ గలను” అన్నాడు. “అయ్యో అది గొప్ప సహాయం గదా!” అన్నారు రాజుగారు.

వైద్యుడు ఆ పిల్లవాడిని సముద్రంలోకి పడవేయమన్నాడు. వాడొక రెండు మూడు మునకలు మునిగిన తర్వాత వాడి జుట్టు పట్టుకుని పడవ దగ్గరకు లాగారు. వాడు భయంతో దొరికిన అంచును పట్టుకుని, ఎలాగోలాగన పైకి ఎక్కాడు. ఒక మూలకు వెళ్లి నిశ్శబ్దంగా నక్కి కూర్చున్నాడు. రాజుగారికి అది ఆశ్చర్యకరంగా తోచింది. “ఇదేమి విచిత్రం?” అన్నాడాయన. “ముందు వాడికి మునిగి పోవడం అంటే ఏమిటనే ఆలోచన లేదు. అందుకే పడవలో ఉండడం భద్రమన్న సంగతి వానికి తోచలేదు. తన పరిస్థితిని వాడు తక్కువగా అంచనా వేసుకున్నాడు. ఒక మనిషి అనారోగ్యానికి గురయితే గాని ఆరోగ్యం సంగతి అర్థం కాకపోవడం లాంటిదే ఇది కూడా!” అన్నాడు వైద్యుడు.

మామూలు బార్లీ రొట్టె నీకు,

ఓ ఆహార ప్రియుడా, నోటికి రుచించదు.

అందుకే నా ఆడది నీ కంటికి అసహ్యంగా కనిపిస్తుంది.

దేవతలకూ అప్సరసలకూ

స్వర్గం అసహ్యంగా ఉంటుంది.

నరకంలో ఉండే వాళ్లను అడిగి చూడండి

స్వర్గం అసహ్యంగా ఉండదా అని

తన పడతిని తన చేతుల్లో

పొదవుకున్న మనిషికీ

కళ్లు కాయలు కాచేలా తన మనిషికోసం

తలుపు వేపే చూచే వానికీ

ఎంతో తేడా ఉంటుంది.

A king was embarked on board a ship, which also carried a Persian slave. The boy had never been at sea, nor experienced the inconvenience of a ship. He set up a weeping and wailing, and all his limbs were in a state of trepidation; and, however much they soothed him, he was not to be pacified. The king's pleasure party was disconcerted by him; but they offered no help. On board that ship there was a physician. He said to the king: “If you will order it, I can manage to silence him.” The king replied: “It will be an act of great favour.”

The physician directed that they throw the boy into the sea, and after he had plunged repeatedly, they seized him by the hair of the head and drew him close to the ship, where he grabbed the rudder with both hands and, scrambling up on to the deck, slunk into a corner and sat down quiet.

The king, pleased with what he saw, said: “What art is there in this?” The physician replied: “Originally he had not experienced the danger of being drowned, and undervalued the safety of being in a ship; just as a person is aware of the preciousness of health only when he is overtaken with the calamity of sickness.”


A barley loaf of bread has,

O epicure, no relish for you.

That is my mistress who appears so ugly to your eye.

To the houris, or nymphs of paradise,

Purgatory would be hell;

Ask the inmates of hell whether

Purgatory is not paradise.

There is a distinction between the man

Folding his mistress in his arms

And him whose two eyes are fixed

On the door expecting her.

Let us learn from classic wisdom!
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