Gulistan - STORY

GULISTAN




 

Saadi of Sheraz wrote Gulistan . It contains many stories with beautiful morals. It was taught in schools of the Muslim world, especially in South Asia, for many centuries. Many stories and sayings from this book have become very famous in the East.

One of the stories is about a foolish slave who had never seen a river before.  One day, his master decided to take him along for a picnic on a boat. When the boat reached the river, the slave got extremely frightened and started jumping up and down, disturbing everyone. People told them that he would be alright but it was no use -  nothing could cure his fight. There was a wise man traveling in the same boat. When everything else failed, he told the people to through the slaves into the river.  As the slave was about to drown, the wise man asked the people to pull him back into the river. This time, as the slave came back to the river,'' said the wise man,"That is why he could not understand how safe it is to be on the boat. Now he knows that it would be much worse to be without a boat, and therefore he is grateful and quiet.''

In another story, Saadi tells us that when he was a child his father took him to a mosque on a special night. Saadi and his father spent the whole night in prayers, and when it was almost morning, the young Saadi looked around him to find that many people had slept on the floor of the mosque. ''Father! He said. ''Look at these people. How they have wasted the special night in sleeping when they could have offered prayers and sent some good deeds for the after world.'' Saadi's father replied,'' My son, it would have been far better for you to be one of them, and sleep the whole night rather than offer prayers and then criticize others.''

Many centuries have passed since this book was written. Its message is still as fresh and useful as ever.