Sufi Stories of Saadi Shirazi

Story 4 -The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A band of Arab brigands having taken up their position on the top of a mountain and closed the passage of caravans, the inhabitants of the country were distressed by their stratagems and the troops of the sultan foiled because the robbers, having obtained

Story 1- The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Story 1 One of the great devotees having been asked about his opinion concerning a hermit whom others had censured in their conversation, he replied: 'I do not see any external blemishes on him and do not know of internal ones.' Whomsoever thou

Story 2 - The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I saw a dervish who placed his head upon the threshold of the Ka'bah, groaned, and said: 'O forgiving, 0 merciful one, thou knowest what an unrighteous, ignorant man can offer to thee.' I have craved pardon for the deficiency of my service Because

Story .6 - The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A hermit, being the guest of a padshah, ate less than he wished when sitting at dinner and when he rose for prayers he prolonged them more than was his wont in order to enhance the opinion entertained by the padshah of his piety. O Arab of the desert,

Story 22 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A king was subject to a terrible disease, the mention of which is not sanctioned by custom. The tribe of Yunani physicians agreed that this pain cannot be allayed except by means of the bile of a person endued with certain qualities. Orders having been

Story 2-The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

One of the kings of Khorasan had a vision in a dream of Sultan Mahmud, one hundred years after his death. His whole person appeared to have been dissolved and turned to dust, except his eyes, which were revolving in their orbits and looking about. All

Story 5 - The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Several travellers were on a journey together and equally sharing each other's troubles and comforts. I desired to accompany them but they would not agree. Then I said: 'It is foreign to the manners of great men to turn away the face from the company

Story 38 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A company of philosophers were discussing a subject in the palace of Kesra and Barzachumihr, having remained silent, they asked him why he took no share in the debate. He replied: 'Veziers are like physicians and the latter give medicine to the sick

Story 10 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I was constantly engaged in prayer, at the head of the prophet Yahia's tomb in the cathedral mosque of Damascus, when one of the Arab kings, notorious for his injustice, happened to arrive on a pilgrimage to it, who offered his supplications and asked

Story 41 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Iskandur Rumi, having been asked how he had conquered the east and the west, considering that the treasures, territories, reigns and armies of former kings exceeded his own and they had not gained such a victory, replied: 'Whatever country I conquered

Story 12 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

An unjust king asked a devotee what kind of worship is best? He replied: 'For thee the best is to sleep one half of the day so as not to injure the people for a while.' I saw a tyrant sleeping half the day. I said: 'This confusion, if sleep removes

Story 1-The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I heard a padshah giving orders to kill a prisoner. The helpless fellow began to insult the king on that occasion of despair, with the tongue he had, and to use foul expressions according to the saying: Who washes his hands of life Says whatever

Story 6 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

It is narrated that one of the kings of Persia had stretched forth his tyrannical hand to the possessions of his subjects and had begun to oppress them so violently that in consequence of his fraudulent extortions they dispersed in the world and chose

Story 5 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I saw at the palace-gate of Oglimish the son of a military officer who was endued with marvellous intellect, sagacity, perception and shrewdness; also the signs of future greatness manifested themselves on his forehead whilst yet a small boy. From

Story 4 - The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A thief paid a visit to the house of a pious man but, although he sought a great deal, found nothing and was much grieved. The pious man, who knew this, threw the blanket upon which he had been sleeping into the way of the thief that he might not go

Story 9 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

An Arab king was sick in his state of decrepitude so that all hopes of life were cut off. A trooper entered the gate with the good news that a certain fort had been conquered by the good luck of the king, that the enemies had been captured and that the

Story 7 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A padshah was in the same boat with a Persian slave who had never before been at sea and experienced the inconvenience of a vessel. He began to cry and to tremble to such a degree that he could not be pacified by kindness, so that at last the king became

Story 19 - The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A caravan having been plundered in the Yunan country and deprived of boundless wealth, the merchants wept and lamented, beseeching God and the prophet to intercede for them with the robbers, but ineffectually. When a dark-minded robber is victorious

Story 3-The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I have heard that a royal prince of short stature and mean presence, whose brothers were tall and good-looking, once saw his father glancing on him with aversion and contempt but he had the shrewdness and penetration to guess the meaning and said: 'O

Story 40 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A Chinese slave-girl having been brought to a king, he desired to have connection with her whilst in a state of intoxication but, as she repelled him, he became angry and presented her to one of his negro-slaves whose upper lip was higher than his nostrils

Story 17 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Several men were in my company whose external appearance displayed the adornment of piety. A great man who had conceived a very good opinion of these persons had assigned them a fixed allowance but, after one of them had done something unbecoming the

Story 16 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

One of my friends complained of the unpropitious times, telling me that he had a slender income, a large family, without strength to bear the load of poverty and had often entertained the idea to emigrate to another country so that no matter how he made

Story 11 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A dervish, whose prayers met with answers, made his appearance, and Hejaj Yusuf, calling him, said: 'Utter a good prayer for me', whereon the dervish exclaimed: 'O God, take his life.' He replied: 'For God's sake, what prayer is this?' The dervish rejoined:

Story 22-the Rules for Conduct in Life- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Affairs succeed by patience and a hasty man fails. I saw with my eyes in the desert That a slow man overtook a fast one. A galloping horse, fleet like the wind, fell back Whilst the camel-man continued slowly his progress.

Story 20 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I heard that an oppressor ruined the habitations of the subjects to fill the treasury of the sultan, unmindful of the maxim of philosophers, who have said: 'Who offends God the most high to gain the heart of a created being, God will use that very being

Story 15 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A vezier, who had been removed from his post, entered the circle of dervishes and the blessing of their society took such effect upon him that he became contented in his mind. When the king was again favourably disposed towards him and ordered him to

Story 11 - The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I spoke in the cathedral mosque of Damascus a few words by way of a sermon but to a congregation whose hearts were withered and dead, not having travelled from the road of the world of form, the physical, to the world of meaning, the moral world. I perceived

Story 13- The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I heard a king, who had changed might into day by pleasures, saying in his drunkenness: 'We have in the world no moment more delightful than this, Because I care neither for good nor for bad nor for anyone.' A naked dervish, who was sleeping

Story 9- The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

One of the devotees of Mount Lebanon, whose piety was famed in the Arab country and his miracles well known, entered the cathedral mosque of Damascus and was performing his purificatory ablution on the edge of a tank when his feet slipped and he fell

Story 23-the Rules for Conduct in Life- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Nothing is better for an ignorant man than silence, and if he were to consider it to be suitable, he would not be ignorant. If thou possessest not the perfection of excellence It is best to keep thy tongue within thy mouth. Disgrace is brought on

Story 8 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Hormuzd, being asked what fault the veziers of his father had committed that he imprisoned them, replied: 'I discovered no fault. I saw that boundless awe of me had taken root in their hearts but that they had no full confidence in my promises, wherefore

Story 24 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

King Zuzan had a khajah of noble sentiments and of good aspect who served his companions when they were present and spoke well of them when they were absent. He happened to do something whereby he incurred the displeasure of the king who inflicted a

Story 76-the Rules for Conduct in Life- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

The first sovereign who laid stress on costume and wore rings on his left hand was Jamshid; and being asked why he had adorned his left whereas excellence resides in the right hand, he replied: 'The right hand is fully ornamented by its own rectitude.' Feridun

Story 49-the Rules for Conduct in Life- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

An envious man is avaricious with the wealth of God and hates the guiltless as foes. I saw a crackbrained little man, Reviling a possessor of dignity, Who replied: 'O fellow, if thou art unlucky, What guilt is there in lucky men?' Forbear to

Story 36 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

There were two brothers: one of them in the service of the sultan and the other gaining his livelihood by the effort of his arm. The wealthy man once asked his destitute brother why he did not serve the sultan in order to be delivered from the hardship

Story 3-the Excellence of Contentment- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I heard that a dervish, burning in the fire of poverty and sewing patch upon patch, said to comfort his mind: 'We are contented with dry bread and a patched robe For it is easier to bear the load of one's own trouble than that of thanks to others.' Someone

Story 66-the Rules for Conduct in Life- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Whoever does not betake himself to the path of rectitude in consequence of the castigations of this world will fall under eternal punishment in the next. Allah the most high has said: And we will cause them to taste the nearer punishment of this world

Story 25 - The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

One of the sheikhs of Syria, being asked on the true state of the Sufis, replied: 'In former times they were a tribe in the world, apparently distressed, but in reality contented whereas today they are people outwardly satisfied but inwardly discontented.' If

Story 6-the Advantages of Silence- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Subhan Vail is considered to have had no equal in rhetorics because he had addressed an assembly during a year and had not repeated the same word but, when the same meaning happened to occur, he expressed it in another manner and this is one of the accomplishments

Story 23-the Excellence of Contentment- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I heard about a wealthy man who was as well known for his avarice as Hatim Tai for his liberality. Outwardly he displayed the appearance of wealth but inwardly his sordid nature was so dominant that he would not for his life give a morsel of bread to

Story 39 - The Morals of Dervishes - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

The son of a faqih said to his father: 'These heart-ravishing words of moralists make no impression upon me because I do not see that their actions are in conformity with their speeches.' They teach people to abandon the world But themselves accumulate

Story 31 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

The veziers of Nushirvan happened to discuss an important affair of state, each giving his opinion according to his knowledge. The king likewise gave his opinion and Barzachumihr concurred with it. Afterwards the veziers secretly asked him: 'What superiority

Story 27 - The Manners of Kings - gulistaan-e-sa.adii

A man had attained great excellence in the art of wrestling, who knew three hundred and sixty exquisite tricks and daily exhibited something new. He had a particular affection for the beauty of one of his pupils whom he taught three hundred and fifty-nine

Story 7-the Excellence of Contentment- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Two Khorasani dervishes travelled together. One of them, being weak, broke his fast every second night whilst the other who was strong consumed every day three meals. It happened that they were captured at the gate of a town on suspicion of being spies;

Story 35-the Rules for Conduct in Life- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

Be not astonished when a wise man ceases to speak in company of vile persons, since the melody of a harp cannot overcome the noise of a drum and the perfume of ambergris must succumb to the stench of rotten garlic. A blatant ignoramus proudly lifted

Story 1-the Advantages of Silence- gulistaan-e-sa.adii

I said to a friend that I have chosen rather to be silent than to speak because on most occasions good and bad words are scattered concurrently but enemies perceive only the latter. He replied: 'That enemy is the greatest who does not see any good.' The

Saadi Shirazi