Shaykh Sa’di of Shiraz: Persian poet and Sufi Master

didn`t read thewhole thing yet. but can`t wait to do so. this seems to be refreshing.

Asif,

The is an excellent effort, very well written and very informative.

Congratulations to chowk on upgrading the website. The design is awesome, easily beats tehelka, sulekha and other such websites. Your news feed is excellent.... must have cost you a fortune....:0) You need to put more articles on the main page though.

Its not just the new look, the `new` content is also appealing. I don`t remember seeing articles such as the ones you have on the front page now... OIC, ISNA and Sheikh Saadi published simultaneously on chowk.com. I hope chowk.com will be able to attract better interactors now, it becomes tiring to read the same hate-mongers posting the same hate-filled garbage over and over again.

Every link clicked on chowk leads to `Pakistan bad`, `Islam bad`, `Muslims reatrded`, `TNT failed`, `Ummah disease`, `condomistan`, `pukistan`, `camel jockeys`, `kill muslims and dump them with nuclear waste`. Even VHP`s and Rush Limbaugh`s websites don`t have as much hate as chowk.com did. To chowk`s credit(?), it allowed counter hate as well, but that just degrades the website overall and drives away serious interactors.

Haroon Mughal and Naeem Randhawa are good additions to chowk.
Hopefully the better quality content will drive away our usual gang of hate mongers, sadna, harimau, shammi, sameerjb, nasah, prem et.al. to vhp.org, where they really belong.

Cheers to the new chowk.

re: ali_1 # 2

Welcome to Chowk :)

asif: What does ur training as a sufi include?

Shaykh Sa’dî Shirâzi`s name invokes reverence among many people of different faiths. That is not surprising since sufis bridged interfaith chasms, and embraced the whole of mankind in their love.

There is, however, a MASSIVE disconnect here, but out of respect for the memory of the great Shaykh, I won`t highlight that disconnect.

So, brother Asif, it is good to know that you too respect Shaykh Sa’dî Shirâzi`.

Prem,
OK... I`ll bite... Please tell us what the incongruence is. Out of respect, (blah blah :)) maybe u can point it out on the asma jehangir board?

Ali____1: How come one is running away from you? hehe
My total replies are 1206, nasah replies are 1000. Total = 2006
Ali1=815, YLH=4400, tahmed321=3900, krashid=3500. Total=12615
This is a sample of Pakistanis replies at chowk. I guess you scrolled 12615 replies and read only 2000 or so to conclude something in post #2.
I thought among Persian Sufis, Rumi is more popular than Shirazi. Oh well, no comparison with Panjabi Sufi, Shah Hussain of Lahore.
Maaye nee maiN kinnuN aakhaN, dard wicchorey da hall

re: PM # 7

Sure, Sir. Will do so :)

Asif

You have written on a personality who is and who has been an insipiration for so many people for the centuries. Two of his books Gulistan and Boo`stan have been a part of curriculum throughout Muslim world and have been translated in various languages.

Here is what Dr. Parveen Shaukat writes in her book ``Human Rights in Islam``, she says ``There is a vast body of knowledge in Islam which is found in what scholars have often called ``wisdom literature``. Books belonging to this category were generally written by scholar statesmen of the Muslim kingdom and were generally meant to be guides or manuals for rulers so that they could find hguidlines in implementing the laws of Shari`a. They lacked the aura of true scholarship in a sense, that large portions in them were anecdotal in character``...............``the range of topics discussed in them is very wide. ``Justice, probity, duties, and responsibilities of kingship, public morality, princely manners, state craft, religious sects, political factions, dynastic squables, administrative failure, social foibles, economic problems, and military are all fit subjects for such works``. (end quote).

Sa`adi and Rumi are at the fore front of those writers who produced that ``wisdom literature``. They use fables, anecdotes, parables, tales, and poems to deliver their message of ethics and morality.

It is said about Sa`adi that when he was about 30 years of age he prayed to God that he wants the rest of his life to be divided in three parts. In the first part of his life he wants to travel and gather knowledge, in the second part of his life he wants to learn knowledge through books and teachers and write what he had gathered and in the last part of his life he wants to worship God. It is said that God accepted his prayers and he lived for 90 more years and spent 30 years each on travelling, gathering knowledge, and then worshiping Allah in the last part of his life.

Asif:

I must say that you have not done justice with this personality in your article. It is extremely incoherent even for the people who know Sa`adi. I don`t know about the couplet that you have written in your article but the following four lines must have earned him a place in heaven. God bless him.

Balaghal ‘ula bi kamalihi
Kashafadujja bi jamalihi
Hasanat jami’u hisalihi
Sallu ‘alayhi wa Aalihi

Personally (and I don`t know why) I still prefer the translations
fom Hafiz. But that does not take much away from Saadi`s greatness
as a poet.
Since I do not understand Persian, maybe someone who does can
give further insights here.

Ras

errrmmm....a teensy weensy bit boring perhaps??? i was lost after reading the first few lines...

rgds,

Samina

Urstruly--If you could be more specific in your criticisms I`d be appreciative :-) No doubt Hazrat Sa`di was a great wali. Actually this article was originally a piece of coursework for a Medieval Persian Lit. course I was doing and the aim was really to look at the place of Sa`di in Persian lit.

The other biographical data I added out of my own interest. The biographical sketch in the beginning is by Hazrat Jami--translated by me as stated in the footnotes.

***
Samina--sorry you found it boring. Perhaps if you had read further you might have enjoyed it more!!

***

Ras--Hafiz is the greatest ghazal writer of Persian mystical literature--though the ghazals of Sa`di are structurally more perfect. Both were Sufis and awliya--thwe `translations` of Hafiz (and Rumi) by Daniel Ladinsky and other modern translators are a travesty to the original. If you want accurate English translations of the Persian then the older translations by Arberry, Nicholson and Gurtrude Bell are excellent.

***

Asif

Please contact me at:

naalaique@netscape.net

I would just like to add that Sayyidina Sheikh Sa`adi is amongst the greatest of ethical teachers which the Islamic civilisation, nay ANY civilisation, has produced. His works were standard texts for all educated Muslims in the Indo-Persian world up to the middle of the 20th century; even now I think his works are taught as standard introductory texts for Farsi in Madrassahs where the Dars Nizamiyyah is taught. allahu alam.

One of my favourites from the ``Gulistan`` of Sheikh Saadi:-

``I dreamed of a pair of shoes untill i saw the man wiht no feet``