Two Almond Kernels in the Same Shell: The Shaykh & the Travelling Merchant

Of one Essence is the human race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base;
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace.

Poetry of Shaykh Saadi Shirazi at the entrance of Hall of Nations, New York

From a family of scholars,  Shaykh Saadi Shirazi (1184 – 1283) lost his father (Mushrraf bin Muslih) at an early age and was educated by his maternal grandfather (Mas’ud bin Muslih). At fourteen years old, he was sent to Baghdad to study in the prestigious university, the Nizamiyya of Baghdad, where he acquired the traditional learning of Islam.

        
In 1226, the unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Persia led Shaykh Saadi to embark on a world tour covering a vast region from North Africa through the entire Middle East to India. He narrates stories of his visits to many important cities of the East, including Mecca, where he made pilgrimage several times. 

After thirty years of traveling, in 1256, Saadi returned to his hometown Shiraz, where Atabek Abibakr bin Saad was then the ruler. Saadi was welcomed by the court, but decided to live in the prestigious monastery of the Sufi master Abu Abdullah bin Khafif (882-992).

Today his tomb soon is a popular site for pilgrimage. His tomb was renovated in the eighteenth century when Karim Khan Zand was the Persian king in Shiraz, and most recently in 1951. 

His best known works are the Bostan (The Orchard) and the Golestan (The Rose Garden).  In his books, Saadi affectionately refers to two of his teachers: The Sufi master Shihab al-Din Abu Hafs Suhrawardi (died in 1234) and Shams al-Din Abul Faraj bin al-Jowzi. 

In his books, Saadi distinguished between the spiritual and the practical or mundane aspects of life. In the Golestan,  mundane Saadi lowers the spiritual to touch the heart of his fellow wayfarers. The Shaykh preaching in the Khaniqah experiences a totally different world than the merchant passing through a town. The unique thing about Saadi is that he embodies both the Sufi Shaykh and the traveling merchant. They are, as he himself puts it, two almond kernels in the same shell.

Read more: 

http://www.tebyan.net/index.aspx?pid=27020, 

http://www.worldandi.com/subscribers/feature_detail.asp?num=26802

A Sharp-Toothed Wolf May Become Audacious

Shaykh Saadi Shirazi (1184-1283)

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.' 

-                   

Who sold abstinence, knowledge and piety 

Filled a granary but burnt it clean away.  

-                   

Severity and mildness together are best 

Like a bleeder who is a surgeon and also applies a salve. 

A wise man uses neither severity to excess 

Nor mildness; for it lessens his authority. 

He neither exalts himself too much 

Nor exposes himself at once to contempt. 

-                        

A youth said to his father: 'O wise man, 

Give me for instruction one advice like an aged person.' 

He said: 'Be kind but not to such a degree 

That a sharp-toothed wolf may become audacious.'  

http://classics.mit.edu/Sadi/gulistan.9.viii.html