Hazrat
Shaikh Sadee(reh) writer of "Balagal Ulabe Kamalehi"
Dargah
shareef of Hazrat Sheikh Saadi Shirazi (RA)-Shiraz-Iran
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Abu Muslim
bin Abdallah Shirazi (rehmatullah alaih) (1184 1283/1291),
better known by his pen-name as Hazrat Shaikh Sadi (rehmatullah
alaih), was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period.
He is recognized not only for the quality of his writing, but
also for the depth of his social thoughts.
One of the
most famous rubaye writeen by him covering the wakiya of meraj
of our beloved prophet(sal lal laho tala laihi wasalm) is :
Balaghal-'ula
be-kamaal-e-hi, Kashafad-duja be-jamaal-e-hi, Hasunat jamee'u
khisaal-e-hi, Sallu 'alae-hi wa aal-e-hi ...
Mazar-e-Shareef
of Great Awliya Hazrat Sheikh Saadi Shiirazi (RA)
There is
a very intresting wakya behind this rubaye, when Shaikh Sadi
(rehmatullah alaih) wrote this rubaye he was not getting the
last line which would complete the rubaye and because of this
he was not satisfied and was worried, what is lacking, why i
am not abel to complete the last line and in these thaught he
slept, what Shaikh Sadi (rehmatullah alaih) saw was unbelivable,
He found himself at the bargah of our beloved prophet (sal lal
laho tala alaihi wasalam) surronded buy sahaba-e-karam (radiaAllah
anhu) our beloved prophet (sal lal laho tala alaihi wasalam)
asked Shaikh Sadi (rehmatullah alaih) waht happen why are u
worried what has disturb you, Hazrat Shaikh Sadi (rehmatullah
alaih) replied ya rasoll Allah(sal lal laho tala alaihi wasalam)
i have written a rubaye in your praise but i am not getting
the last line, beloved prophet (sal lal laho tala alaihi wasalam)
replied read it here what have u written,
Mazar-e-Mubarak
of Hazrat Sheikh Saadi (RA)-Shiraz-Iran
Hazrat
Shaikh Sadi (rehmatullah alaih) read the above lines
"Balaghal-'ula
be-kamaal-e-hi,
which means
sarkar-e-do alam (sal lal laho tala alaihi wasalm) went to meraj
buy the kamal of his own zaat-e-pak, it was not jibreel nor
the buraq which took him they were the protocall officer assinged
for the job.
Kashafad-duja
be-jamaal-e-hi,
Due to him
the darkness vanished and our sarkar-e-do alam (sal lal laho
tala alaihi wasalm) filled the entire universe with his noor(jamaal)
Hasunat
jamee'u khisaal-e-hi,
and got
stuck our beloved prophet(sal lal laho tala alaihi wasalm) then
completed the rubaye buy saying Sallu 'alae-hi wa aal-e-hi ...
and in this
manner this bueatifull rubaye got completed and Hazrat Shaikh
Sadi (rehmatullah alaih) was blessed by the ziyarat of our beloved
prophet(sal lal laho tala alaihi wasalm).
At
the Enterance of Dargah of Hazrat Sheikh Saadi (RA)
Biography
A native
of Shiraz, Iran, Sheikh Sa'adi left his native town at a young
age for Baghdad to study Arabic literature and Islamic sciences
at the famous an-Nizzamiya center of knowledge (1195-1226).
The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Iran
led him to wander abroad through Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, and
Iraq. He also refers in his work to travels in India and Central
Asia. Saadi is very much like Marco Polo who travelled in the
region from 1271 to 1294. There is a difference, however, between
the two. While Marco Polo gravitated to the potentates and the
good life, Saadi mingled with the ordinary survivors of the
Mongol holocaust. He sat in remote teahouses late into the night
and exchanged views with merchants, farmers, preachers, wayfarers,
thieves, and Sufi mendicants. For twenty years or more, he continued
the same schedule of preaching, advising, learning, honing his
sermons, and polishing them into gems illuminating the wisdom
and foibles of his people.
When he
reappeared in his native Shiraz he was an elderly man. Shiraz,
under Atabak Abubakr Sa'd ibn Zangy (1231-60) was enjoying an
era of relative tranquility. Saadi was not only welcomed to
the city but was respected highly by the ruler and enumerated
among the greats of the province. In response, Saadi took his
nom de plume from the name of the local prince, Sa'd ibn Zangi,
and composed some of his most delightful panegyrics as an initial
gesture of gratitude in praise of the ruling house and placed
them at the beginning of his Bustan. He seems to have spent
the rest of his life in Shiraz.
Inside
the Dargah Shareef Walls of Hazrat Sheikh Saadi (RA)
His works:
The first
page of Bostan, in a manuscript that may have been produced
in India during the 17th century. The page provides a praise
of God; the first two lines read: "In the name of the Lord,
Life-Creating, / The Wise One, Speech-Creating with the Tongue,
/ The Lord, the Giver, the Hand-Seizing, / Merciful, Sin-Forgiving,
Excuse-Accepting."
His best
known works are Bustan ("The Orchard") completed in
1257 and Gulistan ("The Rose Garden") in 1258. Bustan
is entirely in verse (epic metre) and consists of stories aptly
illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice,
liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections
on the behaviour of dervishes and their ecstatic practices.
Gulistan is mainly in prose and contains stories and personal
anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a variety of short
poems, containing aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections.
Saadi demonstrates a profound awareness of the absurdity of
human existence. The fate of those who depend on the changeable
moods of kings is contrasted with the freedom of the dervishes.
For Western
students, Bustan and Gulistan have a special attraction; but
Saadi is also remembered as a great panegyrist and lyricist,
the author of a number of masterly general odes portraying human
experience, and also of particular odes such as the lament on
the fall of Baghdad after the Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics
are to be found in Ghazaliyat ("Lyrics") and his odes
in Qasa'id ("Odes"). He is also known for a number
of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human kindness and
cynicism, humour, and resignation displayed in Saadi's works,
together with a tendency to avoid the hard dilemma, make him,
to many, the most typical and loveable writer in the world of
Iranian culture.
Alexander
Pushkin, one of Russia's most celebrated poets, quotes Saadi
in his masterpiece Eugene Onegin [1]:
as Saadi
sang in earlier ages,
"some are far distant, some are dead".
Saadi distinguished
between the spiritual and the practical or mundane aspects of
life. In his Bustan, for example, spiritual Saadi uses the mundane
world as a spring board to propel himself beyond the earthly
realms. The Images in Bustan are delicate in nature and soothing.
In the Gulistan, on the other hand, mundane Saadi lowers the
spiritual to touch the heart of his fellow wayfarers. Here the
Images are graphic and, thanks to Saadi's dexterity, remain
concrete in the reader's mind. Realistically, too, there is
a ring of truth in the division. The Sheikh preaching in the
Khanqah experiences a totally different world than the merchant
passing through a town. The unique thing about Saadi is that
he embodies both the Sufi Sheikh and the travelling merchant.
They are, as he himself puts it, two almond kernels in the same
shell.
Saadi's
prose style, described as "simple but impossible to imitate"
flows quite naturally and effortlessly. Its simplicity, however,
is grounded in a semantic web consisting of synonymy, homophony,
and oxymoron buttressed by internal rhythm and external rhyme
something that Dr. Iraj Bashiri quite skillfully captures in
his translation of the Prologue of the work:
"In
the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Laudation
is due the most High, the most Glorious, Whose worship bridges
the Gap and Whose recognition breeds beneficence. Each breath
inhaled sustains life, exhaled imparts rejuvenation. Two blessings
in every breath, each due a separate salutation.
Whose hand
properly offers and whose tongue,
The salutation due Him, and not be wrong?
Says He:
"Ingratiate yourself, O family of David,
Unlike the unthankful, that I thee bid!"
Subjects
proper, best admit to all transgression,
At His threshold, with contrite expression;
How otherwise could mortal creatures ever,
Make themselves worthy of His discretion?
The shower
of His merciful bounty gratifies all, and His banquet of limitless
generosity recognizes no fall. The inner secrets of His subjects,
He does not divulge, nor does He, for a rogue's slight frailty,
in injustice indulge.
O generosity
personified!
To the Christian and the Magi,
You bestow with pleasure,
From Your invisible treasure.
O ardent
benefactor!
You will lift Your friends high,
There is solid proof of that,
Not abandoning enemies to die!
He has
ordered the zephyr to cover, with the emerald carpet of spring,
the earth; and He has instructed the maternal vernal clouds
to nourish the seeds of autumn to birth. In foliage green, He
has clothed the trees, and through beautiful blossoms of many
hues, has perfumed the breeze. He has allowed the life-imparting
sap to percolate and its delicious honey to circulate. His power
is hidden in the tiny seed that sires the lofty palm.
The clouds,
the wind, the moon, and the sun,
For your comfort, and at your behest, run;
They toil continuously for your satisfaction,
Should not you halt, monitor your action?"
Saadi's mausoleum in Shiraz
Tomb of Saadi in his mausoleum
Chief among
these works is Goethe's West-Oestlicher Divan. Andre du Ryer
was the first European to present Saadi to the West, by means
of a partial French translation of Gulistan in 1634. Adam Olearius
followed soon with a complete translation of the Bustan and
the Gulistan into German in 1654.
Ralph Waldo
Emerson was also an avid fan of Sadi's writings, contributing
to some translated editions himself. Emerson, who read Saadi
only in translation, compared his writing to the Bible in terms
of its wisdom and the beauty of its narrative.[2]
Saadi is
well known for his aphorisms, the most famous of which adorns
the entrance to the Hall of Nations of the UN building in New
York with this call for breaking all barriers: [3][4]
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.
The Unconcern'd with Others' Plight,
Are but Brutes with Human Face.
More
about Saadi:
In his reference
article entitled as Moments with Poet Saadai, Dr Saadat Noury
wrote that, "Saadi died in his hometown of Shiraz. Even
from the very early days after the poet's death, the tomb of
Saadi in Shiraz became a place of pilgrimage to lovers of poetry
and literature. The tomb was firstly renovated during Karim
Khan Zand (1750-1779), and it was then greatly elaborated in
1952 during Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1941-1979). "The
tomb of Saadi of Shiraz will scent of love, even a thousand
years after his death". That line of poetry composed by
Saadi, inscribed on the gate leading into the garden surrounding
the tomb, welcomes all those who enter to pay homage to this
master of the Persian Poetry and Literature".
[edit] Obama and Saadi
U.S. President
Barack Obama quoted Saadi's Gulistan in a videotaped Nowruz
(New Year's) greeting to the Iranian people in March 2009: "There
are those who insist that we be defined by our differences.
But let us remember the words that were written by the poet
Saadi, so many years ago: 'The children of Adam are limbs to
each other, having been created of one essence.'"[6]
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