The Greatest Title - Portal Gems #20

Est. Read time: 6 min
Edition Number: 20
Adapted from: The Garden Of Wisdom: Reflections From Sa’di’s ‘Gulistan’
Instructor: Ustadh Feraidoon Mojadedi

Assalamu Alaykum,

Today we’re going through a gem from Ustadh Feraidoon Mojadedi’s Course on Sadi’s Gulistan. Ustadh Feraidoon walks us through Sa’di’s masterpiece on what it means to be a human being.

Hope you enjoy!

We begin in the Name of Allah ﷻ, the Most Merciful and Compassionate,
We ask that He ﷻ sends Peace and Blessings upon our noble and beloved
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

What is a human being?

Sa’di has a poem that is actually in the United Nations, there's a giant carpet that was gifted from the Persians to the United Nations. The carpet is hanging there and next to it is this poem in English - written as the model of what it means to be human being.

This is one of the masterpieces of Sa’di Sherazi.

بنى‌آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.

He says humanity is like one body. Imagine all human beings as being one single human. All of us are like one human because in the creation our essence is the same.

Whether you're black, you're white, whatever you are doesn't matter. We're all the same, the essence is one. Nobody has a different Ruh (soul).

All of the souls came from the same source

Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

We might be different in the color of our skin, or height, our hair, these are not our essence - our essence is all one.

چو عضوى به درد آورَد روزگار
دگر عضوها را نمانَد قرار

If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.

If you’re a human being, you should feel the pain of other people.

Some people can do things to help the suffering of others, they can donate, they can help in other ways, at the very least you should be making dua.

If one part is in pain, then every part of this body should feel it.

تو کز محنت دیگران بی‌غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

If you've no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain!

He says, oh you who are free from the pain and suffering of other people, you don't deserve this beautiful title called the human being.

Bani Adam is a title - and this is the greatest title a human can achieve.

This is what Mullah Jami refers to in a poem where he mentions the story of a father and son. The son has no adab (etiquette) with his father, but he becomes the ruler of a city.

The son wants to humiliate his father, so he says:

“Father, you used to tell me that I'm not even a human, but look at me now I'm the ruler of the city.

Look at my house.

Look at my servants.

Look at my education.

The entire city is lined up and ready for my command.”

The father looks at his son and says:

“I never told you you won't be a ruler, oh my beloved son, I said you won't become a human.”

Even this situation, him calling upon his father to dishonor him, is an example of the son not being a human. And that’s the essence that he’s trying to teach here.

So what does it mean to be a human being?

If you're free from the pain and suffering of other people, you don't deserve the title of human being because that title does not come free. It comes with that verse that we have made you as a Khalifa on this Earth:

Being a khalifa means that you'll be taking care of each other, you'll be taking care of the animals, you'll be taking care of the Earth, you'll be taking care of your own body, your own self, this is the definition of a human being.

May Allah grant us tawfiq to live up to the title of human being.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم، فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرحيم

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