Quote by Saadi Shirazi: “Whoever is indifferent to the pain of others is not worthy to be called human.”

Empathy is not optional — it is what defines us as human beings. If you can witness another person's suffering and feel nothing, you have cut yourself off from something essential about what it means to be part of humanity.

The Gulistan was written during a period of mass displacement and suffering following the Mongol invasions of Persia. Saadi himself had travelled widely and witnessed poverty, slavery, and war across the Islamic world, which gave his moral teaching a grounded urgency.

Persian poet and prose writer born around 1210 in Shiraz, one of the most widely read Persian authors in history. His works Gulistan (Rose Garden) and Bustan (Orchard) blend moral wisdom, Sufi spirituality, and sharp observation of human behaviour.