The great sages taught their students through stories, parables and similes. Stories transcend time and space. They have an abiding quality. A child and a scholar can both relate to a good story and learn something from it. Stories that you hear as a child stay with you. Years later, in moments when you least expect it, the wisdom of an old story pops up into your consciousness with all its nascent appeal.
A learned Sheikh sat under a tree and was narrating the following story to a small group of his attentive students.
Harun ar Rashid (d 809 CE) was a great Caliph. His domains extended from China to Spain. From east to west, north to south, no monarch could boast a kingdom as opulent, as extant or as powerful as that of Harun. He was a patron of learning and the arts.
He invited scholars from far-away lands, from China, India and Greece to come to Baghdad and work at the House of Wisdom which his father had established. The fabled Arabian Nights celebrate the dazzling brilliance of his times. The emperors of China and France considered it an honor to send emissaries to the court of Harun and seek peace and trade relations with his vast empire.
