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The next day, when the king returned to his palace, he thought of his associate. An officer went to summon the child. The king made him sit beside him upon his throne, in his capacity as associate. “Sire,” they said to him, “this child is a beggar.” — “No matter,” replied the king, “he is my associate. Since we have formed a partnership together, I cannot reject him.” Indeed, the king treated him as his equal. At this point, someone asked the child: “How did you acquire such a degree of honour?” He replied: “Joy came to me and my sorrow passed, because a fortunate monarch encountered me.”
Source Mantic uttaïr, The Birds’ Excuses, or the First Bird’s Speech, §5 · 📖 Read the full passage
✨ To meditate on today
According to Attar, the Persian Sufi poet, King Mahmud had gone fishing the day before with a poor orphan; the next day he seats him beside him on his throne and treats him as an equal, because they are “partners”: in the same way, says the hoopoe, all the happiness of a soul comes from the gaze the King — God — rests upon it. Today, treat as an equal someone others look down on: sit with them, share with them or truly listen to them.
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