A Comparative Study of the Culture of Contentment in the Holy Quran and in Saadi's Bustan and Gulistan

The Holy Quran, as the most supreme manifestation of Islamic culture, introduces the pure and immaculate life as the fruit of contentment and regards the movement towards the contentment as the path to self-esteem. Comprising a large number of religious hadiths on contentment and the deep appreciation of Saadi, as a moralist poet of Persian literature of this matter, made him to dedicate one chapter of Bustan and one chapter of Gulistan to this topic. Analyzing the contentment function in these two masterpieces of Saadi indicate that the pervasiveness of the valuable results of contentment directly influences soul health and human salvation. The present study interdisciplinarily discussed the importance of contentment in the Holy Quran and in Saadi's Bustan and Gulistan and being inspired by the book of Divine Revelation in expanding Islamic culture, it aims at examining the effect of Islamic culture on Saadi, explicating some instructive tales from Bustan and Gulistan and highlighting the moral values of contentment. The methodology of this research is fundamental-citation and it is based on religious and educational data. The findings show that Saadi, in creating his two masterpieces, was strongly influenced by Islamic culture and through direct influence form Quranic ayas and narrations, has extolled contentment as a virtue.