Dogs

Sue, 

Bahman says that dogs are unclean in Islam.  I really don't know where this verdict has sprung from.  I remember, however, a story from one of the most famous books in our mystical literature.  One day Junaid who is one of our greatest mystics was passing by when he saw a shaggy, hungry dog whose teeth had been broken.  Junaid stopped by the poor dog and began to give him his own food. All the while, he shed tears, caressed the dog and said, "who knows which of us is really better? A dog's name may be ugly, but no dog is destined to go to hell after death. I however am walking on a tight rope tied and stretched over hell and heaven. If I do not slip I will put the crown of God's forgiveness on my head one day, but if I slip and fall into the hell I am many times worse than this dog."

You once said that you did not know Saadi very well.  This is one of the stories I read in Saadi's Boostan.  Golistan is in prose.  Boostan is in verse.

T