The Selfless Host in Jami's Baharestan

In this section of the Baharestan, Jami relays one Sufi's description of another, praising him as a setter of the table (سفره آرا) rather than a keeper of the table (سفره دار). The ideal host arranges the feast for others yet refuses to regard himself as its owner or master (ملیک سفره). Instead he counts himself merely a sharer of the table, equal to all who eat — indeed reckoning himself their dependent or guest (طفیلی) at his own banquet.

Key point

True generosity (a hallmark of Sufi futuwwa, chivalric self-giving) is stripped of ego and proprietorship. The one who gives effaces any sense of superiority over those he serves, becoming spiritually the least among his guests. This inverts the ordinary relation of patron and beneficiary and models humility as the inner condition of authentic hospitality.