Overview

In Section 142 of Jami's Haft Awrang, Jami presents an allegory involving a gypsy father and his son discussing wheat bread.

The Narrative and Allegory

• The Dialogue: The father praises wheat bread as the finest food, but when his son asks if he has ever tasted it, the father admits he has not. Instead, he claims his grandfather once saw someone near the city who was eating it.
• The Symbolism of Wheat Bread: Wheat bread represents ultimate truth, divine grace, or spiritual realization.
• Hearsay and Spiritual Distance: The dialogue highlights how people often praise or claim knowledge of spiritual heights or truths that they have never personally experienced. They rely on multi-generational hearsay or secondary imitation, illustrating the vast distance between genuine direct experience and mere intellectual or traditional transmission.