Who was Saint Jani?Jani and Ostad ElahiThe MemorialContact


Jani had a subtle sense of humor and a joy for life. She was so active and independent that in spite of her blindness and the many requests of her attentive circle of friends, she would not permit anyone to take charge of even the slightest detail of her daily life. Her quest for balance-"no excess, no deficiency"-manifested itself through an astounding discipline. A skilled musician, she played the setâr and tanbűr, instruments belonging to the lute family. As a form of prayer, she would often incorporate her poems into her music and sing praises of the Creator. Her thirst for knowledge was truly insatiable: she studied the holy books of the Abrahamic religions, etymology, and Arabic, which helped her to deepen her knowledge of the Koran. Until the end of her life, she continued to study mathematics, biology, law, history, and geography. Like her father and brother, she never showed any interest in politics, yet remained fully aware of the concerns and demands of her time and constantly stayed informed of current affairs and world events. Though she lived in a simple environment herself, Jani always sought to better the conditions of her fellow human beings. She shared most of her modest resources and provided daily meals to many villagers. From an intellectual, moral, and spiritual point of view, she never sought to impose her values—respect for the rights of others and compassion towards all human beings—upon others. While exacting of herself, she demonstrated tremendous patience towards others, gently awakening the desire to progress within them, sometimes waiting for more than twenty years to see her teachings bear fruit. Around 1965, she established informal weekly courses in response to those who sought to study her thought in greater depth. With common sense and simple yet sharp reasoning, Jani demonstrated the relationship between the theory of perfection and the application of its principles in daily life, explaining the necessity and usefulness of our daily trials and how we can best prepare for and handle them. With sincerity, she acknowledged her own mistakes and spoke simply of her spiritual experiences so that others could benefit from the lessons she had drawn.

On the question of the rights of women, which was one of the subjects of great interest to her, Jani used her wisdom and tolerance to patiently help people evolve in their thinking. In those days, the majority of women were deprived of education and customarily considered to be inferior. These inequalities were deeply ingrained in the mentalities of both men and women, and insulation from the rest of the world rendered any evolution improbable and highly delicate. In such a context, one can appreciate the difficulty Jani was confronted with. Nevertheless, this fragile, blind woman inspired the respect and devotion of all the men of her region. She was able to naturally lead them toward a more modern and just conception of the rights and duties human beings have towards one another, and encouraged them to become aware of the influence of prejudice and cultural determinism.

In the same spirit, when mothers came to seek Jani's advice, she encouraged them to treat their daughters exactly as they would their sons: to send them to school, to feed them well, etc. In doing so, she was able to gradually establish respect for equality between men and women (especially on the question of inheritance), both in her own village and region, and elsewhere among those who would consider her words. The authenticity of her faith, her intellectual liveliness, and her sense of progress were such that all those who were by her side were profoundly transformed.

Even after Jani left this world, the courses she had initiated in her village continued without interruption, supervised by those whom she had taught and who shared her vision of humanism. That "village of philosophers," as people of the region call it, currently has over three thousand residents. There are daily discussions on a variety of subjects such as the subtleties of human behavior, the importance of understanding the mechanism of divine justice, the correct use of free will, the expression of spiritual detachment, and the acquisition of virtues. Jani not only shed light on the scope and importance of the ethical and spiritual principles she inherited from her brother, but also put these principles to the test in a truly archaic environment, without altering or influencing her innovative spirit in the slightest; therein perhaps lies her genius and greatest miracle.


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