To enjoy.. is what the Rubaiyat teaches us.
Spend, drink, and get married! Do what you want to do! After all, everybody dies at one point of their lives.
But SHOULD we accept this idea of the Rubaiyat? Honestly, you, as a person living busily in a complex world, cannot deny your mind wavering. At the first time you hear the idea of the Rubaiyat, without any explanations but just by experiences and common sense, you automatically know that the idea is quite out of the question. But on the other hand you perhaps felt attracted. Why is that so? It's because the idea of the Rubaiyat has similar qualities with what we call "paradise" which everybody dreams of. Who wouldn't be attracted if there's a place with no school, no work, and no worries about rules but only pleasure, relaxation, and amenities? But before you dream about paradise, there's something you should have in mind.
Bean curd person of high skill
A person - Yasmin
Early 20th century printing of The Rubaiyat of Oma...The definition of "freedom." Although the dictionary might not say the exact same words, as a person living in a society, you understand that "freedom comes from obedience." Then let's think of some examples that would help pulling you back to reality from dreams of nonsense.
Let's take an example from a person who got addicted to drugs. It might not sound like an appropriate example since you may think that the person would hardly do any harm to the society. But there sure would be an awful lot of harm that will come back to the person. The person will take drugs again and again to maintain his life, and there it is, another dropout!! Family, as you know, is the smallest unit of a society. What will happen if all your family members would do what they want to do? Your mother and father would be too busy to care about you and your little brother because theyáïd choose to enjoy rather than to work and earn money for you. However, you and your brother would be smoking, drinking, and trying almost everything that is prohibited. When your family members and you use up all the money, what do you think you are going to do? Live in great poverty? No, youáïd get money in an illegal way. That is the point where it gets connected to a larger society AND harms the larger society.
Another example would be very easy to understand if you just use your common sense. What if farmers (or any specific name of a job) donáït farm (or any work that a person does)? Would it be easy to get food unless you produce your own? No. Would it be easy to get something to cover your body unless you use basic things like Adam and Eve did? No. Think about it for a while because it is impossible for me to write all the problems down since tons of them would occur. Donáït you think the idea of the Rubaiyat is something that weakens (or breaks) the supporting pillars of a nation? It IS a nice idea to enjoy, but don't you think at least a little bit of responsibility has to be included? There are responsibilities for adults to look over themselves, responsibilities for parents to take care of their family, responsibilities for workers to do their work. Since then a society functions and people get their rights to enjoy. Freedom will be guaranteed to you when you agree to obey the rules.
Spread from an early 20th century printing of The ...
Front cover of 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' translat...
English: This is a quatrain illustration by Edmund...