Layla and Majnoon

Nizami Kunjehei was one of the poets of the late 6th and early 7th century (hijri). He's one of the most famous poets of stories/poems read at parties and gatherings in Iran. He is famous for 5 books:
1. Makhzanul Asrar
2. Khusru and Shireen
3. Layli and Majnoon (they call her Layli in Farsi, Layla in Arabic)
4. Haft Paykar
5. Iskander Nameh (lifestory of Alexander the Great)

Layli and Majnoon is a Romeo and Juliet-type story.

Layli and Majnoon (not his real name, means madman) lived in the same village. They loved each other a lot, but when her father found out, he married her off to someone else in a village far away.

Majnoon was so caught up in the love of Layli and so depressed at her loss, that he used to wander the deserts and mountains. His father, seeing Majnoon's grief, was very upset and tried to research ways of removing Majnoon's grief and freeing him from the 'pain' of the love of Layli.

Majnoon's father tried to advise his son to help him overcome his grief at the loss of Layli, but the fire of the love of Layli was too strong and all the fatherly advise was forgotten.

Majnoon's father sought the counsel of his relatives who advised him to take Majnoon to Makkah and that perhaps the association with Allah will lessen his grief. But when they got to Makkah, all Majnoon prayed for was for Allah to take some years of his life and give them to Layli (i.e. prayed for her long life) and no other prayers!

When the father heard this prayer of Majnoon, he understood that the pain of the love of Layli has no cure.

Basically at the end of the story, Layli dies in childbirth. Majnoon travels to visit her grave and cries so much there that he dies too.

You have no idea how surprised I was to be studying a love story in the religious city of Qum!!