I enjoyed it! congratulations! You make a very important point about our epic stories and their relevance to our daily life. That is indeed the case if one taps into the true meaning of the story. This is what I got out of the story.
Saum is at the hight of power and popularity. He has a beautiful wife. He is strong, courageous, loyal, handsome in short, he is everything a man wishes to be! The king, the court, the power, are all symbols of the best this world can offer. But Saum has only excelled in the worldly dimensions. He does not have any foresight about the world beyond, and meaning of the events happening to him. He can only comprehend and accept the conventional wisdom(aghl) God throws an unconventional gift at him. This gift is something he does not recognize! Because it is very different than his expectation. The boy
(Zahl) is old looking, symbolizing divine wisdom before it's time! as he is only a baby. Saum is entangled in his ego, so he does not value the gift. So he rejects it in outrage. God, takes the gift back and preserves him, until Saum becomes ready, he gets the needed signals. Finally, he will seek the gift and endures much hardship to regain what he had all along at some point. When he finally get it, appreciation comes with understanding. Later Zahl produces Rostam, the beloved hero which combines the earthly and divine powers. So the moral of the story is that what have all these potentials within us. And sometimes out of nowhere, they surface, but we reject the precious opportunity out of ignorance and conformity. In fact
" The things in our lives which make a difference are indeed different!"
Dr. Sadri Khalessi, Stanford University, Ca.
ype your paragraph here.