Legend of the Jasmine Flower

By Yassaman Emami.

It is a short and simple story, but a heavy one. It tells of a girl named Yasaman, who falls deeply in love with God. Her love is not quiet or passing; it is absolute, something that fills her entirely, leaving no space for doubt or hesitation. She carries this feeling within her until one day she decides that she can no longer keep it to herself. She goes to God to confess how she feels, believing that her love might be returned. But God tells her that he does not love her back.

The rejection is final, and there is no softness in it, no ambiguity she can hold on to. Faced with this, Yasaman cannot endure the weight of what she feels and what she has lost in the same moment. In her despair, she takes her own life. From her ashes, the jasmine flower grows.

The story says that this is why jasmine does not release its fragrance during the day. It remains quiet, almost holding something back, and only at night does its scent emerge — soft, but unmistakable. It is as if the flower carries her grief within it, choosing the darkness to reveal what it could not show in the light.