Attar

Farid al-Din 'Attar

Greatest Sufi poet, Farid al-Din 'Attar was born in Nishapur, in northeastern Iran, in 1142. He was beheaded by the invading Mongol army in 1221. His tomb at Shadyakh is visited by many.

There is little information on the formative life of the poet other than he was the son of a prosperous pharmacist and that he received an excellent education in medicine, Arabic, and theosophy at a madrasah attached to the shrine of Imam Reza at Mashhad. According to his own ‘Book of Afflictions’ (Mosibat Nameh), as a youth, he worked in his father's pharmacy where he prepared drugs and attended patients. Upon his father's death, he became the owner of his own store.

Work in the pharmacy was difficult for young 'Attar. People from all walks of life visited the shop and shared their troubles with him. Their poverty, it seems, impacted the young poet the most. One day, it is related, an unsightly fakir visited the shop. The way he marveled at the opulence of the store made 'Attar uneasy; he ordered the fakir to leave. Looking the owner and the well-stocked shop over, the fakir said, "I have no difficulty with this, pointing to his ragged cloak, to leave; but you, how are you, with all this, planning to leave!"

The fakir's response affected 'Attar deeply. He pondered the fakir's reply for many days and, eventually, decided to give up his shop and join the circle of Shaykh Rukn al-Din Akkaf of the Kubraviyyah order. His new life was one of travel and exploration, very much like the fakir who had inspired him. For a long time, he traveled to Ray, Kufa, Mecca, Damascus, Turkistan, and India, meeting with Sufi shaykhs, learning about the tariqah, and experiencing life in the khaniqahs.

When finally he felt he had achieved what he had been seeking in travel, 'Attar returned to Nishapur, settled, and reopened his pharmacy. He also began to contribute to the promotion of Sufi thought. Called Tadhkirat al-Auliya (Memorial of the Saints), 'Attar's initial contribution to his new world contains all the verses and sayings of Sufi saints who, up to that time, had not penned a biography of their own.

'Attar's works fall within three categories. First are those works in which mysticism is in perfect balance with a finished, story-teller's art. The second group are those in which a pantheistic zeal gains the upper hand over literary interest. The third are those in which the aging poet idolizes the saint Ali. During this period there is no trace of ordered thoughts and descriptive skills.

One of 'Attar's major poetic works is called ‘Book of Secrets’ (Asrar Nameh ) about Sufi ideas. This is the work that the aged Shaykh gave Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi when Rumi's family stayed over at Nishapur on its way to Konya, Turkey. Another major contribution of 'Attar is the  ‘Divine Book’ (Elahi Nameh) , about asceticism. (zuhd)

But foremost among 'Attar's works is his ‘Conference of the Birds’ (Manteq al-Tayr) in which he makes extensive use of Al-Ghazali's Risala on Birds as well as a treatise by the ‘The Brothers of Serenity’ (Ikhvan al-Safa) on the same topic.

The Conference of the Birds

(An Extract…….)

“The home we seek is in eternity;
The Truth we seek is like a shoreless sea,
Of which your paradise is but a drop.
This ocean can be yours; why should you stop
Beguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?
The secrets of the sun are yours, but you
Content yourself with motes trapped in its beams.

Turn to what truly lives, reject what seems --
Which matters more, the body or the soul?

(Object dropped into the ocean will lose its specific existence and will participate in the ocean and in its movement. In ceasing to exist separately it retains its beauty. It exists and non-exists. How can this be? The mind cannot conceive it.")

 

'Attar's Seven Valleys of Love

 

Sufi anecdotes from Fariduddin Attar’s book Tajkerat al-Awliya

Shaikh Fariduddin Attar was a mystic Sufi poet of Iran.  Born in Nishapur, he was initiated into the Sufi lore by Sheikh Mujd-ud-din  of Baghdad.  When he was about forty-five years old, he “saw” the future greatness of a teenage boy Jalaluddin Rumi  who had come to meet him.  He blessed Rumi and presented him with a copy of his work, the Pandnama.  Attar was executed by a soldier after Genghis Khan invaded Persia.  During his lifetime, he wrote over 114 books on Sufism, the most reputed of which is the ‘Memoirs of the Saints of Iran, Egypt and  Arabia’ (Tajkerat al-Awliya) which documents the lives of about one hundred and forty-two Sufi saints of his era.

Value of good company

Shaikh Bu Ali Diqaq was asked, “Will it profit us merely to bear the discourses of saints without acting upon them?” He replied, “Yes, by merely hearing, the desire to meet God automatically develops in a devotee, and consequently egoism and pride leave him and he becomes cloaked in humility”

(In Hinduism, this is called Satsang.)

Dealing with the fair sex

A beautiful young woman was running one day along the street with her head uncovered, and was complaining about her husband in harsh terms. I told her to cover her head and face. She said, “The love of my husband has made me lose my senses so much that I am not conscious of my body and of my surroundings.  If you had not told me that my head and face were uncovered, I would have never known it. I would have walked like that in the street. However, it is a matter of surprise, O Hasan, that you pretend to be a lover of God, and yet are conscious of everything which crosses your way and retain your senses. What is this love of God like in you? ”

In this mystery that floats in endless space.
God set the earth on the back of a bull,
The bull on a fish dancing on a spool
Of silver light so fine it is like air;
That in turn rests on nothing there
But nothing that nothing can share.
All things are but masks at God's beck and call,
They are symbols that instruct us that God is all.” 

 Stages in spiritual progress

Hadrat Abul Hasan Khirqani said, “There are three final states in spirituality.   In the first, you consider yourself just as God considers you. In the second state, you become His and He becomes yours. In the third state, you cease to exist and He alone fills thee.

Significance of holy places

One day Abu Bakr Shibli was seen rushing with a burning splinter through the streets. People asked him the reason for carrying it.   He replied, “I am going to set fire to the House of God-Kaaba..”  Next day he was going the same way and, on being asked the reason, said, “I am going to set fire to Paradise that people may not love God for the lure of it.”

 (from the life of Abu Qasim Nasrabadi): Such was the state of God-intoxication of Nasrabadi that one day in his ecstasy be went to the temple of fire-worshippers (i.e. Zoroastrians) and began to circumambulate it.  The Muslims objected to such heresy. He replied, ”I sought Him in Kaaba but found Him not there. I now seek Him here, in the hope that I might find Him here.” Annoyed by that the Muslims turned him out of Naishapur.

Nasrabadi one day saw some pilgrims talking amongst themselves as they were circumambulating the Kaaba.  He started collecting some fuel. People asked him what he meant to do. He replied, “I am going to put Kaaba to fire that thenceforward people might seek God direct, and not through anybody’s mediation.”

Contradictions in utterances

They asked Shibli how it was that at one time he  said one thing and at another time just the opposite of it. He replied, “Sometimes I am myself,  (ba-khud) and sometimes I am besides myself (be-khud).”

This recalls to mind a remark made by the Mother : “In order to understand and follow Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, one must learn to rise above all possibility of contradiction. That is, to reach the region where contradictions no longer exist. That’s true. You understand, if you take quotations from Sri Aurobindo on a particular subject, you can put side by side things that are the very opposite of each other: he says one thing, then its opposite, then again something different. (Mother’s Agenda, June 7 1967)

Prayer not needed after Enlightenment

Shibli was dying….When people asked him to repeat the Muslim article of faith, the Kalima, ‘there is no god, but God,’ Shibli said, “I see no other, then whom should I deny?” The people remarked that the scriptures ordained that at the hour of death it should be repeated.. Shibli said, “Know that the Sultan of Love accepts no bribe. Besides, it is surprising that a dead person should advise a living one.”

Ramakrishna Paramahansa said the same thing: “After God-realization one gives up formal worship. I have given up that kind of worship. I used to worship in the Kali Temple. It was suddenly revealed to me that everything is made of pure Spirit – the koshakushi, the altar and the door-frame – everything made of Spirit; men, birds and beasts all made of Spirit. So I began to shower flowers all around like a crazy man. I began to worship anything and everything I saw. 

One day when I was offering bel-leaves on the head of Shiva, it was revealed to me that the vast universe itself, Virat, is Shiva. Then I stopped worshipping the image of Shiva. And when I was picking flowers, it was suddenly revealed to me that every flowering plant is like a bouquet.” (Gospel of Ramakrishna)

 

Farid al-Din Attar’s quotes and stories

 “A man whose eyes love opens risks his soul -
His dancing breaks beyond the mind's control.” 
― Farid al-Din Attar, The Conference of the Birds

Story of Nushirvan the Just and the aged cultivator

Nushirvan was riding his horse with the speed of an arrow when he saw in the road an old man [bent] like a bow.

The old man was planting a number of trees. The king said to him: “Since thy hair has turned to milk,
And since thou wilt remain only a few more days, why art thou planting trees here?”

The old man replied: “There is reason enough. Since many have planted for us, So that today we have the benefit thereof, we too are planting for others. One should take each step in accordance with one’s capacity, for in every step there should be order.

The king was pleased with the old man’s speech. He filled his hand with gold and said: “Take this.”
The old man said to him: “victorious king, already today my trees have borne fruit. For If I live to be over seventy thou knowest that I have not fared badly by this planting. The planting did not make me wait ten years; it has borne gold as fruit this very day.”

The king was even more pleased with this reply of his, and he bestowed upon him the land, the village and the water.— Thou must perform thy labor today for without labor thou wilt have no fruit.
Thou must set thy foot on the road of the Faith, thou must lay aside vanity. If thou art a man, then like a man make thy beard a broom for the privy. Art thou not ashamed with all that strength of arm to place thy weight on the scales?

 “Mystics are not themselves. They do not exist in selves. They move as they are moved, talk as words come, see with sight that enters their eyes. I met a woman once and asked her where love had led her.
Fool, there's no destination to arrive at. Loved one and lover and love are infinite.” 

 “The ocean can be yours; why should you stop Beguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?
The secrets of the sun are yours, but you Content yourself with motes trapped in beams.” 

“If the eye of the heart is open, in each atom there will be one hundred secrets.” 

(* Motes - a deep, wide ditch surrounding a castle,  fort, or town, typically filled with water and

 intended as a defense against attack.)

“I have no news
of my coming
or passing away--
the whole thing
happened quicker
than a breath;
ask no questions
of the moth.” 

“He who would know the secret of both worlds will find that the secret of them both is Love.” 

“We are busy with the luxury of things.
Their number and multiple faces bring
To us confusion we call knowledge. Say:

God created the world, pinned night to day,
Made mountains to weigh it down, seas
To wash its face, living creatures with pleas
(The ancestors of prayers) seeking a place

 

Sufi Poetry

Fariduddin Attar

Fariduddin Attar showed the way to the ultimate aim of life by making a sort of picture in a poetic form. Almost all the great teachers of the world, when they have pointed out the right way to seeking souls, have had to adopt a symbolical form of expression, such as a story or a legend which could give a key to the one who is ready to understand and at the same time interest the one who is not yet ready. Thus, both may rejoice, the one who sleeps, and the one who is already awakened. This method has been followed by the poets of Persia and India, especially the Hindustani poets. They have told their stories in a form which would be acceptable, not only to the seekers after truth, but to those in all the different stages of evolution.

Attar's best known work is called Mantiq-ut-Tair, or the 'Colloquy of the Birds,' from which the idea of the 'Blue Bird' has been taken today. Very few have understood the idea of the 'Blue Bird', or the 'Bird of the Sky.' It contains a very ancient teaching, through the use of the Persian word for sky. This teaching points out that every soul has a capacity, which may be called the 'sky,' and that this capacity can accommodate earth or heaven, whichever it partakes of and holds within itself. When one walks in a crowd, what does one see? One sees numerous faces, but one might better call them various attitudes. All that we see in individuals, all that presents itself to us, has expression, atmosphere and form. If we give it one name, it is the attitude, whatever attitude they have towards life, right or wrong, good or bad; they are themselves that attitude. Does this not show how appropriate the word 'sky' is?

(In point of fact, whatever one makes of oneself, one becomes that. The source of happiness or unhappiness is all in man himself. When he is unaware of this, he is not able to arrange his life, but as he becomes more acquainted with this secret,  he gains mastery, and the process by which this mastery is attained is the only fulfillment of the purpose of this life)

The Sea
Will be the Sea
Whatever the drop's philosophy.

Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.
You can never see your own face,
only a reflection, not the face itself.

Joy! Joy! I triumph! Now no more I know
Myself as simply me. I burn with love
Unto myself, and bury me in love.
The centre is within me and its wonder
Lies as a circle everywhere about me.
Joy! Joy! No mortal thought can fathom me.

From each, Love demands a mystic silence
What do all seek so earnestly? 'Tis Love.
What do they whisper to each other? Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.
In Love no longer "thou" and "I" exist,
For Self has passed away in the Beloved.

Yet what are seas and what is air? For all
Is God, and but a talisman are heaven and earth
To veil Divinity. For heaven and earth,
Did He not permeate them, were but names;
Know then, that both this visible world and that
Which unseen is, alike are God Himself,
Naught is, save God: and all that is, is God.

Thou all Creation art, all we behold, but Thou,
The soul within the body lies concealed,
And Thou dost hide Thyself within the soul,
O soul in soul! Myst'ry in myst'ry hid!
Before all wert Thou, and are more than all!

All things are but masks at God's beck and call,
They are symbols that instruct us that God is all.

Sin and Contrition — Retribution owed,
And cancell'd — Pilgrim, Pilgrimage, and Road,
Was but Myself toward Myself: and Your
Arrival but Myself at my own Door...

 (Attar has roamed through the seven cities of love while we have barely turned down the first street. - Rumi)

Shaikh Abu Sard’s argument with a Sufi over a dog.

‘A Sufi who was passing by struck with his staff at a dog lying on the road. The dog was badly hurt in its front leg; it began to howl and went off at a run. It came howling before Abu Said and threw itself on the ground, its heart boiling with rage.

When it had shown Abu Said its foot, he rose up and sought justice of that heedless Sufi. The shaikh said to the Sufi: “man without faith, has anyone ever dealt with such cruelty to a dumb creature?
Hast thou broken its foot so that it has fallen down and become thus weak and helpless?”

The Sufi spoke and said: “master, the fault was not mine but the dog’s, Because it defiled my garment it received from my staff a blow not dealt in play.”

Where the dog was lying it continued to howl and wave its legs. That peerless shaikh said to the dog: “For all thou hast done, I will gladly take the responsibility. Pass thy sentence now and do not postpone it till the Judgment Day.

If thou wish me to give him his answer, I will punish him on thy behalf here and now. I do not wish thee to become angry; I wish thee to be pleased.”

The dog said: “peerless shaikh, since I saw his garb to be that of a Sufi, I was certain that he would do me no harm. How was I to know that he would burn my limbs with pain? Had there been someone clad in mail on the road, I should have been on my guard. Seeing the garb of the people of peace I felt safe; I did not know the full story.

If thou wilt punish him divest him now of this garb such as is worn by [true] men, So that all may be safe from his wickedness: the injury he did me was such as I have not endured from drunkards. Remove from him the cloak of the people of peace and his punishment will suffice until the Day of Judgment.”—
Since the dog holds such a position upon His road, it is forbidden for thee to set thyself above a dog……………………

A dervish in ecstasy

by Farid ud-Din Attar

 

The Tree unaware of its state

A man cut down a tree one day. A Sufi visiting nearby said to him:

Look at the fresh branch that is yet fresh and happy, unaware that it has been cut off the tree now’.

‘One can be ignorant of the damage one have suffered, but there would be time when he realizes the truth. Meanwhile one cannot reason with it and understand it’

This severance and ignorance is the current state of human beings.
 

Oblivion 

You know nothing about you in this state. You are similar to the wax in the honeycombs. What does it knows of the fire or guttering?

But once it transforms into a candle and begins to emit light only then it knows.

Similarly you will know that while being thinking yourself to be alive, you were actually dead and only thinking of yourself to be alive.
 

The Two Rings

There was a man who loved two women equally. They asked him to tell them which one he loved more.

He asked them to wait his decisions to be told. He had two rings made, both completely identical,

To each of the woman he gave one ring, called them together and said,’ the whom I love the most is the one with the ring.’

About Attar

(A traditional story is told about Attar's death. He was taken prisoner by a Mongol during the invasion of Nishapur. Someone soon came and tried to ransom Attar with a thousand pieces of silver. Attar advised the Mongol not to sell him for that price. The Mongol, thinking to gain an even greater sum of money, refused the silver. Later, another person came, this time offering only a sack of straw to free Attar. Attar then told the Mongol to sell him for that was all he was worth. Outraged at being made a fool, the Mongol cut off Attar's head.

(Whether or not this is literally true isn't the point. This story is used to teach the mystical insight that the personal self isn't of much real worth. What is valuable is the Beloved's presence within us -- and that presence isn't threatened by the death of the body. )

 Attar

Attar married several traditions of poetry: the secular and the religious, the philosophical and the prosaic. More particularly, the religious refrains of the beloved -- the address to the divine ground of being and the self in relationship to it -- were shaped according to the conventions of court poetry. In addition, as Avery points out in his splendid introduction, it drew on a whole tradition of wine-drinking songs. Drunkenness became the metaphor for spiritual transformation. Attar's greatness also consists in the firm grip he had on each twist and turn of tone, and in a very modern way: the way Persian conventions allowed an ironic placement of the self in the poem.

So long as we do not die to ourselves,
and so long as we identify with someone or something,
we shall never be free.
The spiritual way is not for those wrapped up in exterior life.

Strive to discover the mystery before life is taken from you.
If while living you fail to find yourself, to know yourself,
how will you be able to understand
the secret of your existence when you die?

Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.
From each a mystic silence Love demands.
What do all seek so earnestly? 'Tis Love.
What do they whisper to each other? Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.

In Love no longer 'thou' and 'I' exist,
For Self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul,
Behold the Friend; Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds,
Will find the secret of them both, is Love.

In the dead of night, a Sufi began to weep.
He said, "This world is like a closed coffin, in which
We are shut and in which, through our ignorance,
We spend our lives in folly and desolation.
When Death comes to open the lid of the coffin,
Each one who has wings will fly off to Eternity,
But those without will remain locked in the coffin.
So, my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off,

Do all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers."

'Perfume of the Desert'

 

The whole world is a marketplace for Love,
For naught that is, from Love remains remote.
The Eternal Wisdom made all things in Love.
On Love they all depend, to Love all turn.
The earth, the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars
The center of their orbit find in Love.
By Love are all bewildered, stupefied,
Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.


Four Things to Know

Hatim al-Asamm said, "I have chosen four things to know and discarded all other things of knowledge.
"The first is this: I know that my daily bread is apportioned to me and will neither be increased or decreased, so I have stopped trying to add to it.

"Secondly, I know I owe to God a debt which no one else can pay for me, so I am busy about paying it.

"Thirdly, I know that there is someone pursuing me --- Death --- whom I cannot escape from, so I have prepared myself to meet him.

"Fourth, I know that God is observing me, so I am ashamed
to do what I should not."