The Conference of the Birds

The Conference of the Birds
By: Farid ud-din Attar
Translation and introduction by: Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis
Published by: Penguin Classics

The book "Conference of the Birds' highlights the disciplines of life which are required by a Sufi to reach the stage of baqa means everlastingness. This poem starts with a allegoric form in which birds of the world were told by Hoopoe that they have a king - The Simorgh - but he lives far away and to reach him they have to travel seven valleys. Those valleys are Search, Love, Mystic Apprehension (understanding), Detachment/Independence, Unity, Bewilderness (confusion) and Fulfillment in Annihilation (destroying lower self to achieve higher and complete life).

Initially birds were very excited to go in search of Simorgh but when they realize how difficult the journey would be they started to make excuses. Hoopoe answers those excuses with beautiful small stories.

In this poem birds are identified by their species and each specie clearly indicates a human type. Such as Nightingale is a lover, the Finch is the coward etc. Each of them makes excuses according to their type, for not going on the journey. Once the journey began, the birds started asking questions about the path or the way and why a certain way was taken; just like a beginner asks question to the Sheikh in the spiritual search.

All the excuses which the birds initially used for not going on the journey are very close to human excuses for not leaving material luxuries for the sake of the soul. For example, Nightingale says she loves roses and roses love him. Anyways, Nightingales are not very strong and cannot take the pains of travelling very far in the search of Simorgh; and besides that if he will leave the roses and not sing for them then how roses will blossom. Hoopoe answered this question and said to him that the rose's superficial love is not real. Rose does not love you.

"...Forget the rose's blush and blush for shame.
Each spring she laughs, not for you, as you say,
But at you - and has faded in a day."

Then to support his answer he says the story of a dervish and a princess. There was a beautiful princess and anyone who saw her once would fall in love with her. A dervish accidentally saw her while she was giving bread to the poor. He was in line to recieve a piece of bread from her. When she came closer he almost dropped the plate in nervousness. Princess smiled when she saw that and he dervish thought that she is also in love with him. He waited outside her palace gate for seven years and cried every day to see her again. Everybody told him to leave the gate and move forward for whatever he thought was not true. He, however, stayed there and kept on crying. Finally the servant of princess got tired and decided to kill him. Princess felt sorry for him and came out and told the dervish to go away otherwise her men will kill him. He replied that he would give away his life for her love. Princess was surprised to hear that and asked who told him that she loved him. "You and I have no match" she said. The dervish said that when she gave him the bread that day she smiled at him. Princess responded:

""Poor fool, I smiled from pity, almost ridicule - your ignorance provoked that smile." She spoke and vanished like a wisp of strengthless smoke."

There were plenty of such stories. Another story which I liked about obedience is when birds were convinced to go for the search of Simorgh and they accepted Hoopoe as their guide by a bird saying that "I am ignorant of right and wrong. I'll wait for any orders that you stipulate. Whatever you command I'll gladly do, delighted to submit myself to you."

Hoopoe was happy to take the birds under his guidance and promised to give a refuge and lead the way.

Then he told the story of a king who stopped at the prison gates; The king was returning to his capital and his subjects prepared a festival to pay him the homage. Whole towns participated in festivities. Prisoners who were in chains (in the jails) had nothing to decorate so they came near the gate with the chained hands and racked limbs and their ruined lives, to greet the king. The king stopped and met them and told them that they are free and would be paid in gold. The courtier asked the king that the whole town prepared to pay him homage with beautiful decorations and dances and the king did not stop to reward them, what was so special in those prisoners that he chose to reward them. The king answered that the rest of the people were like rowdy children who were playing with new toys and participating in festivities to please themselves and the king whereas the prisoners came near the gate purely to pay homage to the king. The king said: "I see the obedience here. They bow to my commands through good and ill. They know they will die in prison but they still took the pain to come near the gate to pay me the homage. So I will use my authority to reward their wisdom by giving them the freedom and paradise."

This book is definitely worth a read. The translators have done well in retaining the poetic expressions of Attar's work.

Knowledge and Liberation - Review

Nasir Khusraw

Knowledge and Liberation
A Treatise on Philosophical Theology
Edited and Translated by Faquir M. Hunzai
Introduced by Parviz Morewedge
Published by I.B.Tauris Publishers in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies

This book is the English translation of Nasir Khusraw's "Gushayish wa Rahayish." Nasir Khusraw was a leading Ismaili poet and theologian philosopher of 11th century. In "Gushayish wa Rahayish" Nasir Khusraw addressed some philosophical and theological issues of tht time from Ismaili perspective. All these issues are addressed in the form of questions and answers. These inquiries are ranging from creation of the world to responsibility of human being. There were all together 30 questions which Faquir M. Hunzai (Editor and Translator) divided beautifully into five parts. Each part is made of a central focus theme and questions are based on those themes, such as:

1. Cosmogomy - Under this title, questions (1-5) are answered which are related to creation of the world or universe.

2. Ontology - This heading examines those questions (6-11) which deals with the meaning of existent, not being and mind sould problem.

3. Physics - This heading explores the natural and material world and its phenomenon (12-20)

4. Theology - (21-25) Deals with the study of God with some silent question such as the Quran being created or eternal, the Divine Word, and the Unity of God.

5. Theodicy - In this topic all those questions (26 - 30) were answered which provide justification of God's goodness and justice in the face of existence of evil.

This is a complex book but I couldn't avoid reading it because it deals with soul searching questions and when I started reading I felt I was getting answers of those questions that occupied my mind since a long time. Even with all its complexity this book has the power to get you completely involved in it. I experienced a paradigm shift in my understanding. Nasir Khusraw is really very good in relating difficult philosophies and theologies to every day material to clear the understanding. Here I will give some examples under the title of "Sneak Preview" of these concepts, which will give an idea to the readers about what kind of secret treasure Nasir Khusraw has to offer in this book.

Sneak Preview - "TIME"

In one of the questions it was asked what was the time distance between Creator and creation. To answer this question he explained in detail what is time. Not to take the beauty of illustration from words, I will quote.

"We say that first it is necessary to know what time is so that this knot can be untied. It should be known that in reality time is [contained in] the act of an agent, because it is [a measure of] the movement of the [celestial] sphere. Thus when a measure [equal to] a constellation passes from the sphere, we say that two hours from night or day have elapsed, and when a half of the sphere pases we say twelve hours of time from day or night have elapsed. [However], if you take away from the sphere from [your] imagination, nothing remains of time. When the existence of a thing depends on another thing, then if you remove the later, the former which had come into existence through the later [also] disappears. For instance, if we remove the sun from [our] imagination, the day would be removed. From this demonstration it is evident that if from the imagination you remove the sphere, time [too] would be removed. [In reality], since the rotation of the sphere is the act of an agent by the command of the Creator, Time is [caused by] the act of the Creator Himself.

In this connection, those in possession of wisdom have also said that time is nothing but [a measure of] change in the condition of body, one after the other. This view is the same as that of time being [contained in] the act of an agent, because the totality of [the world's] body is within the vault of the spheres, and when the spheres rotate its condition changes as every point of it moves from its existing place to another place. [Furthermore], the rotation of the spheres does not stop because of its time is never ending.

It is inconceivable for a simple [person] that time can be removed from the imagination. This is because of the fact that since the human soul is linked with a body which is under time, it cannot go beyond [time and space] without being nurtured with the knowledge of the truth. As God says: "O assembly of jinn and men, if you can penetrate the bounds of the heavens and the earth, do so, but you cannot without the proof" (55:33) - that is, jinn and men cannot conceive anything in their souls other than what they see in the heavens and the earth, and they cannot go beyond what is under the heavens and time unless they receive nurture [of true knowledge] from the Imam of the Time who is the proof of God [hujjat-e-khuda] on earth."

Sneak Preview - "Sirat" (Path, Bridge)

"...When we come to know that the "Sirat" is the path of the soul not a path for body, and with regards to what has been said that it stretches over hell, that it is thinner than an hair and sharper than a sword, that people have to traverse it in order to reach paradise, and if they fall from it they reach the eternal fire - all this is correct, but it is necessary to know its esoteric meaning (ta'wil) not [merely] the exoteric description. Thus, we say that the "siraat" has the status of man, [who is positioned] between animality and angelicity, and is required to walk on it straight because unless he traverses it he will be unable to reach paradise. Paradise is the higher [spiritual] world and hell is the fire which surrounds this lower [material] world. The Ta'awil of this statement is that paradise means our liberation from the world of animality, and hell means to remain in that [animal] nature. If man practices the "Shariat" without [understanding] it's ta'wil, then he makes himself into an animal, he inclines toward the left hand and falls into hell from the sirat. If he acquires [esoteric] knowledge, but does not practice the shariat while claiming angelicity he inclines towards the right hand and falls into hell from sirat. However, when man walks on the path of humanity, in which he has a share from both animality and angelicity - that is he does the work which is the share of his body and acquires knowledge which is the share of his soul - he walks on the straight path (sirat-i-mustaqim); then when he traverses the sirat he is said to have reached paradise. This is so because having walked on the straight path using both knowledge and practice, when his soul leaves the body which is his sirat, he reaches the higher world, the place of angels and the true paradise."

Such a beautiful and full of wisdom explanation of sirat changed my understanding of Surah Al Hamd, or Surah Fateha (which is the begining of every prayer). Now it is very clear in my mind why balance between Deen and Duniya is important for the salvation of our soul.

There are plenty of detailed explanations of many Quranic verses, or ayats, in which Nasir Khusraw helped me in searching my sould and exploring the world unseen. This book is definitely worth reading for those readers who are curious about understanding their own soul, their role in the world, their obligation toward body and soul and how knowledge is required for liberation of soul.