Attar remains as one of the formative influences on Rumi. Rumiis said to have met Attar, when as a young boy he along with his father went to pay respect to this Sufi scholar. Attar looks at Rumi and discerns the greatness in him. He sees Rumi walking behind his father and says, “It’s not every day that you see an ocean following a lake.” Attar is known to have written a number of Sufi classics, but his most famous books are ‘Tazkaratul Aulia’ (Remembrance of Friends of God) and the ‘The Conference of the birds.’ The introduction to the Conference of the birds begins with an ecstatic and passionate invocation of God. Attar says, “God is source of all things, and a force, which binds all of us together.
This world and that world are Him and anything other than Him would also be Him. All that exists is ultimately one divine essence, but qualified differently.” He knows that people talk of God having a throne situated on an ocean and says, “Yes the throne is on an ocean and the water is in the air, but forget water and air, all is God. God is totality of all what exists and everything other than God is a name.” He says strange that everyone gets ready to get on a quest and feel so distant from God, but in reality, we are already sitting beside Him. He says, “The soul is hidden in the body and God is hidden in the soul.
Oh hidden within the hidden, oh life of the soul, just like the soul animates the body, You animate the soul.” He tells us, “If you have to know God, know our self as you cannot separate self-knowledge from divine knowledge. Oh inward and outward soul, these are all You.” He doesn’t say more than this and seals his lips as a Sufi saying says, ”If you are diving in an ocean looking for pearls, you have to keep your mouth closed.” Attar says, “Whatever you say He is, he is not, seek nothing, say nothing, become nothing and then God will give you His All ness. “Ironically one thing that God doesn’t have is nothingness, and poverty, humility and utter dependence on God is what we can bring back to him.”
Attar tells us how the path looks or appears to the seeker. He says,“ The further you go on the path, the path will extend in front of you.” As one of the early Sufi said, “The path has no end, because the Beloved has no end.” The Prophet said, “I am the mercy of the wide spaces.” Attar interprets this as the light of Muhammad (PBUH), which shines through Adam and Eve, Moses, Jesus, Abraham, Noah and others. This light is so precious to God that He created the whole world, because of this. The path is not only dependent upon God, but also the Prophetic and saintly figures, the guides, who have illuminated souls and are called the light of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). They embody the Divine light and show us the Divine teachings.
Attar introduces Simourgh, who signifies Divinity. The birds, who complete the journey to find Himsee themselves as His reflection in a mirror. The mystery is that only those can see who have the vision to see it. The eyes will not open until we go on a journey to connect with God in the company of people, who have adorned themselves with divine qualities. This is the journey of love, tenderness, mercy and grace and Attar offers a supplication to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH),“Ya Rasul Allah, I have faltered much, empty handed with dust on my head, I have been left behind.
Cast one glance towards me, it would be a remedy for this condition of my heart that everyone says has no cure.” If the illuminated Master looks at you there will be healing. Attar illustrates this with a story of a mother who is walking by a stream carrying her newborn child. She slips and baby falls out of her lap into the river. To make the matters worse the water is running towards a millstone and the child will be crushed, if not rescued. She jumps in the water and rescues the child. The baby is wailing and the mother in order to calm the baby nourishes the baby. Attar here turns to the Prophet and says, “Oh Messenger of God, nurse me; suckle me through your breast of compassion, tenderness and generosity.” Here Attar is establishing a relationship of love and tenderness with the Prophet (PBUH).The Prophet is generally referred as Nabi al Ummi, (the unlettered) meaning the Prophet has no knowledge which comes from human source.
Attar says the meaning of Umme in Arabic is mother and the Prophet is called mother Prophet, because he loves you more than your mother. Attar wants a direct relationship with the Prophet just as the child has with his mother. Rabia Basryee says, “My Lord, If I worship You for sake of Heaven, make that heaven forbidden to me, if I worship You for fear of Hell cast me in hell, but if I worship You for your own sake, do not withhold from me your eternal beauty.” Attar gets back to Rabia and says she was equal to 100 men. He says males and females are the genders of this world, but when the souls are resurrected, God sees us through our hearts and the one closet to God is the one, who has the purest heart. Extracts from ‘The Conference of the Birds’- Book by Faridud Din Attar.
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi.
