Sufi Literature of Sana'i and 'Attar

The Persian poet known as Sana'i was born in the middle of the 11th century in the Ghaznavid empire that ruled Afghanistan and parts of India and Iran. He wrote panegyrics to his patron, Sultan Bahram Shah. Sana'i wrote the first great Sufi poetry in the verse forms of ode (qasida), lyric (ghazal), and rhymed couplet (masnavi). His Enclosed Garden of Truth (Hadiqat al-haqiqa) contains 10,000 couplets and was written about 1131. In the first book of The Enclosed Garden of Truth Sana'i of Ghazna began by praising God and suggesting that reason is unable to attain knowledge of God. Prayer can lead to God by polishing the mirror of the heart. He told the parable of how an elephant is perceived differently in a city of the blind by those who handle its ears, trunk, and legs, which seem to be like a rug, pipe, and pillars. Because no mind knows the whole, fools are deceived by fanciful absurdities. He asked how can anyone who does not know one's own soul know the soul of another? How can the Godhead be known by the hand or foot? Sana'i suggested that the steps to heaven are many and are best attained by wisdom and work, for sloth results in impiety.

Sana'i recommended worshipping God in both worlds as if one could see God with the outward eye; though you do not see God, your Creator sees you. When you have grappled with death, you will no longer turn away from death and will come to know the world of life. Only in the annihilation of one's own existence does one enter the road to eternal life. The pious are those who give thanks for divine kindness and mercy; but unbelievers complain the world seems unjust. Sana'i advised his readers to end all imitation and speculation so that your heart may become the house of God. Your own soul distinguishes unbelief from true religion and colors your vision. Selflessness is happy, but selfishness is most miserable. In the eternal there are no unbeliefs and no religions.

Sana'i described the journey on God's road as belonging to the person with sharper vision and wisdom. To turn your face toward life you must put your foot down on outward prosperity, put out of your mind rank and reputation, and bend your back in divine service to purify yourself from evil and strengthen your soul in wisdom. By looking on divine truth cut yourself off from the false world, leave behind those who contend with words, and sit before the silent. Travel from the works of God to the divine principles, and from the principles to the knowledge of God. From knowledge one enters the secret and reaches the threshold of poverty. When you have become a friend of poverty, your soul destroys the impure self, and your self becomes the soul inside you. Ashamed of all its doings, it casts aside all its possessions and melts on the path of trial. When your self has been melted in your body, your soul by steps accomplishes its work. Then God takes away its poverty; when poverty is no more, God remains.

Sana'i believed that the phantoms of sleep are ordained so that humans may understand their hopes and fears. Then his poem proceeds to interpret the meaning of various symbols in dreams. He warned against making your understanding captive to your body in the three prisons of deceit, hatred, and envy. No one who regards the self can see God; whoever looks at the self has no faith. Sana'i recommended that if you are on the path of true religion, cease for a time contemplating yourself. He believed that anger, passion, hatred, and malice are not among the attributes of the one God, the creator, who is merciful. God draws you by kindness that may appear like the anger of a noose. So long as one seeks for love with self in view, there waits the crucible of renunciation. For those new on the way of love, renunciation is a key to the gate. Desire for a mistress brings gladness, but it is far from God. The legion of your pleasures will cast you into fire; but desiring God will keep you as safe as a virgin in paradise. To Love God says, "Fear none but me." To Reason God says, "Know yourself." God tells Love to rule as king. When the reasonable soul finds the water of life and expends it in the path of the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit rejoices in the soul, and the soul becomes as pure as Primal Reason.

Farid al-Din 'Attar was born at Nishapur in northern Persia on November 12, 1119, but sources on his date of death vary from 1193 to 1234. According to legend he was killed in 1221 after he was captured by the Mongols of Genghis Khan at Mecca; he advised against accepting a ransom of gold until it was increased but then suggested accepting an offer of straw. His name indicates that he may have been a chemist or sold perfumes, and a legend tells that a dervish induced him to leave his father's profession to study Sufism. 'Attar traveled for 39 years to Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, and Central Asia before settling in his native Nishapur. He wrote at least 45,000 rhymed couplets and many prose works, and he was greatly admired by the Sufi poet Rumi. 'Attar wrote biographies of Sufi saints, but the allegoricalConference of the Birds, completed in 1188, is considered his greatest work.

'Attar began The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq al-tair) with an invocation praising the holy Creator in which he suggested that one must live a hundred lives to know oneself; but you must know God by the deity, not by yourself, for God opens the way, not human wisdom. 'Attar believed that God is beyond all human knowledge. The soul will manifest itself when the body is laid aside. One cannot gain spiritual knowledge without dying to all things. When the birds assemble, they wonder why they have no king. The Hoopoe presents herself as a messenger from the invisible world with knowledge of God and the secrets of creation. She recommends Simurgh as their true king, saying that one of his feathers fell on China.

The Nightingale says that the love of the Rose satisfies him, and the journey is beyond his strength; but the Hoopoe warns against being a slave of passing love that interferes with seeking self-perfection. The Parrot longs for immortality, and the Hoopoe encourages the Peacock to choose the whole. The Duck is too content with water to seek the Simurgh. The Hoopoe advises the Partridge that gems are just colored stones and that love of them hardens the heart; she should seek the real jewel of sound quality. The Humay is distracted by ambition, and the Owl loves only the treasure he has found. The Hoopoe reprimands the Sparrow for taking pride in humility and recommends struggling bravely with oneself. She states that the different birds are just shadows of the Simurgh. If they succeed, they will not be God; but they will be immersed in God. If they look in their hearts, they will see the divine image. All appearances are just the shadow of the Simurgh. Those loving truly do not think about their own lives and sacrifice their desires. Those grounded in love renounce faith and religion as well as unbelief. One must hear with the ear of the mind and the heart.

A total of 22 birds speak to the Hoopoe or ask questions about the journey. Short anecdotes are told to illustrate the Hoopoe's points. The Hoopoe says that it is better to lose your life than to languish miserably. The Hoopoe says,

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.⁵

You will enjoy happiness if you succeed in withdrawing from attachment to the world. Whoever is merciful even to the merciless is favored by the compassionate. It is better to agree to differ than to quarrel. The Hoopoe warns the sixth bird against the dog of desire that runs ahead. Each vain desire becomes a demon, and yielding to each one begets a hundred others. The world is a prison under the devil, and one should have no truck with its master. The Hoopoe also says that if you let no one benefit from your gold, you will not profit either; but by the smallest gift to the poor you both benefit. She says,

Good fortune will come to you only as you give.
If you cannot renounce life completely,
you can at least free yourself
from the love of riches and honors.⁶

A pupil becomes afraid in facing a choice between two roads, but a shaikh advises getting rid of fear so that either road will be good. The Hoopoe tells the eighth bird that only if death ceases to exercise power over creatures would it be wise to remain content in a golden palace. The ninth bird is told that sensual love is a game inspired by passing beauty that is fleeting. The Hoopoe asks what is uglier than a body made of flesh and bones. It is better to seek the hidden beauty of the invisible world. An anecdote about Jesus yields the following lesson:

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?⁷

The Hoopoe advises the eleventh bird that giving yourself over to pride or self-pity will disturb you. Since the world passes, pass it by, for whoever becomes identified with transient things has no part in the lasting things. The suffering endured is made glorious and is a treasure for the seer, for blessings will come if you make efforts on the path. The fifteenth bird is told that justice is salvation, and the just are saved from errors. Being just is better than a life of worship. Justice exercised in secret is even better than liberality; but justice professed openly may lead to hypocrisy. A story of two drunks teaches that we see faults because we do not love. When we understand real love, the faults of those near us appear as good qualities. When you see the ugliness of your own faults, you will not bother so much with the faults of others.

The journey of the birds takes them through the seven valleys of the quest, love, understanding, independence and detachment, unity, astonishment, and finally poverty and nothingness. In the valley of the quest one undergoes a hundred difficulties and trials. After one has been tested and become free, one learns in the valley of love that love has nothing to do with reason. The valley of understanding teaches that knowledge is temporary, but understanding endures. Overcoming faults and weaknesses brings the seeker closer to the goal. In the valley of independence and detachment one has no desire to possess nor any wish to discover. To cross this difficult valley one must be roused from apathy to renounce inner and outer attachments so that one can become self-sufficient. In the valley of unity the Hoopoe announces that although you may see many beings, in reality there is only one, which is complete in its unity. As long as you are separate, good and evil will arise; but when you lose yourself in the divine essence, they will be transcended by love. When unity is achieved, one forgets all and forgets oneself in the valley of astonishment and bewilderment.

The Hoopoe declares that the last valley of deprivation and death is almost impossible to describe. In the immensity of the divine ocean the pattern of the present world and the future world dissolves. As you realize that the individual self does not really exist, the drop becomes part of the great ocean forever in peace. The analogy of moths seeking the flame is used. Out of thousands of birds only thirty reach the end of the journey. When the light of lights is manifested and they are in peace, they become aware that the Simurgh is them. They begin a new life in the Simurgh and contemplate the inner world. Simurgh, it turns out, means thirty birds; but if forty or fifty had arrived, it would be the same. By annihilating themselves gloriously in the Simurgh they find themselves in joy, learn the secrets, and receive immortality. So long as you do not realize your nothingness and do not renounce your self-pride, vanity, and self-love, you will not reach the heights of immortality. 'Attar concluded the epilog with the admonition that if you wish to find the ocean of your soul, then die to all your old life and then keep silent.

In the Book of Affliction (Musibat-nama) 'Attar described forty stages in spiritual progression as a wayfarer asks different creatures how to find God until the ultimate truth is given by the prophet of Islam himself in the ocean of one's own soul. These stories reflect outwardly the mystical experiences of disciples during forty days of meditation.

In the Book of God (Ilahi-nama) 'Attar framed his mystical teachings in various stories that a caliph tells his six sons, who are kings themselves and seek worldly pleasures and power. Twenty-two discourses are preceded by a long exordium that praises God, the prophet Muhammad, and the first four caliphs. The first son is captivated by a virgin princess, and his father tells him the adventures of a beautiful and virtuous woman who attracts several men but miraculously survives their abuse and then forgives them. They acknowledge that carnal desire is necessary to propagate the race but also recognize that passionate love can lead to spiritual love, which can annihilate the soul in the beloved. One story indicates that even a homosexual may be more sacrificing than a scholar or a descendant of 'Ali. Other stories indicate the importance of respecting the lives of other creatures such as ants or dogs. One only thinks oneself better than a dog because of one's dog-like nature.

The second son tells his father that his heart craves magic; but his father warns him against the work of the devil. A monk tells a shaikh that he has chosen the job of locking up a savage dog inside himself, and he advises the shaikh to lock up anger lest he be changed into a dog. The father suggests that this son ask for something more worthy and tells an anecdote in which Jesus teaches a man the greatest name of God. The man uses it to make bones come alive into a lion, which devours him, leaving his bones. Jesus then says that when a person asks for something unworthy, God does not grant it. Birds and beasts flee from people because people eat them. God tells Moses to watch his heart when he is alone, to be kind and watch his tongue when he is with people, the road in front when he is walking, and his gullet when he is dining. A saint tells a shaikh that love is never denied to humans, for only the lover knows the true value of the beloved. Another saint warns that unless you pray for protection from negativity (the Devil), you shall not enter the court of God.

The third son of the caliph asks for a cup that could display the whole world. 'Attar concluded a story by saying that Sufism is to rest in patience and forsake all desire for the world, and trust in God means bridling one's tongue and wishing for better things for others than for oneself. This son asks why his father seems to disparage the love of honor and the love of wealth which all seem to possess. The caliph replies that in the crazy prison of the world one can achieve greatness only by devotion. Since one speaks to God through the heart and soul, it is difficult to speak with God of worldly things. The third son asks if he can be allowed to seek power in moderation; but the father still warns that this will place screens between him and God. Each screen created by seeking power will create more screens. One must see both the good and the bad inside and outside oneself to understand how they are connected together. Saints who reach their goal see nothingness in all things, making sugar seem like poison and a rose like thorns. Ayaz advises the conquering Sultan Mahmud to leave his self behind since he is better being entirely We. In the last story for his third son, the father says that thousands of arts, mysteries, definitions, commands, prohibitions, orders, and injunctions are founded on the intellect. What cup could be more revealing than this?

The fourth son seeks the water of life, and his father warns him against desire. A wise man considers Alexander the Great the slave of his slave because the Greek conqueror has submitted to greed and desire, which this wise man controls. If the son cannot have the water of life, he asks for the knowledge that will illuminate his heart. In one story 'Attar concluded that if you are not faithful in love, you are in love only with yourself. The fifth son asks for the ring of Solomon that enables one to communicate with birds and other animals. The Way is summarized as seeing the true road, traveling light, and doing no harm. The father tells this son that he has chosen an earthly kingdom because he has not heard of the kingdom of the next world. He advises this king that since his sovereignty will not endure not to load the whole world on his shoulders. Why take on the burden of all creation? The caliph suggests that his son practice contentment, which is an eternal kingdom that overshadows even the sun. When Joseph was thrown into a pit, the angel Gabriel counseled him that it is better to notice a single blemish in yourself than to see a hundred lights of the Unseen.

The sixth son desires to practice alchemy, but his father perceives that he is caught in the snare of greed. Gold is held more tightly by a miser than the rock grips the ore. The son observes that excessive poverty often leads to losing faith, and so he asks God for both the philosopher's stone and for gold; but his father replies that one cannot promote both faith and the world at the same time. In the epilog the poet commented that since he receives his daily bread from the Unseen, he does not have to be the slave of wretched men. 'Attar concluded this work with the satisfaction that he has perfumed the name of God with his poetry.