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The Conference f Birds is an allegory of a spiritual journey written by XIIth century Persian poet Farid Din Attar. He is not the household name when it comes to Sufism and Islamic mysticism, yet his work is such a complete representation of the peculiarities of Sufi writings, with a striking and powerful imagery, elaborated paradoxes, and excellently thought-provoking similes.

The spiritual journey being itself a mystery which cannot be clearly related, it is only through this allegory that the poet tries to convey what cannot be analytically described. Most of times he is only making signs, never fully giving an answer, since any answer have to be realized and understood by the seeker himself, no one can stand for him in walking this journey, which for the majority, seems quit an obscure and absurd endeavor.

Perhaps one of the first questions that comes to mind, is the motivation of those who intend to embark on a spiritual journey and turn their backs on the world. For most of us this seems quite distant and unlikely. After all we spend most of our lives striving after worldly belongings, status and success, and conformity to social expectations. The spiritual path is for those who have seen the futility of these attempts, who realized the fickleness of the world, the despair that comes up from seeking praise and avoiding blame, the wasting of efforts in trying to get this only to want otherwise in the next moment. The quest is in a sort a way out of all this turmoil of life that we are born to. In walking the path of detachment, one can find a refuge, and maybe the stillness of peace.

It is a calling for seekers to leave worldly concerns behind, it is described by Attar in the form of a longing, the imagery of a longing lover is abundant throughout the poem. This intense attraction that pushes one away from all other distractions, and absorbs all his efforts to direct them towards one goal. It also strips every thing else from value, so that the object of love remains the sole matter of concern.

Yet not all experience this intense longing nor do they hold on to it until the end of the journey. Distractions are real and do have a powerful hold on the will of seekers. They come in the form of excuses, like cowardice, fear and laziness, but also ignorance of the real value of things. Our attachment to what we believe a real source of happiness, and our fear of losing it and inability to gave it up for this unknown goal that is the fulfillment of spiritual life, stops prematurely all attempts. In Attar’s Poem, greed for acquiring possessions, attachment to what is fickle and changing, to the sense of selfhood and the pride found in it, are all obstacles to even the conceptual understanding of the spiritual path, let along embarking on it.

In the spirit of Islam which upholds the absolute oneness of God, this is portrayed by Sufis as a form of Idolatry. It is indeed the most sophisticated and intimate idolatry that exists. Because next to God, one places another object of worship, glorifying it without being aware of the extend of his delusion. Although the objects of delusion are diverse, and the analytic mind roams around endlessly to justify this or that, the core of the delusion remains one and only, and that is the notion of the Self.

The Self occupies a pivotal role in Attar’s poem, it is that which pulls us away from the path, the master who enslaves us and drives us to despair. It is the source of greed and pride, of forgetfulness and neglect. The spiritual quest from beginning to the end is about the abandoning of the symptoms of this slavery but also the total annihilation of the source of the disease. God’s chosen ones, through the power of his calling, the intensity of their longing, are pulled away from the idolatry of the Self towards coming back to the original Oneness with God.

Even if one is fortuned enough to see beyond these illusions, there are still many dangers that lay ahead. The path is plagued with difficulties such as doubt, weakness and many abundant distractions. Even if one leaves behind greed and pride in worldly affair, more intimate and subtler forms of these defilements arise within himself, like greed in the reward in the next life, and conceit arising because of spiritual achievement. The aim of the spiritual life is the total abandoning of even the slightest traces of the Self, the letting go of all this whirlpool of greed and conceit, and the realization of the purity of Nothingness, the dwelling in God’s glory and in the Peace of his Bliss.

At the climax of the journey, Attar tries to convey the bewilderment of the seekers as they discover the Truth hidden for so long from there sight. To their great astonishment, the birds discover that what they were seeking once belonged to them, it was a part of them, but because of ignorance, ingratitude and pride they sold it, they sold it for what was way below its true value. Attar elaborates magnificent similes to describe the foolishness of the one who gives away the priceless for a cheap price, and therefore condemns himself to an existence of misery by his own hands. It is by this realization that the seeker comes back to God, retrieves what he has lost, becomes complete and not lacking anything in the Nothingness of the Annihilation in God. His painful separation from God was a sin that he committed with his own hand, but through God’s Grace and Mercy this fatal error was pardoned.

In his epilogue, Attar acknowledges the difficulty of this endeavor of describing something which is realized in silence and not by word. But he seems to be confident in the power of his poetry, and hopes that it will provide other seekers with signs which will help them on their path. But beyond our efforts to see our existence with insight, and Attar’s help to point the way, there remains only God’s Grace to hope for, He is the Ultimate Guide and the Ultimate Savor able to pull us from our ignorance. It is through His Mercy that we can hope to advance on this path, for as weak and deluded as we are, we have nothing to offer Him in return.