The 25th of Farvardin, corresponding with April 14, is the day of commemoration of the acclaimed Iranian poet, Attar Neishabouri. We will touch upon his life and times and world outlook in two episodes.
The contemporary man is suffering from a variety of crises and problems. In spite of great successes and progresses in different fields, he has been gripped by superciliousness and self-conceit. These sufferings have their roots in the negligence of man toward himself. He has lost some characteristics which link him with God and the Unseen. Things like spirituality, ethics and religion are missing. Literature can help man find his lost identity and get rid of the monotony of the everyday life. The Iranian mystic literature is full of spiritual teachings which can lead him to his inner world. April 14 has been named in Iran as the Day of Commemoration of Farid-uddin Attar Neishabouri, the renowned poet of the 6th century AH. Many crises have befallen upon man of today such as nihilism, racism, profiteering, hedonism and individualism. Attar's thoughts, especially those of the book "Mantiq al-Tayr" (Discourse of Birds), are a remedy to these crises.
Attar Neishabouri believes that man's outlook has been restricted due to busying himself with fruitless whims and frivolities. Hence, he tries to relieve man of these restrictions and make him aware of wide horizons. He calls on mankind to fly high in the expanse of spirituality and absolute perfection. Attar has explained whatever is needed for solving the contemporary man's problems. Helmut Ritter, who is a German specialist in the studies related to Attar, maintains that he has concentrated his attention on man, the world and God and his main concern is to explicate the relation between these three. Perhaps in no era, mankind has been so negligent of his inner world as this era. Today's man has forgotten himself and looks at the material world as the only tool of cognizance. He has distanced himself from the gem of humanity and is scared of solitude to muse on his genuine being. This leads to absurdity. Attar, due to profound view and perception of the multisided human spirit, has succeeded to open the ropes tied on the hands and feet of mankind. Attar's poetry is full of movement, dynamism and liveliness. In his thought, mankind is always in transformation and change. Attar responsibly is in quest of his real identity. That's why he considers movement as the path toward man's perfection. He negates any stagnation and immobility. In view of this, he sends humans to a symbolic long journey in the form of birds while he himself is the Hoopoe which is guide of the path and knows the pitfalls of the way. Each of Attar's books "Mantiq al-Tayr", "Mosibat Nameh" and "Elahi Nameh" is a mystic travelogue that takes man to self-cognizance.
The noted Iranian poet, Farid-uddin Attar Neishabouri, maintains that if mankind goes beyond the routine habits of this world, he will know his spiritual capacities and potentials better. Mankind should discover himself and help his individuality materialize as it is. He says,
What you utter, and what you know, that's you;
Recognize your own self just as it is.
Another problem of the contemporary man is inattention to spirituality and forgetting the perpetual reality. Being indulged in the luxuries of this transient world, he has separated himself from the ethereal world and the Creator of the world. He seeks pleasures that are passing very soon. That's why the older he becomes the more desperate and frustrated he gets. The modern technologies have apparently made man more comfortable but, whether he accepts it or not, he has a missing which cannot be replaced by anything. In "Mantiq al-Tayr" (Discourse of Birds), Attar calls birds which are the symbols of human spirits. He wants to remind them of God and show them hints of His beauty and mercy so that the desire for cognizance is revived in them.
Attar attaches much importance to love, because he believes that without love man will not be awakened. Love of the Creator will give man the courage to strive in the way of materializing the impossible. The heart is the center of love; hence it should be kept away from malice and malevolence. Next time we will continue the discussion.
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