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| sufi literature | |
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, center right, instructs the other birds on the Sufi path]]. ''The Conference of the Birds'' (''Manteq at-Tair'', 1177 ) is a book of poems in Persian by Farid Ud-Din Attar of approximately 4500 lines. The poem uses a journey by a group of 30 birds, led by a Hoopoe as an Allegory of a Sufi '' Sheikh '' or master leading his pupils to enlightenment. Besides being one of the most beautiful examples of Persian poetry, this book relies on a clever word play between the words Simorgh — a mysterious bird in Iranian mythology which is a symbol often found in sufi literature, and similar to the Phoenix bird — and "''si morgh''" — meaning "thirty birds" in Persian. Its most famous section is: Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide Return and back into your Sun subside In the 1970's, the poem was adapted into a play by Peter Brook and John Carriere (called The Conference of The Birds), which Brook took touring around the wilds of Africa before presenting two extremely successful productions to a Western audience, one in New York City at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and one in Paris. The stories recounts the longing of a group of birds who desire to know the great ''Simorgh'', and who under the guidance of a leader bird start their journey toward the land of ''Simorgh''. One by one, they drop out of the journey, each offering an excuse and unable to endure the journey. Each bird has a special significance in Islamic culture. The guiding bird is the hoopoe, while the nightingale symbolizes the lover. The parrot is seeking the fountain of immortality, not god and the peacock symbolizes the "fallen soul" who is in alliance with Satan. The birds must cross seven valleys in order to find the Simorgh: Talab (Quest), Ishq (Love), Marifat (Gnosis), Istighnah (Independence), Tawheed (Unity of God), Hayrat (Wonder) and, finally, Faqr and Fana (Poverty and Obliteration in God). These represent the stations that a Sufi or any individual must pass through to realize the true nature of God. Within the larger context of the story of the journey of the birds, Attar masterfully tells the reader many didactic short, sweet stories in captivating poetic style. Eventually only thirty birds remain as they finally arrive in the land of ''Simorgh'' — all they see there are each other and the reflection of the thirty birds in a lake — not the mythical ''Simorgh''. It is the Sufi doctrine that God is not external or separate from the universe, rather is the totality of existence. The thirty birds seeking the ''Simorgh'' realise that ''Simorgh'' is nothing more than their transcendent totality. This concept has been compared as being similar to "Universal Pantheism" in western philosophy. As the birds realize the truth, they now reach the station of Baqa (Subsistence) which sits atop the Mountain Qaf. SEE ALSO
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