Attar of Nishapur

Abū Hamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm (c. 1110 – c. 1221); ابو حامد ابن ابوبکر ابراهیم, more famous by his pen-names Farīd ud-Dīn (فریدالدین) and ‘Attār (عطار - "the perfumer"), was a Persian Sufi poet, mystical philosopher, and hagiographer from Nishapur who had an immense and lasting influence on Persian poetry and Sufism.

Quotes

I shall grasp the soul's skirt with my hand
and stamp on the world's head with my foot.
I shall trample Matter and Space with my horse,
beyond all Being I shall utter a great shout,
and in that moment when I shall be alone with Him,
I shall whisper secrets to all mankind.
Since I have neither sign nor name
I shall speak only of things unnamed and without sign.
- Translated by Bernard Lewis, Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew Poems (2001), p. 119

The sea
Will be a sea
Whatever the drop's philosophy.
- Reported in Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis (2003), p. 285

Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.
You can never see your own face,
only a reflection, not the face itself.
- "Looking For Your Own Face", translated by Coleman Barks, The Hand of Poetry: Five Mystic Poets of Persia (1993)

Don't be dead or asleep or awake.
Don't be anything.
What you most want,
what you travel around wishing to find,
lose yourself as lovers lose themselves,
and you'll be that.
- "Looking For Your Own Face", translated by Coleman Barks, The Hand of Poetry (1993)

Do all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers.
- "Do All You Can", translated by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut, Perfume of the Desert (1999), p. 10

Jawāhir-Nāma · Book of Jewels

Joy! Joy! I triumph! Now no more I know
Myself as simply me. I burn with love
Unto myself, and bury me in love.
The centre is within me and its wonder
Lies as a circle everywhere about me.
Joy! Joy! No mortal thought can fathom me.
- Extract translated by Robert Alfred Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics: A Contribution to the History of Religious Opinion, 5th ed. (London: John Slark, 1888), vol. 2, p. 21. Titled "The Triumph of the Soul in Margaret Smith's The Persian Mystics: ‘Aṭṭār (New York: E. P. Dutton and Co, 1932), p. 97

From each a mystic silence Love demands.
What do all seek so earnestly? 'Tis Love.
What do they whisper to each other? Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.
In Love no longer "thou" and "I" exist,
For Self has passed away in the Beloved.
- "Love as the Ruler of the Universe", in Margaret Smith, The Persian Mystics: ‘Aṭṭār (1932), p. 93. Different translation in James Fadiman and Robert Frager, Essential Sufism (1997): "From each, Love demands a mystic silence."

He who would know the secret of both worlds,
Will find the secret of them both, is Love.
- "Love as the Ruler of the Universe", in Margaret Smith, The Persian Mystics: ‘Aṭṭār (1932), p. 93

Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr · Conference of the Birds

My friends, a shower of roses from that garden
As my memoir upon your heads I've rained down.
Since everyone has made some kind of contribution,
Set forth another revelation and passed on,
So I as well like all the rest have shown
The sleepers how the bird of the soul has flown.
- vv. 4491–4493, quoted as epigraph in Leonard Lewisohn and Christopher Shacklevv, eds., The Art of Spiritual Flight (London: I. B. Tauris, 2006)

All things are but masks at God's beck and call,
They are symbols that instruct us that God is all.
- Translated by Raficq Abdulla, The Conference of the Birds: The Selected Sufi Poetry of Farid ud-Din Attar (2002)

All you have been, and seen, and done, and thought,
Not You but I, have seen and been and wrought:
I was the Sin that from Myself rebell'd:
I the Remorse that tow'rd Myself compell'd.
- Translated by Edward FitzGerald, Letters and Literary Remains, ed. W. A. Wright (London: Macmillan and Co, 1889), vol. 2, p. 481

Sin and Contrition — Retribution owed,
And cancell'd — Pilgrim, Pilgrimage, and Road,
Was but Myself toward Myself: and Your
Arrival but Myself at my own Door.
- Translated by Edward FitzGerald, Letters and Literary Remains (1889), vol. 2, p. 481

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.
- Translated by Edward FitzGerald, Letters and Literary Remains (1889), vol. 2, p. 482

Yet what are seas and what is air? For all
Is God, and but a talisman are heaven and earth
To veil Divinity. For heaven and earth,
Did He not permeate them, were but names;
Know then, that both this visible world and that
Which unseen is, alike are God Himself,
Naught is, save God: and all that is, is God.
- Reported in Lucy M. J. Garnett, Mysticism and Magic in Turkey (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912), p. 49

Thou all Creation art, all we behold, but Thou,
The soul within the body lies concealed,
And Thou dost hide Thyself within the soul,
O soul in soul! Myst'ry in myst'ry hid!
Before all wert Thou, and are more than all!
- Reported in Lucy M. J. Garnett, Mysticism and Magic in Turkey (1912), p. 49

Attributed

Pebbles, Pearls and Gems from the Orient (1882)

Quotes reported in: Charles D. B. Mills, ed., Pebbles, Pearls and Gems from the Orient (Boston: George H. Ellis, 1882)

Hassan of Basra asked her (Rabia), "In what manner hast thou known Him?" "O Hassan," she replied, "thou hast known by a certain method and process, but I without these."
- "Knowledge and Wisdom", p. 22, no. 124

Soul of the soul! Neither thought nor reason com-prehends thy essence, and no one knows thy attributes. Souls have no idea of thy being. The prophets them-selves sink in the dust of thy road. Although intellect exists by thee, has it yet ever found the path of thy existence?
O Thou who art in the interior and in the exterior of the soul, thou art and thou art not that which I say. In thy presence, reason grows dizzy; it loses the thread that would direct it in thy way. I perceive clearly the universe in thee, and yet discover thee not in the world. All beings are marked with thy impress, but thyself hast no impress visible. Thou reservest the secret of thine existence.
- (Conway)
- "Invocation", p. 101, no. 538

Thou God art spirit, and the external world is thy name. Thou art treasure, and the totality of the uni-verse is thy talisman.
- "The Symbolism and Incarnation", p. 105, no. 547

He has bent over upon immensity, for the tent-roof of his dwelling, the gorgeous bow of the stars.
- "The Symbolism and Incarnation", p. 105, no. 550

By reason of my surpassing love toward God, I forget entirely Mohammed.
- (Words of Rabia)
- "Celebration and Worship", p. 116, p. 582

I have indeed risen so near to the Divine that the declaration,
"Who comes towards me an inch, through doubtings dim,
In blazing light do I approach a yard towards him,"
has applied to me. What, then, have I to do with the temple?
- (Words ascribed to Rabia)
- "Universality", p. 132, no. 651

I am consumed by a wound in my breast, that can never be healed but by union with my beloved. I shall pine till, in the last day, I reach the goal.
- (Words ascribed to Rabia)
- "The Beauty Unseen", p. 145, no. 678

Know'st thou the cause why the sun must pursue without ceasing his way?
Till the secret be found must he search o'er the regions of space.
See'st thou, perchance, the wild flame of the fire go mounting the skies?
To the heavens it vaults, that it haply may reach to the bosom of God.
See'st thou the storm, swept in wind, pushing on unfooted, unwinged?
O'er the breadth of the earth to the One in the skies it ceaselessly draws.
See'st thou the water with swiftness of lightning shoot on?
To the joy of a kiss from the lips of its love it hasteth to go.
Know'st why the sea so uproars and high tosses its floods?
'Tis because that the heart in its bosom so burns with the flame of desire:
All the world in its soul glows with fire of its love.
Away, then, the shell: to the depths of pure being descend!
- "Aspiration and Immortality", p. 191, no. 715

There was a sailor once in many harbors hailed,
Who full a thousand times had o'er the ocean sailed.
He had a boy majestic as the sun at noon,
And lovely as at evening is the cloud-poised moon.
His cheek was rosy red, and heavenly blue his eye;
So straight his shape, the cypress could not with him vię.
The father was a pious man in every way,
The blameless youth pure as a breath of breaking day.
At last the father must another voyage make,
And will from fervent love his darling with him take.
As to the strand they come, the crew are weeping there;
For each himself from brothers, parents, friends, must tear.
They go bidding their loves adieu from door to door,
And in the resurrection day they'll meet once more.
The father and his son, too, step aboard apace,
And from the deafening crowd and clamor reach their place.
The sail is spread: the ship the even billows rides,
The youth says: "Father, why didst thou exchange our life
Of beauteous peace, to face the wrathful ocean's strife?
No house is on the waves, no palace on the sea.
Come back, and on the flood again I will not be."
As through the unimpeding air an arrow glides.
Then says the father: "All the world, my child, behold,
Driven right and left and near and far by lust and gold.
'Tis sweet to sail the sea, for, when the danger's o'er,
Great wealth and honor is the fruit the danger bore."
To him the boy: "Father, no prize this brings, methinks;
For fame or pleasure, thus won, soon to nothing sinks.
Father, alas! thy vain discourse has given me pain;
Oh, let me leave the sea, and go on shore again!"
Replies the father: "Dearest boy, give me thy trust;
Compared with thee, my gold and silver are but dust.
My child, where'er I look, there is of thee some trace:
The earth, moon, sun, and sky are mirrors of thy face.
'Tis but from love for thee that I the ocean plough:
Should'st thou go hence, O son, my life would fail me now!"
"Dear father, thou know'st not the mystery aright.
Let me reveal to thee the Absolute's own light.
Know, father, in the heart I dwell of the Alone.
Simorg am I, the mountain infinite my throne.
A Revelation saw I from the flood upshoot,
Saw rise from th' sea an image of the Absolute."
"Dear soul," then said the father, "cease from such discourse:
Before an old man boastest thou thy wisdom's source?
O infant! with the shell of Law be thou content;
Truth absolute is not as sport to children sent."
"Father," replies the youth, "my eye towards home is turned;
I see the way for which my heart has ever yearned.
The sea's a symbol how one must destroy self's root:
Upon the inmost self-hood now exults my foot.
Love waves a flaming torch and goes as guide before.
Reason, begone! who follows love needs thee no more.
I see but One, and quickly fling the rest behind:
His love's bright eye alone I seek to find."
In rage, the father cries: "Silence this instant keep,
Pert babbler, ere I throw thee in the yawning deep.
My precious gem, in need of reason thou dost stand;
The Absolute is not for thee, but Law's firm land."
"Thou understand'st me not," the love-drunk stripling cries:
"Know in each soul the hidden Loved One slumbering lies.
Know that I to myself seem as the sea of life:
I see my spirit with thee and all beings rife.
Why shall I not the truth announce? not I am heard:
I fade away, and God himself speaks through my word.
Would'st cast me in the sea? Ah, father, quickly do!
There, lost to self, the wave will give me life that's true.
Father, I am the Loved One: Godhead through me gleams;
Incessant Revelation in my bosom streams;
And Revelation says, 'Thy soul's a prisoner chained
In the ship of Time and Space whoever sinks has gained.'
Says Revelation, 'Swiftly leap beneath God's waves:
'Tis thus thy riddle, deathless Soul, solution craves.'
I am God, father, and my being sinks in him,
Even as a drop within the sea's stupendous rim."
He shouts, and springs amidst the waves from where he stands:
The crew, with bitter grief, lament and wring their hands.
As in the sun a pure snow-flake dissolves to tears,
The beauteous youth beneath the flood so disappears.
The father gazes where that plunge a gurgling makes:
A piercing groan from out his anguished bosom breaks.
Then, realizing all, sudden he looks around,
Steps to the frail edge, is gone with silent bound.
Like points within a circle, stand the crew all dumb:
Spell-bound each stands, like a pearl in the mussel numb.
- (Essences of Substance)
- "Miscellaneous", p. 213, no. 765
  - "Godhead through me gleams" = Literally, Godhead fills me through and through

Then spake one of the clear-seeing birds,
"The way extends from moon to moon":
"We have," came answer, "seven seas
Of light and fire yet to conquer;
And when at length we've gone through these,
We next are taken in by a huge fish,
That swallows up at single draught
Both fore-time and the future."
* * * * * * * *
Of so many thousands,
Fewest came to the sought-for goal.
The whole world of birds undertook the journey,
But in the end there came to goal but three:
These, without pinions, wingless,
In spirit broken, and at heart most sick.
They saw the Supreme Majesty
Exalted above reason.
Behold, they say, the sun in sight
Of majesty like this is but a mote,—
How, then, shall we attain to it?
Alas, alas, our journey's all in vain!
We have ascended to the heights of being,
Have soared up to the whole,
But have not found that which we sought.
Half dead, they sunk engulfed in naught,
And there they long time lay.
Then came a heaven's messenger
All of a sudden before them.
He spoke "Good folk, and whence are ye,
And wherefore have ye hither come?
What hap has fallen you in the world,
And what is your condition?"
They said: "Hither have we come
To have great Simorg for our king;
Lost pilgrims here we are
Of his court and way.
Already long time have we travelled it,
And from thousands are we now but three.
In the hope we've come
To look upon him, face to face.
If what we've suffered pleases him,
Then may he deign to us one single look."
The angel said, "Ye troubled souls,
Yes, his heart in mercy pities you,
And hastes herewith to your relief."
* * * * * * * *
The bird soul was ashamed;
Their body was quite annihilated;
They had cleaned themselves from the dust,
And were by the light ensouled.
What was, and was not, the past,
The sun from near by beamed
Clearest light into their soul;
The resplendence of the Simorg beamed
Was wiped out from their breast.
As one back from all three.
They knew not, amazed, if they
Were either this or that.
They saw themselves all as Simorg,
Themselves in the eternal Simorg;
When to the Simorg up they looked,
They beheld him among themselves;
And when they looked on each other
They saw themselves in the Simorg.
A single look grouped the two parties,
The Simorg emerged, the Simorg vanished
This in that, and that in this,
As the world has never heard.
So remained they, sunk in wonder,
Thoughtless in deepest thinking,
And quite unconscious of themselves.
Speechless prayed they to the Highest
To open this secret,
And to unlock Thou and We.
Then came an answer without tongue:—
"The Highest is a sun-mirror:
Who comes to him sees himself therein,—
Sees body and soul, and soul and body.
When you came to the Simorg,
Three therein appeared to you;
And, had fifty of you come,
So had you seen yourselves as many.
Him has none of us yet seen:
Ants see not the Pleiades;
Can the gnat grasp with his teeth
The body of the elephant?
What you see is he not,
What you hear is he not.
The valleys which you traverse,
The actions which you perform,—
They lie under our treatment
And among our properties.
You as three birds are amazed,
Impatient, heartless, confused:
Far over you am I raised,
Since I am, in act, Simorg.
Ye blot out my highest being,
That ye may find yourselves on my throne;
Forever ye blot out yourselves,
As shadows in the sun. Farewell!"
- (The Bird Conversations)
- "Miscellaneous", p. 216, no. 766
  - "Simorg" = the wise fowl, king of birds, whom no eye has seen, living on the summit of Mount Kaf
  - "And were by the light ensouled" = Literally, "They had a new soul, and were of another nature." — See Tholuck's Blüthensammlung, p. 285; Von Hammer's Redekünste, p. 153
  - "This passage is, in our judgment, the most elevated of any to be found in the mystic literature of the East. The veil of the Sufi temple is lifted, and gleam after gleam glistens upon the mortal eye, from which again the Eternal One withdraws and is concealed in the deeps of the canopy of cloud." — Von Hammer, p. 153

Quotes about Attar

Attar has roamed through the seven cities of love while we have barely turned down the first street.
- Rumi, as quoted in Richard Moore and Peter Sheldon, Fodor's Iran (1979), p. 277

God is Eternal … Here in this garden of a lower Eden, Attar perfumed the soul of the humblest of men. This is the tomb of a man so eminent that the dust stirred by his feet would have served as collyrium to the eye of the firmament … and of whom the saints were disciples … In the year of the Hijra 586 he was pursued by the sword of the army which devoured everything, being martyred in the massacre which then took place … Increase, O Lord, his merit … May the glory be with Him who dies not and holds in his hands the keys to unlimited forgiveness and infinite punishment.
- Inscription on Attar's tomb, translated by Garcin de Tassy^{[citation needed]}

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