be taken by those who forget themselves. In love, the faithful have to pay with the blood of their hearts; otherwise their love is not worth a grain of rye. So you are leading me, revealing the true faith of love, even if your faith should remain hidden forever. 34
Without hope in his love (Layla’s father will not let them marry) Majnoun spiritualises it. In going into the desert, losing his selfhood in madness, stepping outside all ordinary conventions and writing poetry, he has effectively become a Sufi. 35 So even this overtly profane story has a spiritual dimension that is not immediately apparent. But to have psychological force, the metaphor and the spiritual message first require our sympathy with the lovers’ predicament. The poem is not simply about the Sufi’s approach to God. It is both that and a love story—and therein lies its human appeal. It has been translated into almost every language in the Islamic world, as well as many others beyond it.
Farid Al-Din Attar, who lived from around 1158 to around 1221 or 1229 in Nishapur, wrote more than 45,000 lines of verse over his lifetime. He established the elements of a theory of a ‘religion of love,’ which strongly influenced all subsequent Sufi poets, and developed the idea of the qalandar , the wild man, outcast, whose only guide is the ethic of that religion:
Har ke ra dar ‘eshq mohkam shod qadam
Dar-gozasht az kofr va az islam ham
Whoever sets foot firmly forward in love
Will go beyond both Islam and unbelief 36
The classic of Attar’s poetry is the Mantiq al-tayr , The Conference of the Birds , one of the best-known Persian poems of all. Embedded within the charming and wonderfully-told story of the birds questing for the mysteriousphoenix, the simorgh , is the story of Shaykh San‘an, which brings out the full meaning of Sufism in its logical extreme, and is deliberately provocative and shocking in the Islamic context. The story was important and influential in the later development of Sufism.
Shaykh San‘an is a learned, well-respected, holy man, who has always done the right thing. He has made the pilgrimage to Mecca fifty times, has fasted and prayed, and has taught four hundred pupils. He argues fine points of religious law and is admired by everyone. But he has a recurring dream, in which he lives in Rum (by which was probably meant the Christian part of Anatolia, or possibly Constantinople, rather than Rome itself), and worships in a Christian church there. This is disturbing, and he concludes that to resolve the problem, he must go to the Christian territory. He sets off, but just short of his goal, he sees a Christian girl— In beauty’s mansion she was like a sun…
Her eyes spoke promises to those in love,
Their fine brows arched coquettishly above -
Those brows sent glancing messages that seemed
To offer everything her lovers dreamed.
and, as sometimes happens, the old man falls in love
‘I have no faith’ he cried. ‘The heart I gave
Is useless now; I am the Christian’s slave.’
His companions try to get Shaykh San‘an to see reason, but he answers them in terms even more shocking and subversive. They tell him to pray—he agrees, but (instead of toward Mecca, as a Muslim should) asks to know where her face is, that he may pray in her direction. Another asks him whether he does not regret turning away from Islam, and he answers that he only regrets his previous folly, and that he had not fallen in love before. Another says he has lost his wits, and he says he has, and also his fame, but fraud and fear too along with them. Another urges him to confess his shame before God, and he replies God Himself has lit this flame .
The Shaykh lives with the dogs in the dust of the street in front of his beloved’s house for a month, until he falls ill. He begs her to show him some pity, some affection, and she laughs, mocks him and says he isold—he should be looking for a shroud, not for love. He begs again, and she says
Without hope in his love (Layla’s father will not let them marry) Majnoun spiritualises it. In going into the desert, losing his selfhood in madness, stepping outside all ordinary conventions and writing poetry, he has effectively become a Sufi. 35 So even this overtly profane story has a spiritual dimension that is not immediately apparent. But to have psychological force, the metaphor and the spiritual message first require our sympathy with the lovers’ predicament. The poem is not simply about the Sufi’s approach to God. It is both that and a love story—and therein lies its human appeal. It has been translated into almost every language in the Islamic world, as well as many others beyond it.
Farid Al-Din Attar, who lived from around 1158 to around 1221 or 1229 in Nishapur, wrote more than 45,000 lines of verse over his lifetime. He established the elements of a theory of a ‘religion of love,’ which strongly influenced all subsequent Sufi poets, and developed the idea of the qalandar , the wild man, outcast, whose only guide is the ethic of that religion:
Har ke ra dar ‘eshq mohkam shod qadam
Dar-gozasht az kofr va az islam ham
Whoever sets foot firmly forward in love
Will go beyond both Islam and unbelief 36
The classic of Attar’s poetry is the Mantiq al-tayr , The Conference of the Birds , one of the best-known Persian poems of all. Embedded within the charming and wonderfully-told story of the birds questing for the mysteriousphoenix, the simorgh , is the story of Shaykh San‘an, which brings out the full meaning of Sufism in its logical extreme, and is deliberately provocative and shocking in the Islamic context. The story was important and influential in the later development of Sufism.
Shaykh San‘an is a learned, well-respected, holy man, who has always done the right thing. He has made the pilgrimage to Mecca fifty times, has fasted and prayed, and has taught four hundred pupils. He argues fine points of religious law and is admired by everyone. But he has a recurring dream, in which he lives in Rum (by which was probably meant the Christian part of Anatolia, or possibly Constantinople, rather than Rome itself), and worships in a Christian church there. This is disturbing, and he concludes that to resolve the problem, he must go to the Christian territory. He sets off, but just short of his goal, he sees a Christian girl— In beauty’s mansion she was like a sun…
Her eyes spoke promises to those in love,
Their fine brows arched coquettishly above -
Those brows sent glancing messages that seemed
To offer everything her lovers dreamed.
and, as sometimes happens, the old man falls in love
‘I have no faith’ he cried. ‘The heart I gave
Is useless now; I am the Christian’s slave.’
His companions try to get Shaykh San‘an to see reason, but he answers them in terms even more shocking and subversive. They tell him to pray—he agrees, but (instead of toward Mecca, as a Muslim should) asks to know where her face is, that he may pray in her direction. Another asks him whether he does not regret turning away from Islam, and he answers that he only regrets his previous folly, and that he had not fallen in love before. Another says he has lost his wits, and he says he has, and also his fame, but fraud and fear too along with them. Another urges him to confess his shame before God, and he replies God Himself has lit this flame .
The Shaykh lives with the dogs in the dust of the street in front of his beloved’s house for a month, until he falls ill. He begs her to show him some pity, some affection, and she laughs, mocks him and says he isold—he should be looking for a shroud, not for love. He begs again, and she says
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