The beggar

“So fiercely jealous of your liberty?
Your lure is love, and when the jess is tied,
Submit and be forever satisfied.
Give up the intellect for love and see
In one brief moment all eternity.”

– Farid ud-din Attar
Conference of the birds


Attar was a pharmacist and while working in the pharmacy, a beggar came in. He asked him for help. Attar declined. The beggar asked him again, but Attar stayed vigilant and refused to give the beggar alms.
This went on for a while, but eventually the beggar asked Attar a question: “How will you leave this world?”
Attar answered: “In the same way that you are.”
“Can you really die like me?”, the beggar wondered.
“Of course.”, Attar said.
Immediately the beggar lay down on the bare earth and put his beggar’s bowl underneath his head. He said: “ALLAH”, and died.
When Attar witnessed this, he became confused and left his shop to go on a spiritual journey.

Have you left your clinging for worldly goods behind?


Vanessa