33 pages • 1 hour read
Farid ud-Din AttarThe Conference of the Birds
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 124-166Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 124-139 Summary
In the previous section, several birds questioned the hoopoe about their character flaws holding them back in the journey to the Simorgh. This section begins with one bird accepting the hoopoe’s leadership, confessing that he is “ignorant of right and wrong” (124), and so should submit himself to the hoopoe’s guidance. The hoopoe applauds the bird’s decision, telling him that one hour of guidance is more beneficial than an entire pious lifetime without it. He tells several stories that illustrate the benefits of guidance and submission. The majority of these stories celebrate prisoners or slaves who are humble, and serve God with dignity.
The next bird insists, unlike many of the birds before him, that he is bound to nothing and could take the journey if he achieves “purity of heart” (128). The hoopoe answers that only the strong and pure will be able to complete the journey and it is necessary to be fully detached from earthly loves. He speaks of an enlightened sheikh who loved his son and horse, and would give thanks if they both died since they “entice, as idols would, [his] spirit from the Way” (129). The hoopoe tells two stories to illustrate his point that compensate earthly loss with God’s eternal love.
The following bird says the hoopoe has inspired him, and though he may seem weak and despondent, he “burns with aspiration’s noble flame” (132) to seek the Simorgh. The hoopoe praises aspiration as “life’s strength, the wings by which we fly/Beyond the further reaches of the sky” (132) and follows with four stories concerning aspiration in various contexts of poverty: an old woman who attempts to buy the biblical Jacob as a slave in Egypt with thread; a conversation with Ibrahim Adham about the virtue of abject poverty; another conversation between Sheikh Ghouri and Prince Sanjar under a bridge; and an anecdote concerning aspiration.
Another bird asks the hoopoe where the qualities of loyalty and justice rank for the Simorgh. The hoopoe answers that living a just life exceeds a lifetime of prayer and piousness, but that just deeds should be done in secret, rather than publicized to the world. The hoopoe then tells several stories, including the tale of a Muslim who tries to murder an infidel while he is praying, and is reprimanded by a voice from the heavens that his “false piety/Is less than this poor pagan’s loyalty” (138).
Pages 140-166 Summary
Continuing the long question and answer session between the birds and the hoopoe, a bird asks if audacity, or the willingness to take bold risks, is allowed by the Simorgh, citing that audacity is needed to conquer fear. The hoopoe answers that people who know the secrets of Sufism are permitted boldness since they are “filled with reverence to the brim” (140), but new pilgrims are not permitted audacity because it only derives from an excess of joy. The hoopoe then tells five fables to illustrate this point.
The next bird claims he only lives for the Simorgh, and boasts “how few/Can manage to adore Him as I do!” (144). The hoopoe chastises the bird for bragging, telling him that the Simorgh isn’t deceived by lies, and the process of devotion is much more subtle than the bird expressed. He then warns that if pride drives his spiritual desire, he will never receive enlightenment and will actually send the bird to hell. The hoopoe follows this with four stories illustrating the differences between pride and spiritual devotion.
The next bird claims to be satisfied with his spiritual state. He tells the hoopoe he is already “unworldly and devout” and he has “gained the sum of wisdom” in his own land; the hoopoe retorts that the bird is “lost in self-love” and is deceived by his own arrogance (148). He goes on to explain that the bird’s devoutness is a fantasy propagated by the Self, and he needs to “free [himself] from the thoughts of ‘me’ and ‘I’” (149) in order to reach true spiritual wisdom. He then tells several stories where a character detaches from their Self and particularly detaches from the “I” pronoun.
The next bird asks the hoopoe for advice on how to conquer his fear of traveling, saying that he rejects the influence of “the crowd” and doesn’t have any wisdom of his own. The hoopoe tells the bird that he can trust in the Simorgh because there is “no sorrow He cannot console” (154) and he is right to avoid the influence of others. The hoopoe’s stories that follow all warn against being distracted by the faults of others.
The next bird wonders what gift he should ask for from the Simorgh when the birds complete their journey. The hoopoe calls him a fool, and asks what’s worth more than simply standing in the grace of the Simorgh. The stories that follow praise poverty and assert that the “soul needs only Him” (161).
The final bird in this section asks what gifts he should bring to the Simorgh, citing that a king deserves a special offering and “only a miser would be ruled by thrift” (162). The hoopoe answers that the bird needs his guidance and there is no point in hauling an expensive earthly present to the Simorgh. He goes on to say a sufficient gift is “if one sigh rises from the innermost soul” (163) from enduring the anguish of the journey. The accompanying stories repeat the image of sighing from the soul from characters enduring hard circumstances.
Pages 124-166 Analysis
After the long line of questioning that mainly concerned vices, fears, and general character flaws in the previous section that corresponds to the dissolution of the Self, the poem enters another stage of questioning, mirroring the progress the birds have already made in their quest for enlightenment. The birds now primarily question the hoopoe about how their virtues will be received by the Simorgh. The analogy of beginning pupil questioning the sheikh of possible spiritual trials continues, but a different tenor of concerns reflects the progress made on their spiritual path.
The section begins with an acceptance of the hoopoe’s spiritual leadership, and concedes he does not know right from wrong on his own. A dominant theme of this part of the poem is the importance of spiritual guidance, as the relationship between sheikh (the hoopoe) and pupil (the birds) is integral to Sufi enlightenment. Many of the birds’ questions concern positive characteristics such as aspiration, audacity, loyalty, and justice. The hoopoe addresses these traits as essentially positive but useless, or even dangerous, without the guidance of a sheikh. Obedience, for example, is not a virtue unless it is combined with dignity, as in the story of the death of Sheikh Khergan (127-28). Since this story appears in the context of a bird’s acceptance of the hoopoe’s spiritual leadership, we can infer that one needs guidance to achieve a successful synthesis of spiritual obedience and dignity.
In the hoopoe’s opinion, spiritual guidance is particularly necessary in destroying the idolatry of the Self. Even feeling secure in your devotion to God without a spiritual leader, as with the bird who is satisfied with his spiritual state, is a manifestation of arrogance and selfhood. The Self exists in adhering to societal convention as well as within the body. As is true in medieval Roman Catholicism, medieval Islam was rife with inflexible stereotypes of piousness that created societal constructs. In the section concerning fear, for example, the story titled “a drunkard accusing a drunkard” tells of a sober man carrying home his drunk neighbor. He tells his neighbor, “If you’d had fewer drinks, just two or three,/You would be walking now as well as me” (154). The hoopoe uses this invocation of spiritual arrogance and the self to point out how the man “saw the other’s state but not his own” (155), which is one of spiritual poverty. In the context of fear, this causes the reader to reflect on the fear of defying societal opinion, like inherently seeing a sober person as more virtuous than a drunk.
It is also noteworthy in tracking the spiritual progress of the birds to examine the way the birds pose their concerns. This bird says, “I must be told how I can conquer fear” (153), rather than “I am fearful,” as in prior sections. This wording shows a deference to spiritual leadership but also a willingness to transcend fear that places these characters on the precipice of seeking enlightenment.
