The Conference of the Birds

Dear friends, Ya Ali Madad. Today, we present a tale of wisdom gloriously mentioned by Mowlana Hazir Imam while closing his speech at the first Aga Khan Award for Architecture ceremony in Lahore, Pakistan on October 23rd, 1980. Quote: "Let me close, therefore, by reminding you of Attar’s great poem, the Conference of the Birds, Mantiqat at-Tayr. The birds, you will recall, in huge quantities went in search of the Simurgh, the ideal and perfect king. After my tribulations, thirty of them do reach the end of the journey and come to the gate of the Supreme Majesty. The Chamberlain tests them and then opens the door and they sit on the masnad, the seat of the Majesty and Glory. And, as an inner glow came into them, they realised that it is they together who were the Simurgh and that the Simurgh was the thirty birds." Unquote.