The Meaning of Life in Attar Neishabouri's Mossibat-Nameh

The meaning of life is one of the common issues between past and contemporary humans and each of them with their own attitudes viewed this category. Analysis of the type of the past human’s attitude in this regard-particularly, if it enjoys a mystical world view-is worth considering for contemporary human beings. Although it may seem that this attitude does not pay too much attention to the life of this world, this research, with emphasis on Mossibat-Nameh will indicate that Attar knows that finding meaning is part of human nature. He knows that meaningful life is related to pain, search, God, love, and paying attention to quality of life, and not its quantity. Since these affairs, somehow enjoy the intellectual and spiritual background and result, they have been approached through Attar’s attitude to the theory of supernaturalism. He indicates nature/functionality of life and the type of confrontation of humans to that, in the form of images of life, such as play, hell, prison, saltmarsh, the demons’ ruins, market/bridge/farmland, wind/lightening, and capital. Finally, through them, he states that the life of this world is not final or the main target, rather it is a tool to achieve the life of the next world.