Khwaja Fariduddin Attar was once sitting in his shop, when a Faqeer came by and started staring at all the fancy glass bottles full of perfumes. When Khwaja asked him the reason to stare like this, he said ‘I am just wondering how will your soul leave your body when it is trapped in these fancy glass bottles here.’

Fariduddin Attar replied : ‘My soul will leave my body the same way that your soul will leave yours’.

To this, the faqeer said ‘My soul will leave like this’. Then he recited the Kalma and lay down on the ground. When fariduddin tried to gently shake him, he realised that the faqeer’s soul had indeed left his body.

This incident was a turning point in his life and he then became one of the famous saint/scholars of all time.

This anecdote does tell us how precarious life is, but it also reminds us that really petty things can have a titanic influence on our lives.