In Chapter 22, Poem 11 of Attar's Mokhtar Nameh, the poet reflects on the inevitability of death to encourage a courageous acceptance of mortality. Attar argues that since death is a certainty, one must face it bravely rather than succumbing to helplessness. To further diminish the fear and sorrow associated with death, he reduces the human physical form to its base components—"blood, impurity, and a handful of veins and sinews." By emphasizing the insignificance of the material body and suggesting one assume it "never was," Attar questions the very basis of human sorrow over the loss of physical life.