In Poem 76 of Attar's Mokhtar Nameh (Chapter 23), the poet reflects on the heavy spiritual consequences of wasting one's youth in idleness. The poem contrasts the period of youth—when meaningful spiritual work and self-betterment should have been undertaken—with the helpless reality of old age. The speaker questions the individual whose heart has become dark ('like pitch') and whose self has grown base, emphasizing that the failure to cultivate the soul early in life leaves one deeply unprepared and burdened in their later years.