In Farid al-Din Attar's The Conference of the Birds, the story of the ascetic who worships for four hundred years but becomes captivated by a bird's song serves as an allegory for the Sufi principle of absolute detachment and the exclusivity of Divine Love. God's reprimand to the ascetic demonstrates that true spiritual devotion demands a heart entirely free from worldly attachments. Even a seemingly innocent comfort, if it competes with the seeker's focus on God, is viewed as abandoning the Divine Beloved for the material world. This narrative emphasizes that God accepts no rivals in the heart of the seeker.