Sufism

The Valley of Detachment, where desire and need fall away

This valley targets a subtler attachment than possessions — the seeker's need for the journey itself to matter or succeed.

In the fourth valley of Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr, often called the Valley of Detachment or Independence, the traveler is asked to release not just worldly desire but the desire for outcome, including the wish to reach the Simorgh at all. Attar frames this as the point where even spiritual ambition, if still driven by personal want, becomes an obstacle, because wanting anything for oneself, even enlightenment, keeps the self at the center of the journey. This is harder than the material detachment of earlier stages, since it targets the seeker's very motivation for setting out. Birds who pass through this valley do so only by no longer needing the quest to end a particular way, which Attar treats as a necessary precondition for the unity realized in the next valley.

Mantiq al-Tayr (Conference of the Birds)