Omar and other Sufi poets used popular similes and picturedtheordinary joys of life so that the worldly man could comparemundanepleasures with the superior joys experienced in thespiritual life.To the man who drinks wine in order to forget,temporarily, theunbearable sorrows and trials of his life, Omaroffers a delightfulalternative: the nectar of divine ecstasy, whichleads to divineenlightenment, thereby obliterating human woepermanently. SurelyOmar did not go through the labor of writing somany exquisiteverses merely to inspire people to escape sorrow bydrugging theirsenses with alcohol!