Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

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And to the faithful – grant them faith;

But for the heart of ‘Aṭṭār, let

One ounce of your pain remain.^12

Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn al-‘Arabī (d. 638/1240) of Andalusia in Spain, known as theShaykh
al-akbar, the ‘Supreme Shaykh’, was one of the first Sufis to describe the Religion of
Love in a specifically ecumenical sense. In his theosophical works composed in
Arabic, he gave explicit theological expression to a separate religious creed that he
called the Religion of Love (Dīnal-ḥubb) – a faith which embraced all manifestations
of reality – while encompassing yet transcending their divergent appearances. The
following verses are among the most famous and admired lines ever composed in
Islamic – if not world – civilization on the theme of this transcendental erotic reli-
gious creed:

Pasture between breastbones

and innards.

Marvel,

a garden among flames!

My heart can take on

any form:

for gazelles, a meadow

a cloister for monks,

For the idols, sacred ground,

Ka‘ba for the circling pilgrim,

the tables of the Toráh,

the scrolls of the Qur’án.

I profess the religion of love;

wherever its caravan turns

along the way, that is the belief,

the faith I keep.^13

The other great Arab mystical poet – a contemporary of Ibn ‘Arabī who lived in
Egypt – who belonged to this same School of Love was ‘Umar ibn Fāriḍ (d. 633/1235).
Ibn Fāriḍ’s entire poetical oeuvre is one immense paean in praise of love’s myster-
ies, a hymn composed in exposition of the subtleties, sublime degrees and mystical
states of Islamic erotic spirituality. Although all his verse was composed in Arabic,
many of the later literati of Persia honoured his genius by giving him the honorary
title of ‘Ḥāfiẓ of the West’. In his famous Wine-ode (Qaṣīda-yikhamriyya), Ibn Fāriḍ
describes in great detail the quickening qualities and effects of wine upon the spirit

• wine being used here as an allegory for the elixir of love and its intoxication. To

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry