Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

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Don’t allow the flirty side-glances of beauties

To teach you injustice. We know that in the religion of love

Each act returns with its own consequences.^37

* * *

The only prayer apse

The heart of Ḥāfiẓ has

Is your eyebrow’s arch

For in our faith

It’s you alone, none else

Commands obeisance.^38

* * *

Above homage and obeisance to lunatics

Do not seek more from us, for our sect’s master

Professed all intellectualism to be wickedness.^39

* * *

‘To wear the dervish robe and then to drink wine,

That’s not a rite of true doctrine.’

I said. ‘Indeed,’ she said, ‘but in the Magian

Master’s rite of faith, that’s all holy doctrine.’^40

* * *

I followed the path of the mad libertines for years

Long enough, until I was able, with the decree

Of intelligence, to put my greediness into prison.^41

* * *

On the spiritual road, being uncooked and raw

Is a mark of unbelief; it’s best to move along the path

Of fortune with nimbleness and springy knees.^42

While much of the poetry of Rūmī, Sa‛dī and Ḥāfiẓ has been penned by way of
exposition of the Religion of Love, the abstruse spiritual principles of this faith
remain virtually unknown to many students of Islamic thought, whether in the East
or in the West. Below I will provide an overview of the basic principles of Islam’s
erotic theology as depicted by the classical Persian poets, illustrated by examples
from the Qur’ān and Persian literature.

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry