Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

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TheReligionofLoveandAntinomianTraditionsinIslam

A thousand enigmas subtler, finer spun than

A strand of hair lie here, and thus not everyone

Who shaves his scalp can understand the rite of the Wildman.^51

• Ḥāfiẓ

Like Christianity, Islam harbours many important antinomian traditions. By the
eleventh century, antinomian mystics who considered that Islamic ritual practices
and the sacred Law (sharī‘a) could be dispensed with, leaving them free to commit
any transgressions and sins that they wanted to on the basis of their inspired mys-
tical vision and enlightened understanding, had appeared among the Sufis.^52 One of
these antinomian traditions that originally developed among early Shi‘ite groups
was the doctrine ofIbāḥat(libertinism).
A variety of terms in classical Persian literature soon became used to refer to
these antinomian mystics:qalandars (vagabonds, wildmen),rind(inspired libertine),
qallāsh(knave),mubāḥī(libertine),dīvāna(lunatic) andlā-ubālī(daredevil, desper-
ado). The latter term, literally meaning ‘I couldn’t care less’, indicates a cavalier
attitude that damns the consequences of all prodigal and immoral conduct. We find
many verses by Sa‛dī and Ḥāfiẓ praising both the daredevillā-ubālīand the wildman
qalandarattitude.^53 Sa‛dī says:

For learned quartos what use has the reckless lover?

Why should the lunatic’s moonstruck mind forbear

To hear the preacher’s horatory admonitions?

Why should lovers give a twit about abuse

And calumny from friend or foe? There’s not

Much choice in either case: they suffer on the rack

Of love or bear the weight of slurs and smears.^54

In the following lines, Ḥāfiẓ celebrates the perfect antinomian lover in the person of
the Sufi Shaykh Ṣan‘ān, who fell in love with a Christian girl, abandoned Islam, and
through his apostasy demonstrated his true faith to the Religion of Love:

If you profess yourself a devotee of

The highway of most noble Love

Never give a second thought for name

Or what men say is all ‘ill-fame’,

Recall the cap and gown

Of great Shaykh Ṣan‘ān –

For months in hock, put in

The wine-seller’s shop for pawn.^55

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry