Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

102

But whom should he assuage

If you are without pain?^105

To whom may I relate such a subtlety?

She killed me – my stony-hearted mistress,

Yet possessed the life-giving breath of Jesus.^106

Since God’s grace is vouchsafed to the lover immediately in the present moment,
the supplications and prayers offered up in the Religion of Love are neither to
obtain welfare in the present here and now nor salvation in the future life. From the
great archangels, whether they be Gabriel or Michael, down to the inhabitants of
the fairy kingdom, denizens of the demon empire and the kingdom of the beasts,
and then up to Satan’s disobedience and pride, followed by Adam’s sin and later
repentance, along with all the graces and calamities sent by Heaven which have
been recorded in holy scriptures about past communities – in the Religion of Love
such circumstances fill the mystic’spresentialawareness.These legends are tangible
issues of the present moment that facilitate the lover’s pursuit ofEros, food for his
soul that he consumeshoc temporein the pursuit of knowledge, goodness and
beauty, which incite him to excel in the only serious sport:Amor.Thus, for example,
referring to Noah’s Ark cast upon the flood, Ḥāfiẓ says:

Don’t desert your mates and quit the ark

Of Noah, Ḥāfiẓ, else this typhoon of

Vicissitudes shall blow your ship to bits.^107

Conclusion

From the above review of the doctrine of the Religion of Love in classical Persian

poetry, several conclusions may be drawn.

Firstly, it is clear that there is an actual religion – or faith – of love (dīnyāmadh-

hab-i‘ishq) in Persian mystical literature. The proponents or prophets of this erotic

faith comprise some of the greatest poets of the Persian language. They include the

likes of Niẓāmī, Sa‛dī, Rūmī and Ḥāfiẓ, who have been sent by God-as-Eros, charged

with the mission of converting mankind to their philosophy of love.

In the second place, this religion of love is founded on principles of love innate

within each human being, in accordance with the original disposition that God

instilled within him that prompt him to pursue and love Beauty, Knowledge and

Goodness.

Thirdly, this religion is not contrary to the tenets of any of the other divinely

revealed religions of mankind. Anyone can become a votary of the religion of love

regardless of previous socio-cultural conditioning, for conversion to love’s creed

lends new life to the faith which one already has.

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry