Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

(^11) See,forexample,theilluminatingremarksofAnnemarieSchimmelinheranalysisofthecharacteris-
ticsofthePersianghazal:‘Therhetoricaldeviceswhichareanintegralpartofthatpoem,arevery
carefullyobserved:murā‘ātan-nazīrrequiresthattheimagesinaversestandinawell-definedrelation
toeachother.Whentheroseismentioned,wecandefinitelyexpectanightingale,andprobablyone
ortwomoreimagesfromthegarden.IfaQur’ānicprophetappears,hisspecificqualitiesorthoseof
someotherprophetarelikelytoappear.Itistheartofthegreatmasterstomaintainaperfectequi-
libriumofimagesinsuchawaythattheyseemperfectlynatural,asexemplifiedintheworkofḤāfiẓ.
Thistechniquegivestheverseacertainsymmetryand,asinaperfectclassicalPersianminiature,
everythinghasitsplacesothat,asinminiaturepainting,onemayspeakofatwo-dimensionalsystem
ofsignsthathaveequal,ornear-equalvalue.’AsThroughaVeil:MysticalPoetryinIslam,pp.58–9.
(^12) SeeFurūzānfar,Aḥādīth-i Mathnawī,no.106.
(^13) SeeDīvān-i Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ,ed.Sāyeh,ghazal146;Dīwān-i Ḥāfiẓ,ed.Khānlarī,ghazal148.
TranslationbyLeonardLewisohn.
(^14) Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ,ed.Khānlarī,ghazal298:4.
(^15) Ibid.,ghazal259:2.
(^16) Ibid.,ghazals38:9;131:6.
(^17) Ibid.,ghazals21:1;22:5.
(^18) Qur’ān,7:172.SeealsoPurjavādī,‘‘Ishq-iazalīvabāda-yialast’,pp.26–31.
(^19) Qur’ān,3:31.
(^20) Actually,thisTrustwasfirstproposedtotheheavensandearthandthemountains,butwhenthey
shrankfrombearingit,Adam/manacceptedit(Qur’ān,33:72),notonlybecausehewasnotawareof
itsweight,butbecausehewaspromised,sosaytheSufis,avisionoftheFaceofGodandtheexperi-
enceoflove.Thus,Ḥāfiẓ(Dīvān-iḤāfiẓ,ed.Khānlarī,ghazal179:3)writes:‘Theheavenscouldnotbear
theweightoftheTrust./Whenthelotswerethrownagain,theTrust/Fellonman,onme,anidiot
andafool.’Trans.BlyandLewisohn,TheAngelsKnockingontheTavernDoor,p.39.SeealsoPeterAvery
(trans.),The Collected Lyrics of Háfiz of Shíráz,p.238,n.1.
(^21) Purjavadī(‘‘Ishq-iazalī...’,p.26)explainsthatthecovenantatanearlierstageintheSufitradition
hadbeeninterpretedasbeinga‘pactofmutuallove’.[SeealsoA.A.Seyed-Gohrab’sessayinthis
volume –Ed.]
(^22) Shamsal-DīnMuḥammad,b.Qaysal-Rāzī,thedrythirteenth-centurytheoreticianoftheartofpoetry
whoisbynomeansamysticalauthor,states:‘Knowthatetymologically,thewordshi‘r[poetry]sig-
nifiesknowledgeandcomprehensionofthemeaningsbyexactconjectureandcorrectreasoning.’Al-
Mu‘jam fī ma‘āyir ash’ār al-‘ajam,p.188.
(^23) Etymologyisagainquiteinterestingheresincethewordforworld(‘ālam)isrelatedtotheroot‘alima,
meaning‘toknow,toperceive’,havingalsodevelopedinto‘sign’(‘alāmat),asifthewholeuniverse
wereasignthatpointstowardsknowledgeofGod.
(^24) Furūzānfar,Aḥādīth-i Mathnawī,no.70.
(^25) Seenote20above.
(^26) Ṭufayl-i hastī-yi ‘ishqand ādamī u parī.Trans.BlyandLewisohn,Angels,p.53:Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ,ed.Khānlarī,
ghazal443;Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ,ed.Sāyih,ghazal441.
(^27) Seenote20.
(^28) Abū’l-‘Alā al-Ma‘arrī,Risālat al-ghufrān, pp. 361–2. Quoted by Heller-Roazen,Echolalias: On the
Forgetting of Language,p.215.
(^29) Inthisghazal,v.5,thepoetreferstothelotsofdestiny(qur‘a-yi qismat)havingbeentossedand
drawnforthosewhoareheedlesslypreoccupiedwithlife’ssensualpleasures(‘aysh),butinanother
ghazal(Dīvān,ed.Khānlarī,ghazal179:3),hesaysthat‘thelotsoftheaffair’(qur‘a-yi kār)cameup‘on
me,anidiotandafool’.Seealsonote20above.
(^30) SeeHeller-Roazen’silluminatingessayEcholalias,whichendsupwiththeimageofthetowerofBabel
asametaphorofmankind’simprisonmentinoblivion:‘Andaslongastheycontinuedtomoveinthe
airtransformedbydivinedecree,theywouldcontinuetoforget,and,inthisway,toallowthefor-
gottentoremainaboutthem;they,andtheirchildrenafterthem,wouldstillbreathintheelement
Ḥāfiẓ and the School of Love in Classical Persian Poetry 137