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wanderings,BishrḤāfīcameacrosstheimmortalprophetKhiḍr(sometimesidenti-

fiedwiththeBiblicalEliasandAhasuerusbyMuslimauthors^84 )andappealedforhis

blessings. In reply, Khiḍr prayed, ‘May God conceal your works of obedience from

you’. ‘The inner significance of Khiḍr’s statement’, Lāhūrī explains, ‘in this adage

may be epitomized: “How many acts of obedience are iniquity and how many sins

areblessed!”’,concluding:

From this tale it may be understood that perceiving one’s own learning and

artistictalentandbeholdingone’sintellectuallearningandlegalloreinhibits

realizationofdirectvisionarygnosis[ma‘rifat-ishuhūdī].Thisisbecausedirect

visionarygnosisonlyoccursinastateofthewayfarer’sannihilationfromhis

ownself,charactertraits,andindividualpersonality.^85

Aswehaveseenfromtheforegoingdiscussion,muchofḤāfiẓ’sgeniusisdevotedto

dissecting the psychopathology of religious hypocrisy, to composing lampoons in

verse on spiritual materialism, and deriding the literalistic religious perspective

based on rote learning and devotion by the book. In the following verse, Ḥāfiẓ

derides the ascetic’s vain egocentricity (khwud-bīnī) and complains that the town

preacher,whohypocriticallylaysclaimtoreligiousconvictionandmakesashowof

faithhedoesn’thave,willneverbecomeatrueMuslim:

Iknowthissortoftalkwon’t

beeasyforthecitypreachertotake–

Butsolongasheplaysthehypocrite

andpliesthecraftofmummery

A‘Muslim’iswhathe’llneverbe.^86

Here,hehasinmindboththemoralandthemetaphysicalshortcomingsofthephar-
isaicalIslamicfaithofsuchanimpostor.Onthemorallevel,theascetic’svanity,fury
and misplaced zeal is generated byhubris, insofar as practitioners of ascetic exer-
cises tend to make a display of piety–turning private worship into public exhibi-
tionism,thusleadingtothemalaiseofhypocrisy(riyā).Adangerofanothersortis
thattheascetic’sexcessesmayleadtothedevelopmentofpsychicpowers,causing
himtofallintothedelusionofimagininghimselfasamemberoftheelectandthe
companyofthesaints.Botharespiritualmaladiesoftheworstsort.
Islam’s greatest mystical theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), in the
course of his analysis of the psychology of the abuse of such religious emotions,
thusobservedthat‘thesecondcauseofpridearisesfromasceticism[zuhd]andreli-
gious devotion [‘ibādat]. Ascetics, Sufis and pious devotees [pārsā] are often not
withoutarrogance[takabbur],andtheirafflictionwiththisvicemayevenreachthe
pointthattheyimaginethatothersareactuallyobligatedtoservethemandappeal
tothem,assumingthattheirownpiousdevotionobligeseveryoneelsetovenerate
them!’^87

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry