Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

Theascetichadtoomuchpridesohecouldneversoundly

TraversethePath.Buttherakebywayofhumbleentreaty

AndbeggaryatlastwentdowntotheHouseofPeace.^124

Addressedtotheself-righteousascetic,thisverseonfirstglancesoundslikeasim-
ple ‘salvation through sin’ doctrine typical of the ‘school of decadence’ view of
Ḥāfiẓ, advocated by his nineteenth-centuryfin-de-siècletranslators such as John
PayneandRichardLeGallienne.^125 Butthecrassness andnaivety oftheirinterpre-
tationbecomesevidentonceweexamineḤāfiẓ’stheologyofsininthelightofearly
Islamic ethical teachings. At the finale of his lengthy interpretation of this verse,
‘Abdal-RaḥmānKhatmīLāhūrīrelatesaninterestingmoralconundrumwithwhich
thesixthShī‘iteImām,Ja‘faral-Ṣādiq(d.148/765)wasoncepresented:‘Whatkindof
sincausesthedevoteetogainclosenesstoGod,andwhatsortofactofpiousobedi-
encecausesthedevoteetobeestrangedfromGod?’
‘Any act of devotional obedience that leads to pride causes the devotee’s
estrangement from God [bu‘d], but any sin that culminates in remorse, regret and
shame will result in the devotee’s intimacy and proximity to God [qurbat]’,^126 the
Imāmretorted.Elsewhere,heremarkedinasimilarvein:

Any sin that begins with fear and culminates in begging forgiveness in fact

brings a devotee to God, whereas any work of religious obedience which

beginswithsmugself-satisfactionandculminatesinswollen-headedness[‘ujb]

willcausehimtobecomeacastaway.Thereforethe“righteous”devoteewho

is conceited is a sinner, whereas the sinner who begs forgiveness can be said

tobedevoutlyrighteous.^127

Here, it may be noted that such theological pronouncements on the value of the
‘blessed sin’ by Imām al-Ṣādiq merely elaborate an idea that had already been
broached in a seminal saying ascribed to his illustrious ancestor (the first Shī‘ite),
Imām‘Alī(d.21/661):‘ThesinthatgrievesyouisbetterinthesightofGodthanthe
virtuethatmakesyouproud.’^128 Furthermore,itishardlyincidentalthatImāmṢādiq
was one of the main founders of Sufi love mysticism.^129 Further research into the
spiritualteachingsandSufimysticsofhisperiodimmediatelyfollowinghimreveals
thatḤāfiẓ’sunconventionalviewsaboutsinnotonlyhavemanyantecedentsinearly
Shī‘itethoughtandparallelsamongḥadīthoftheProphet,butaredirectlymodelled
oncertainsayingsbytheclassicalmastersofthePersianSufitraditionaswell.
Intheirstrictdifferentiationbetweenthejurisprudenceoftheheart(fiqhal-bāṭin)
andtheexotericdemandsoftheIslamiccanonicallegalcode,^130 thesayingsofboth
Imāmsconveytoustheimportantspiritualmessagebroachedbrieflyabove,namely
thatvanityandpridearevicesfarmoredetrimentaltothepursuitofvirtuethanany
ofthecommonpeccadilloesdefinedbyliteralistSharī‘a-centricpiety.Fromtheninth
centuryonwards,numeroussayingsbyPersianSufiteachersbegantoreiteratethis
(a)moralmessage.Areviewofsomeofthesesayingsherewillbeveryuseful:

ḤāfiẓandthePersianSufiTradition 179