Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

ḤāfiẓandthePersianSufiTradition 183

who shall forgive sins but God?’^149 Divine mercy is so all-encompassing that it
‘embraces all things’,^150 and men and women together are thus enjoined not to
‘despair of God’s mercy! Surely, God forgives all sins’.^151 Furthermore, the cele-
brated Sacred Tradition, ‘My mercy precedes My wrath’,^152 informs us that the
divineNatureisnotvengeful,butpredominantlymerciful.
GiventheseprecedentsinMuslimscripture,ḥadīthandSufidoctrine,itishardly
surprising to find that the fundamental keynote of Ḥāfiẓ’s moral theology is an
emphasis on God’s mercy and forgiveness (‘afw) of sin.^153 To this theme he even
devotedanentireghazal,thefirstthreeversesofwhichareparticularlyrelevantto
thisdiscussion:

LastnightIheardasingerfrom

Atavernnookstrikeupthistune:

‘Drinkwine,forGodforgivesallsin:

Divineindulgencehasagain

Reprievedyou–all’snowpardoned.

• AbulletinfromMercy’sseraphim.’
  Thesingerpaused,thencriedoutoncemore:
  ‘God’sgraceandfavourissupreme,
  Hisgraceistherealthoughweerr;
  God’sbenisonisgreaterthanoursin.
  Butholdyourtongue;it’sbestyou’remute:
  Thissecretpointkeepclandestine.’^154

Aliteraryprecedent–perhapsoriginalarchetype?–fortheseversesappearsinthe

Manāqibal-‘ārifīn, the sensational hagiographical account of Rūmī’s life and times

by Aflākī.Following the successful completion of a period of 40 days’ seclusion

(chilla), Aflākī relates how Rūmī asked his son Bahā’ al-Dīn Sulṭān Walad to relate

thegreatestdivinemysterydivulgedtohimduringhisretreat.AccordingtoAflākī,

SulṭānWaladsaid:

When thirty days had elapsed in withdrawal I saw various lights like lofty

mountains pass before my gaze and they went by uninterruptedly one troop

after another. From the midst of these lights I clearly heard a voice, saying:

‘Verily,Godforgivessinsaltogether(39/53).’ This voice reached the ear of my

consciousness in unbroken succession, and from the pleasure of the voice I

lost my senses. And again I saw red-, green-, and white-coloured tablets held

upbeforemysight,andwrittenonthemwerethewords:‘Everysinisforgiven

youexceptturningawayfromme.’

StraightawayMowlānāletoutashoutandbegantospinabout,andatumult

broke out due to the excitement of the companions. Mowlānā said: ‘Bahā’ al-

Dīn, it is just as you have seen and heard, and a hundred times more! But for