equallyrhetorical:‘Sobetweenthem,whatistheWishoftheCreator/Worker?’–of
the One Whose Will, as the Qur’ān insists countless times, is truly absolute and
unimpeded. Again, the question itself seems at first a near truism: God’s creation
always Wills exactly what is. But that Willing of what is means not only these two
nearly caricatured extremes of human surrender and desire, or of veiling and
understanding, that unfold and intertwine in the course of this enchantingghazal.
That Willing also includes the more familiar inner movement back and forth
between those extremes that constitutes the constant actual turnings and unveil-
ingsofourHeart(inqilābal-qalb).
Sothesimplerecognitionofthesedramaticalternativesimmediatelyprovidesits
ownineluctableanswer:Ḥāfiẓthepoetleavesuswiththenext,imperativestageof
the divine Wish – with the appropriate action and intention of the trueḥāfiẓ
(alreadysoperfectlyexemplifiedineachoftheseghazals),whosesilent,joyfulsur-
render to that Wish means recognizing and upholding each of these covenants so
deeplyembeddedinourbeingandcreation.
Conclusion:Engagement,ParticipationandCommunicatingḤāfiẓ
Since the purpose of this chapter is simply to introduce certain basic rhetorical
structures and presuppositions of Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry for students limited to working
with translations, the best possible conclusion is to move on to explore how those
distinguishingfeaturesaredevelopedinother,oftenmorecomplexpoemsthrough-
outhisDīvān.Atthesametime,itmaybehelpfultopointoutthatcomparablespir-
itual intentions and correspondingly inventive literary structures (or their visual
andauralequivalents)canbefoundinmanyotherfieldsofthelaterIslamichuman-
ities,includingothervisualandmusicalarts,inwaysIhavesuggestedinanumber
of related studies. In each of those fields, much work is still needed in order to
reveal and elaborate the still unappreciated role of such characteristic artistic
devices–whetherweareexploringthemelsewhereinḤāfiẓ,intheQur’ān,Rūmī’s
Mathnawī, the unique language of Ibn ‘Arabī, or many other masterworks of the
Islamichumanities–inensuringtheeffectiveparticipationandengagementofeach
reader(orlistener/viewer),aparticipationwhichisalmostalwaysatoncespiritual,
intellectual,aestheticandcertainly(inthecomprehensivePlatonicsense)erotic.
EngagementandParticipationMy original discovery of the existence of these distinctive dialogical perspective
shifts and their deeper functions in theghazals of Ḥāfiẓ grew out of many years of
experiencing and then reflecting on the extraordinary power and efficaciousness
of his poems when consulted for spiritual guidance (the familiar process of divina-
tion known asfa’lorfa’lgīrī,tafa’ul) – a mysterious but demonstrable quality and
influence of his writing which I had repeatedly witnessed in the experience of
Ḥāfiẓ’sRomanticImageryandLanguageofLove 247