Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

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TheḤāfiẓocentricismofPersianateCivilization,andtheQur’ān

ScholarssuchasLouisMassignonandPaulNywiahavedemonstratedhowthereli-
giousconscienceofIslamaswellasitstwomainliturgicallanguages–Arabicand
Persian–hasbeennurturedandshapedbytheQur’ān.^118 Althoughitiswellknown
thatitwascustomaryinallmedievalIslamicsocietiesforchildrenfirsttomemorize
theQur’ānbeforepursuingotherstudies,studentsofIslammustherebereminded
of a lesser-known but equally important literary truth, namely that all the
PersianatecivilizationsofIslamdom(OttomanTurkey,SafavidandQajarPersia,
TimuridCentralAsiaandMughalIndia...)haveforthepastfivecenturiesbeen
‘Ḥāfiẓocentric’aswell.^119 Uptothe1950s,MuslimchildreninIranandAfghanistan
andIndiaweretaughtfirsttomemorizetheQur’ān,andsecondlytocommitthe
poetryofḤāfiẓtoheart,thusabsorbingintheirgrammar-schoolcurriculumthe
sacredandrevealedbookofIslamalongsidetheversesoftheinspired‘Tongueof
the Invisible’. From Istanbul to Lahore, from the Persian Gulf to thithermost
Transoxiania,forsomefivecenturiesthe‘Book’ofIslam–theQur’ān–hasinthis
fashionsharedprideofplacebesideḤāfiẓ’sDīvān,asituationcomparabletothat
whichprevailedbetweentheBibleandtheplaysofShakespeareduringtheearly
seventeenthtothelatenineteenthcenturiesinEnglandandtheUnitedStates.^120
Perhapsforthisreasonitisthat,aftertheQur’ān,theDīvānofḤāfiẓhasbeencan-
onizedaschiefamongthreebooksofpoetryusedinPersianatesocietiesforthe
purposesofdivination(tafā’ul).^121
‘Ḥāfiẓ’,nomdeplumeofShamsal-DīnMuḥammadofShīrāz,literallydenotesone
whoisa‘MemorizeroftheQur’ān’.Tospeakof‘Ḥāfiẓ’isnecessarilytospeakofthe
Qur’ān,^122 andthatheknewthesacredscripturebyheartisapparentfromanum-
berofverses,forexample:

Iswear,Ḥāfiẓ,bythatQur’ānyouhavebyheart,

I’vefoundnopoetrythat’sassweetasyours.^123

Thistestimonythathisownpoetrywasintricatelyconnectedwithhisownabsorp-
tionandreadingandrecitationoftheHolyScripture^124 isborneoutbyseveralother
verses,whereitisapparentthatḤāfiẓengagedinthecontemplativediscipline^125 of
recitationoftheQur’ānatnight:

OhḤāfiẓinthedarknessofpovertyandin

Thesolitudeofthenight,aslongasyoucansing

AndstudytheQur’ān,donotsinkintosadness.^126

Ḥāfiẓ’steacherQiwāmal-Dīn‘Abdu’llāh,^127 whoexcelledinallfieldsofIslamic

knowledgethatwerecurrentintheage,typicallywouldholdhisclassesintheology

duringthelastthirdofthenight,andatdawntidebeginhislessonsintheQur’ān.^128

Ḥāfiẓspeaksofthesemidnight-to-dawnsessionsofstudyinmanyverses:

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry