Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

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In our creed the inspired libertine is subject to no veil whatsoever, whereas

the hapless puritan ascetic (zāhid) is veiled by dint of his own abstinence and

devotion ... Since the inspired libertine is not subject to anything, how should

he be fettered by learning and books? ... The words of the inspired libertines

[qawl-irindān] reflect their cognizance of the fact that the entire world con-

sists of God’s Beauty [jamālAllāh], since ‘God is Beautiful and loves beauty’.

Therefore, the lover who is fond of the world through the love he harbours

for God, in reality loves God alone through God’s own love, for the beauty of

the product in reality returns back to the Producer Himself. What a subtle

matter!^381

The inspired libertine, like theqalandar, is thus detached from the world, whence

his castigation of all those concerned with its affairs, whether sanctimonious phar-

isaical puritans or princes enthralled by the sceptre and crown of rule. It is in this

spirit that Ḥāfiẓ preaches:

Why should the inspired rogue who sets the world on fire

Bother himself with wise counsel and advice? This world’s

Labours it is that require reflection and deliberation.^382

Unconcerned with the material realm and all its labours (kār-imulk), the kingdom of
the inspired libertine/rogue/lover isnotofthisworld, his soul not enmeshed in the
political woes and economic weal of his day and age.^383 This denigration of ‘wise coun-
sel and advice’ (maṣlaḥāt-andīshī) by Ḥāfiẓ’s libertine in this verse was modelled on the
following verse by Sa‛dī: ‘The reasoner [‘āqil] is a thinker and sere prudent deliberator
over what’s wise. Come, profess the Religion of Love [madhhab-i‘ishq], and free your-
self from both thinking and deliberation.’^384 The inspired libertine’s works are labours
of love. He scorns the Sufi mantle (khirqa)^385 and spurns the king’s crown^386 as well as
the cleric’s gown, resting his brow beside the drunkard’s head on the tavern stoop.^387
He vaunts the beggar who glories in the kingdom of love and smashes the crown of
worldly dominion.^388 He takes louts for personal confidantes.^389
Ḥāfiẓ’s exploitation of plebeian vocabulary,^390 which subverts the spiritual
materialism of the exoteric religious and political authorities, is dictated by the
higher standpoint of thesecta amoriswhich he follows. The libertine–lover soon
realizes that the dross of his being can only become refined in the alembic of blame
(malāmat).^391 This is because (as Maybudī put it): ‘Blame is the entire substance of
the lover’s soul. All his assets lie in enduring the reproach of the vulgar [malāmat].
What sort of lover is he who cannot take blame?’^392 Blame (malāmat) has a very pos-
itive effect on the spirit ‘because there is safety in derision’, as Yeats understood,^393
for unless the spirit endures the blame of all and sundry it can never sever its ties
with this lower realm and approach the beloved.^394 Since blame focuses his atten-
tion away from himself towards divine Unity,malāmatbecomes the first authentic
spiritual degree of the inspired libertine/lover.

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry