Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

At this juncture, having suffered reproach and abuse, the lover now becomes
bereft of all avarice and desire for the world. The barbs of criticism hurled by friend
and foe alike catapult him onto the higher stage of spiritual isolation (tajrīd) and
denudation of self (tafrīd); from this standpoint, blame (malāmat), now appears par-
adoxically as a kind of grace which emanates the beloved’s zealous exclusiveness
(ghayrat). ‘You should understand that he who is accepted by us is rejected by peo-
ple and whosoever is accepted by people is rejected by us’, Hujwīrī states, explain-
ing the thinking behind this erotic doctrine. ‘To incur blame [malāmat-ikhalq] from
the vulgar is therefore the very sustenance of God’s lovers. By receiving that blame,
one finds proofs of God’s acceptance. This is, in fact, the mystical persuasion of the
saints [mashrab-iawliyā’].’^395 It is exactly in this vein that Ḥāfiẓ counsels that blame
is an integral aspect of any affair of Amor:

Whoever deserts your pathway because of blame

Will never prosper whatsoever he does, and in

The end expiates his error with endless shame.^396

Characterizing Ḥāfiẓ as a follower of the ‘path of blame’ (mashrab-imalāmatī) while
interpreting this verse, Lāhūrī explains that because ‘the lover of God is always sub-
ject to blame from people, the affairs of any lover who pays heed to such blame will
never prosper. Since he has already given his heart up to the beloved, to all others
he must be indifferent.’^397
When the inspired libertine–lover succeeds in maintaining fidelity inAmor
despite blame, at this level, his figurative human beloved (ma‘shūqa-i majāzī)
becomes his ‘representative of supernatural beauty in the flesh [shāhid]’ with whom
he cavorts (shāhid-bāzī). The lover’s playful engagement with the beloved (shāhid-
bāzī) is thus the intermediate degree ofrindī, generated from the stage ofmalāmat.^398
At this stage, the lover becomes identified with the higher religion of ‘real infideli-
ty’ (kufr-iḥaqīqī), an integral part of the Religion of Love (madhhab-i‘ishq) as well. In
the Persian Sufi tradition the stock symbol of such successful endurance of blame in
love is the legendary Shaykh Ṣan‘ān, who converted to Christianity on falling in love
with a Christian girl, his theophanic witness. We should take San‘ān as a model of
the perfectmalāmatīlover, Ḥāfiẓ counsels:

If you profess yourself a devotee of

The highway of most noble Love

Never give a second thought for name

Or what men say is all ‘ill-fame’,

Recall the cap and gown

Of great Shaykh San‘ān –

For months in hock, set in

The wine-seller’s shop for pawn.^399

ḤāfiẓintheSocio-historical,LiteraryandMysticalMilieuofMedievalPersia 53