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the sake of the honor of the religious law and obedience to the Bearer of the

Law,keepthesecretsconcealedanddonottellthemtoanyone.’^155

AccordingtoSufitheosophicalteachingsabouttheDivineNames,God’sforgiveness
is thus manifested through a ‘theophany’ (tajallī) of certain divine Names and
AttributesthatrevealHisMercy.Forinstance,GodmanifestsHimselfasthe‘Veilerof
Faults’ and ‘Concealer of Vices’ (Sattāral-‘uyūb) under the aegis of His divine Name:
‘The All-forgiving’ (Al-Ghaffār). Ḥāfiẓ devoted an entireghazalto describing his own
experienceoftheophanicilluminationwiththedivineAttributes,describinghow:

...Thebeamthatflashedoutfrom

TheEssencemademeselfless,andthebrew

TheygavemefromtheCupofRadiant

TheophanyrevealedtometheAttributes...^156

WhenbathedintheradiantgloryofthistheophanyofdivineMercy,allhumansin
appears negligible and insignificant, sings Ḥāfiẓ, echoing Sulṭān Walad’s vision of
God’sforgivenessofallsins.TheShīrāzīpoettakesrecoursetothesameSufitheo-
logicaldoctrineofGod’s‘all-forgiving’Natureintwootherverses – bothofwhich,
thoughcitedabove,meritrepetitionhere:

Don’tlookwithcontemptatadrunklikeme,

ForallthevauntedgloryoftheSharī‘a

Cannottrashedbysuchsmallminutiae.^157

***

Come,come!Thegloryofthiscosmicfactory

Shallnotbemadeonewhitlessormorethroughausterity

Ofmenlikeyouorbydebaucheryoffolklikeme.^158

TheMetaphysicalJustificationofSin

Virtueitselfturnsvice,beingmisapplied,

Andvicesometime’sbyactiondignified.

Shakespeare^159

OneofthemostparadoxicalideasinḤāfiẓ’stheologyofsinbywhichhejustifiesthe
inspiredlibertine’ssalvationiswhatmightbecalledthemetaphysicaljustificationof
sin.^160 The inspired libertine, enthralled in the chains ofEros, has realized the
exalteddegreeofspiritualpoverty,andparadoxicallybecomesafreespiritwhonei-
thersighsforHeavennorquakesinfearofHell,whichiswhy:

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry