228
perspectives,voicesandaudiences,beforebrieflyillustratingconcretelyhowthose
unifyingpoeticfeaturesaredevelopedintwotypicalshorterghazals.
BackgroundandContexts
Becoming‘Ḥāfiẓ’:TheḤ–F–ẒRootanditsWiderQur’ānicResonancesThe spiritual world view assumed by Ḥāfiẓ and his original audiences – a perspec-
tiveatoncemetaphysical,religious,aestheticandethical–canbesummedupasan
infiniteplayofunique,ever-renewedtheophanies,inwhichallofourexperienceis
understood as the constantly shifting Self-manifestation of the One divine Source,
theever-renewed‘Signs’ofthecreativeBreath,astheyarereflectedinthemirror
ofeachdivine-humanspirit.YetḤāfiẓ’slyrics,ofcourse,arenotintendedtoteach
orexplainthatfamiliarmetaphysicalperspectiveortherichlycomplex,constantly
intersectingregistersofits symbolicexpression – bothofwhichwerealreadyinti-
mately familiar to his original learned and courtly audiences. Instead, they are
designedtoawakentheactualrealizationofthatrealitywithin the uniquely personal
andshiftingsituationsofhisindividualreaders.Thatguidingintention,anditsfar-
reachingdemandsandimplications,arebeautifullysummarizedinthemultivalent
meaningsandassociationsofhisconcludingpen-name.
To begin with, the familiar Qur’ānic divine attribute or distinctive quality of
Being, that is suggested by the Arabic active present participleḥāfiẓimmediately
evokes in each informed reader a complex semantic family of divine Qualities and
corresponding human responses and responsibilities, while it simultaneously
heightensourawarenessofourrelativerealizationofthatparticulardivineName,
including our deeply rooted failures to do justice to its demands. The resulting
ironic complicity of the poet and his readers is of course one of the most familiar
features of the concluding verses of Ḥāfiẓ’sghazals. At a second, deeper stage of
reflectionandattention,whichnecessarilyresonateswiththereader’sactiveassim-
ilation of each preceding line of Ḥāfiẓ’sghazal, we are reminded that this same
familiar concluding expression can often also be read (in its original Arabic) as an
even more compellingsingularimperative, demanding that we realize and put into
action – ‘assiduously, constantly, and perseveringly’, as the intensive third-form
imperative implies^1 – all the implications and responsibilities of our true human
spiritualrealityandultimatedestiny,assomeonewhoisindeed‘Ḥāfiẓ’.
So let us start with the multiple meanings of that key Arabic root (ḥ–f–ẓ), which
occurs a total of 44 times in the Qur’ān: 15 times in relation to God (and 3 more
regardingHisangelsorspiritualintermediaries);6timesinrelationtotheProphet;
with the remaining 20 verses referring to corresponding human qualities and
responsibilities, or the lack thereof. As with each of the other divine Names and
attributesintheQur’ān,thedramaticinterplayofthesetwoequallyessentialmeta-
physicalperspectives–thedivineRealityanditsongoinghumanmanifestationsand
ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry