Hafez

What is the Absolute? Does God exist?

A Friend of grace, glimpsed behind the ambiguity of the ghazal

A personal GodInferred from their doctrine

Hafez wrote no theology, and his Divan deliberately avoids definitions: the Friend or Beloved of his ghazals may be a prince, a youth of Shiraz or God, and is often all three at once. Even so, the God glimpsed in his verses is personal. He is the Lord of the pre-eternal covenant, the day of Alast when souls answered the Qur'anic question, whose memory runs through his poetry; He is a grace hoped for rather than earned, which is why the poet trusts he will reach paradise even though drowned in sin. Before this God there is no speculation about the essence, but dealings: complaint, entreaty, irony and gratitude addressed to Someone who listens. What Hafez rejects is not God but the ostentatious religion of those who preach in His name.

Who am I? Is there a true self?

A bird of the heavenly garden fallen into the world's snare

A created, immortal soulInferred from their doctrine

Hafez does not reason about the self, but his ghazals reveal an image traditional in Persian poetry. The soul is a bird of the garden of holiness that has fallen into the snare of this world's events and does not know how to tell of its separation; it comes from above and longs to return. At the same time, the empirical self, with its vanity and calculations, is the main obstacle: in a famous verse the poet tells himself that between lover and beloved there is no veil at all, that he himself is his own veil and must step out of the way. This double view, a soul of heavenly origin and an ego that gets in the way, is that of the Sufism Shiraz breathed, expressed without system and almost always with irony.

Why do we suffer?

Love seemed easy; then came the hardships of separation

Separation from GodInferred from their doctrine

Hafez's Divan opens with a confession: love seemed easy at first, but then difficulties arose. The pain running through his ghazals is that of separation (firaq) from the Beloved, whether human or divine: the dark night, the fear of the waves, the wait for the messenger, the complaint before a beauty that does not answer. To this is added the pain of an unstable world, in which kingdoms pass and fortune turns, and of a society in which preachers do not practise what they preach. Hafez offers no doctrine of suffering, but an attitude: to accept grief as part of love, to seek consolation in wine, music and grace, and not to trust those who promise salvation through the appearance of piety.

What happens after death?

Seize the moment; grace will bring the sinner to paradise

Eternal life and resurrectionInferred from their doctrine

Hafez does not speculate about the hereafter, but neither does he deny it. His ghazals insist on the brevity of life and the fragility of kingdoms: the world is an old bride of a thousand grooms who keeps faith with none, and one should not postpone the cup or love. That urgency is not nihilism: the horizon of his verses is Islam, with its paradise and its judgement, and his wager is on grace rather than merit. In one ghazal he asks that no one refuse to follow Hafez's funeral procession, for though drowned in sin he is going to paradise. Tradition tells that when it was debated whether he deserved funeral honours, the Divan was opened at random and that very verse came out. Irony, faith in mercy and distrust of the pious mingle in his view of death.

How is liberation or salvation attained?

Only love and grace save, not piety put on display

Through grace and loveStated explicitly

Hafez distrusts salvation by merit. His favourite target is the ascetic (zahid) and the preacher who show off in the pulpit and, alone, do something else: piety turned into spectacle leads nowhere. Against it he sets love and grace. In a famous verse he states that love will come to the poet's aid even if he recites the Qur'an by heart in its fourteen readings, as if to say that not even that feat of piety saves on its own. And he trusts that he will reach paradise even though drowned in sin. Liberation, in his Divan, is a gift awaited with humility and without hypocrisy, from the condition of the rend, the sincere libertine, who claims no virtue and therefore remains open to mercy.

Is a teacher necessary?

If the tavern elder bids it, stain the prayer rug with wine

IndispensableInferred from their doctrine

In the first ghazal of the Divan, Hafez advises staining the prayer rug with wine if the pir-e moghan, the elder of the Magi or of the tavern, says so, for the wayfarer is not ignorant of the customs of the stages of the path. That figure, who returns again and again in his poems, is Hafez's master: not a shaykh of an order nor a preacher, but a sage of disorderly life in the eyes of the pious, who knows the way from experience. In another verse he warns not to travel this stage without the company of Khidr, the mysterious guide of Qur'anic tradition, for there is darkness and danger of going astray. Hafez needs a guide; what he rejects is the authority of the official clergy, whose piety he considers feigned.

Is the world real?

The Friend's face is mirrored in the cup; the world, a faithless bride, passes

Manifestation of the divineInferred from their doctrine

Hafez's world has two faces. On one side it is fleeting and faithless: an old bride who has had a thousand husbands and keeps faith with none. One should not cling to its kingdoms or honours. On the other side, that same world is where beauty is reflected: in a famous verse the poet says he has seen in the cup the reflection of the Friend's face, and the cup of Jamshid, which in Persian legend showed the whole universe, becomes in his ghazals an image of the heart that sees. Hafez does not deny the reality of things; he loves them because they let something shine through that does not pass away with them.

What is love?

Love is the only path, even when it brings hardships

Longing and unionStated explicitly

Love is the theme of almost all of Hafez's ghazals, and its ambiguity is deliberate: the Beloved has a face, a mole and curls, and at the same time points to the divine. The Divan opens by recalling that love seemed easy at first and that difficulties then arose; another famous poem offers Samarkand and Bukhara for the dark mole of a girl from Shiraz. In both cases love is excess, detachment and risk, the opposite of the ascetic's calculation. If one seeks the Beloved's presence, the poet advises, one must not be absent from Him; and when one finds Him, one must leave the world. For Hafez only love saves, and only love allows one to see through the hypocrisy of those who boast of piety.

Are we free, or is everything determined?

My lot was settled in pre-eternity: if you dislike it, change destiny

Destiny and responsibilityInferred from their doctrine

Hafez often returns to the theme of the lot fixed in pre-eternity (azal): what each person is to drink was poured on the day of the primordial covenant, and no piety or calculation will change it. In a well-known verse he answers someone who reproaches him for his bad name that they did not let him pass through the street of good repute, and that if he dislikes it, he should change the divine decree. This fatalism is above all ironic: it serves to disarm the pride of the pious, who ascribe their virtue to their own merit, and to justify the sincere libertine who does not pretend. Hafez does not deny responsibility, but he places it before a grace and a destiny no one controls, and answers both with humility and humour.

Why meditate or pray?

If you seek the presence, do not be absent from Him

Being presentStated explicitly

Hafez mocks prayer turned into display — the preachers who show off in the pulpit and do something else in private — and sets against it another way of praying. The first ghazal of the Divan ends with advice addressed to himself: if you seek the presence (hozur), do not be absent from Him; when you find the one you love, leave the world. Presence here is that of the heart before the Beloved, the undivided attention Sufism asks for in prayer. In his poems there appear the dawn supplication and the night vigil, often alongside the cup and the musician. What Hafez values is not the number of prayers or their outward form, but that the heart should be where it claims to be.

Can reason know the ultimate?

No one has solved nor will solve the riddle of the world by wisdom

The ultimate lies beyond the mindStated explicitly

In the same ghazal in which he offers Samarkand and Bukhara for the mole of a girl from Shiraz, Hafez advises speaking of the minstrel and the wine and seeking less the secret of time, for no one has solved nor will solve that riddle by wisdom. It is one of his most constant convictions: philosophy and speculative theology do not reach the mystery, and those who boast of knowing everything, the ascetic, the jurist, the preacher, are often the blindest. What reason does not open, love opens, or it is left open. This renunciation is not intellectual laziness: Hafez was a scholar who knew the Qur'an by heart and mastered the poetic tradition. It is the irony of one who knows learning and its limits.

Withdraw from the world or transform it?

Neither convent nor pulpit: sincerity is lived in the tavern of the world

Contemplation in actionInferred from their doctrine

Hafez lived in Shiraz, in the world: a court poet under several princes, a teacher of the Qur'an according to his biographers, witness to wars and dynastic changes. His ghazals often set the dervish convent (khanqah) and the mosque of hypocrites against the tavern of the Magi (kharabat), where the rend, the sincere libertine, lives without pretence. He chooses neither the ascetic's retreat, which he mocks, nor political action, which he distrusts, but a third way: to be in the world with an awake heart, to enjoy what life gives without clinging, to unmask false piety and to keep faith with the Beloved. His poetry itself, recited everywhere, was his way of intervening.