Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

by Leonard Lewisohn

  19 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 79: 6.

  20 Ibid., ghazals 97, 108, 185.

  21 E.g. ibid., ghazal nos. 41, 55, 60, 111, 341, 449.

  22 Ibid., ghazal 60: 6.

  23 Gulshan-i rāz in Ṣamad Muwaḥḥid (ed.), Majmū‘a-i āthār-i Shaykh Maḥmūd Shabistarī, p. 98, v. 760.

  24 Cf. Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 254: 5, p. 524.

  25 [Cf. Chittick, ‘The Paradox of the Veil in Sufism’, – Ed.]

  26 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 216: 1–2, p. 448.

  27 Ibid., ghazal 70: 11, p. 156.

  28 Ibid., ghazal 127: 4, p. 270.

  29 Fouchécour, Hâfez de Chiraz, p. 482.

  30 [See Nurbakhsh, Sufi Symbolism, vol. 1: The Esoteric Symbolism of the Parts of the Beloved’s Body, pp. 7–8, s.v. ‘The Prayer-Niche of the Eyebrow (meḥrāb-e ābrū), with the verses of Ḥāfiẓ cited there’, – Ed.]

  31 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 60: 6.

  32 Welch, Wonders of the Age, p. 185, no. 70.

  33 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 190, p. 396.

  34 Humāy u Humāyūn, ed. K. ‘Aynī, p. 32, bottom line.

  Transfiguring Love: Perspective Shifts and the Contextualization of Experience in the Ghazals of Ḥāfiẓ

  James Morris

  The following observations grow out of several decades of experience teaching the ghazals of Ḥāfiẓ to students lacking any direct access to the original Persian – and out of an even longer period of immersion in the multilingual complex of now largely unfamiliar spiritual, philosophic, scientific and theological disciplines which provided the original cultural context and network of symbolic allusions that were once intimately familiar to this poet and his original learned courtly audiences, together with his connoisseurs and imitators throughout subsequent centuries. Not surprisingly, the greatest challenge and frustration of that contemporary pedagogical situation is how to communicate clearly and adequately those implicit structures and assumptions which must be understood, in order to begin to appreciate the full poetic richness and spiritual depths of Ḥāfiẓ’s lyrics.

  The focus of this chapter is on only one key dimension of that wider hermeneutical and pedagogical problem: the characteristic progression of metaphysical and existential shifts in perspective – first revealing, and then potentially transforming each reader’s love, desire, will and self-understanding – that typically structures and unifies each of Ḥāfiẓ’s ghazals. As we shall see, that distinctive underlying structural feature of Ḥāfiẓ’s writing (which is normally invisible in English translation) also helps to explain some of the mysterious spiritual efficacy of his poetry in the therapeutic process of spiritual divination and illumination, the longstanding ritual of fa’l, paralleling the familiar uses of the I Ching.

  One way to begin explaining that distinctive process of transformation is to start with the fundamental existential challenge with which this poet actually concludes each of his lyrics, with all that is actually evoked and intended by the far-reaching implications of his poetic penname ‘Ḥāfiẓ’, a deeply problematic expression which is too often taken simply in its familiar social usage referring to someone who has memorized the Qur’ān. With a heightened appreciation of the potential aims and demands highlighted by that repeated concluding reminder, we then move on to introduce the intended effects and forms of participation suggested by this poet’s distinctive unifying rhetoric of carefully orchestrated, progressively shifting perspectives, voices and audiences, before briefly illustrating concretely how those unifying poetic features are developed in two typical shorter ghazals.

  Background and Contexts

  Becoming ‘Ḥāfiẓ’: The Ḥ–F–Ẓ Root and its Wider Qur’ānic Resonances

  The spiritual world view assumed by Ḥāfiẓ and his original audiences – a perspective at once metaphysical, religious, aesthetic and ethical – can be summed up as an infinite play of unique, ever-renewed theophanies, in which all of our experience is understood as the constantly shifting Self-manifestation of the One divine Source, the ever-renewed ‘Signs’ of the creative Breath, as they are reflected in the mirror of each divine-human spirit. Yet Ḥāfiẓ’s lyrics, of course, are not intended to teach or explain that familiar metaphysical perspective or the richly complex, constantly intersecting registers of its symbolic expression – both of which were already intimately familiar to his original learned and courtly audiences. Instead, they are designed to awaken the actual realization of that reality within the uniquely personal and shifting situations of his individual readers. That guiding intention, and its far-reaching demands and implications, are beautifully summarized in the multivalent meanings and associations of his concluding pen-name.

  To begin with, the familiar Qur’ānic divine attribute or distinctive quality of Being, that is suggested by the Arabic active present participle ḥāfiẓ immediately evokes in each informed reader a complex semantic family of divine Qualities and corresponding human responses and responsibilities, while it simultaneously heightens our awareness of our relative realization of that particular divine Name, 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’s ghazals. At a second, deeper stage of reflection and attention, which necessarily resonates with the reader’s active assimilation of each preceding line of Ḥāfiẓ’s ghazal, we are reminded that this same familiar concluding expression can often also be read (in its original Arabic) as an even more compelling singular imperative, demanding that we realize and put into action – ‘assiduously, constantly, and perseveringly’, as the intensive third-form imperative implies1 – all the implications and responsibilities of our true human spiritual reality and ultimate destiny, as someone who is indeed ‘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 regarding His angels or spiritual intermediaries); 6 times in relation to the Prophet; 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 attributes in the Qur’ān, the dramatic interplay of these two equally essential metaphysical perspectives – the divine Reality and its ongoing human manifestations and discoveries – lies at the heart of all the love-imagery of Ḥāfiẓ and the wider poetic tradition culminating in his work; that is, in its pervasive symbolic framework of the ongoing mutual courtship of the human soul and divine Beloved. The complex range of meanings of this ḥ–f–ẓ root in the Qur’ān are very wide indeed, including: (a) to maintain, sustain, uphold; (b) to protect, guard, preserve. These first two meanings are most obviously involved in the verses referring to God’s creative and sustaining activities. But other related aspects of this Arabic root more obviously relating to our corresponding human demands and responsibilities include: (c) to watch out, take care, bear in mind; (d) to be heedful, mindful, attentive; and finally (e) to follow, observe, comply with (an oath, covenant, divine command, etc.). Thus, by the time we have reached the end of each of Ḥāfiẓ’s poems, he suggests, reminds us, and then often insists – in the immediate, insistently personal singular imperative – that we reflect on our actual realization of each of these fundamentally human spiritual responsibilities. In other words, the ‘Ḥāfiẓ’ penname and its corresponding imperative sense provide a constantly reinforced reminder of those fundamental human–divine covenants which, in the Qur’ānic perspectives familiar to the poet’s original readership, constitute our very being and ultimate purpose.

  Equally importantly, the Arabic root ḥ–f–ẓ does not stand alone in the Qur’ān, so that at each concluding repetition Ḥāfiẓ’s readers (or at least those familiar with its underlying scriptural background) are also immediately reminded of an eq
ually important set of closely associated symbols, realities and obligations. To begin with those 15 verses where this Arabic root explicitly describes God’s actions, this expression is directly connected to the most fundamental divine functions – that is, to God’s constant creation, sustaining and protecting of the heavens and the earth; of the divine Archetype of all creation and revelation, the heavenly ‘Book’ and cosmic ‘Reminder’ (al-dhikr); of the angels (6:61); of the ‘Pedestal’ (kursī) of the divine Throne (2:255), that encompasses all manifest being; and of that ‘Tablet’ recording the cosmic Qur’ān (85:22). Indeed, God is repeatedly described, using an intensive form of this same root and divine Name, as ‘Ḥāfiẓ of every thing’ (11:57; 34:21; 42:6) – a quality inseparably associated with His infinite creative Love and Compassion: God is the Best Sustainer/Protector (Ḥāfiẓ) and the Most Loving/Compassionate of the Loving Ones (12:64).

  When we turn to consider those 20 verses where this same Arabic root (ḥ–f–ẓ) is used to describe specifically human spiritual virtues, the fields of semantic association are equally fundamental and far-reaching. Most simply, that verb is often applied to our human responsibility for upholding and carrying out our oaths and agreements (5:89), an emphasis immediately recalling the central Qur’ānic theme of God’s primordial Covenant with all human souls, the famous rūz-i alast (at 7:174) that is alluded to throughout Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry and the traditions of which it was a part. Thus this same root is applied to our responsibility to follow God’s commandments (9:112); to preserve modesty and self-restraint (24:30–1 and four other verses); to properly uphold and bear witness to ‘the Book of God’ (5:44); or – in ironic contrast to the behaviour of Joseph’s siblings (12:12, 81) – to properly care for all our human brothers. Moreover, in a number of other key Qur’ānic passages (at 4:34; 50:31–5; and especially 33:35), this distinctive human attribute of being ḥāfiẓ is closely tied to a long catalogue of closely related, near-synonymous central spiritual virtues characterizing the very highest rank of prophets, saints and realized human beings, those granted ‘the Day of Eternity’ (50:34). These spiritual qualities and obligations include remembering God greatly/repeatedly (33:35); being contrite and penitent (50:32); and most pointedly and mysteriously, safeguarding and preserving the Unseen (ghayb) which God has preserved (4:34; 12:81). Finally, the essential dependence of all these active human qualities, expressed by this ḥ–f–ẓ root upon the foundation of divinely inspired awareness or direct spiritual knowing (‘ilm), is explicitly highlighted in the prophet Joseph’s emphatic self-description (12:55), using Arabic expressions ordinarily reserved in the Qur’ān for divine Names: ‘Verily I am ḥāfiẓ and truly knowing (‘alīm)’!

  Given the range and spiritual depth of all these pre-eminently human responsibilities and spiritual imperatives associated by the Qur’ān with the qualities of being truly ḥāfiẓ, it is not surprising that the concluding lines of Ḥāfiẓ’s poems often convey a profoundly ironic and realistically self-deprecating, sometimes openly humorous note, even as they necessarily evoke the full range of qualities and ideals evoked by this far-reaching divine – and potentially human – Name.

  Finally, it is particularly important to note how insistently and repeatedly the Qur’ān stresses that the Prophet Muḥammad (6:104 and five other verses) – and more generally, all those with true faith (at 83:33) – are not themselves responsible for (ḥāfiẓ/ḥafiẓ) the spiritual decisions and ultimate fate of other human beings who may fail to follow and put into right practice the divine guidance. Being ḥāfiẓ, as the Qur’ān pointedly insists in all these verses, is necessarily a uniquely individual spiritual responsibility, and the emphasis on that uncompromising spiritual individuality is surely one of the most familiar distinguishing hallmarks of all of Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry. Thus these particular Qur’ānic verses, in so pointedly stressing the necessarily individual nature of each human being’s spiritual responsibilities, directly point to some of the most recurrent themes and dramatic contrasts throughout his ghazals. They are directly mirrored in Ḥāfiẓ’s paradoxical glorification of the inner freedom and true responsibility of the inspired ‘free spirit’ (rind) and one who intentionally incurs blame (malāmatī), whose conscious spiritual integrity poignantly exposes the recurrent human tendency – epitomized in his ghazals by the hypocritical pretensions of the judgemental ‘critic’ and the ‘prosecutor/pretender’ (the muḥtasib and mudda‘ī), in all their familiar inner and outer masks – to replace each soul’s unique experience and inalienable individual responsibility by careful outward conformity to a safely limited set of shared social conventions.

  From Assumption to Awareness: Dialogical Perspective Shifts in the Poetic Journey

  Thus from the perspective evoked and suggested by this multi-faceted and revealing pen-name, each ghazal of Ḥāfiẓ constitutes a very particular kind of inner journey, whose goal is to become – at least momentarily and relative to each reader’s unique existential starting point – ḥāfiẓ, in all the senses of that term we have just briefly outlined. While the aim of this chapter is to highlight that characteristic pattern of progressive shifts in perspective that are meant to be elicited within the reader in the course of that poetic journey, it may be helpful to recall a few of the more visible beginnings and conclusions of that overall process of spiritual transformation, since each poem understandably highlights only a few recurrent phases, stages and manifestations of that wider process. Thus, to mention only a small sample of those unifying and guiding parameters familiar to any reader of Ḥāfiẓ, we can speak of the perspective shifts from the mortal human-animal (bashar) to the theomorphic, spiritual and fully human being (insān); from duality and lonely separation (from the divine Beloved) to realized presence and reunion; from random likes and aversions to reasoned choice and intentional union with the One Will; from unconscious ignorance or delusion to spiritual awareness and inspired knowing; from self-centred impulses and desires to true mutual love and compassion; from a painful sense of cosmic determinism to the realization of true freedom; from inevitable conflict to providential harmony; or from the prison of earthly time to the timeless realm of the Spirit.

  Now while the list of those contrasting metaphysical perspectives typically opening and closing each ghazal could be expanded indefinitely, what is most crucial for understanding the inner working and distinctive progression of these lyrics is something much simpler and more directly experienced. That is to say, each individual normally begins this particular spiritual and poetic journey, not with a conscious set of determinant metaphysical or theological ideas, but instead with a particular, immediate and undeniable emotional state (often anxious, fragile or uncomfortable), which itself has apparently been ‘caused’ or occasioned by the particular outward circumstances and constraints of our momentary mundane condition. At a deeper level, of course, that specific initial existential state reflects and is ultimately generated by an underlying, normally unconscious interpretive framework, by an apparently given set of determining psychological assumptions. But normally we all quickly learn how practically ineffective it is to attempt to change or remove such particular states and feelings simply through the purely abstract discussion and manipulation of such deeply embedded concepts and belief-patterns – all the more so as that kind of metaphysical reflection often tends to arrive only at still further intellectual paradoxes and antinomies. As with any effective therapy, actual spiritual transformation requires the mysterious awakening and engagement of unsuspected spiritual resources of desire, intention and understanding – whether those openings subjectively appear to us as either inner or external – that at first seem invisible or impossibly remote.

  Hence what is practically needed in this recurrent initial predicament posed by each ghazal – and what is so richly provided already in the unique rhetorical structures of the Qur’ān and their creative reflections in the immense earlier Sufi literature familiar to Ḥāfiẓ (both poetry and prose) – is an operat
ive repertoire of literary tools that are particularly effective in first eliciting and then ultimately transforming our unconsciously governing inner metaphysical assumptions. And this requisite transformation of perspective cannot be primarily abstract and conceptual, but rather must bring into play all the intimately associated personal memories, choices, emotions and earlier experiences that together give our largely unconscious assumptions their existentially dominant influence on our outlook and experience at this particular point in time. This is where the unique artistry and extraordinary guiding wisdom of Ḥāfiẓ are so powerfully evident, as attested by centuries of repeated efforts, in many subsequent Islamicate languages and poetic traditions, to somehow re-create his poetry’s distinctive spiritually transforming effects. Thus it is essential to keep in mind, as we continue to identify, analyse and illustrate some of the key formal elements contributing to this particular dialogical pattern of perspective shifts in Ḥāfiẓ, that the outlining of these literary techniques is not an end in itself. What we are seeking to understand is rather their unifying goal and final cause; that is, how and why these different constituent rhetorical features actually work – as they certainly so often do – in gradually moving each actively engaged reader towards a more effective and memorable realization of genuinely becoming ‘ḥāfiẓ’, including the particularly urgent individual obligations which that rediscovered divine attribute (and human imperative) reveals and entails each time.

  Within the ghazals of Ḥāfiẓ, these typical progressive shifts in metaphysical perspective are expressed through the masterly use of a familiar set of rhetorical devices, each of which have their own operative and literary equivalents in Rūmī and other earlier classics of this spiritual and poetic tradition.2 Most fundamental in Ḥāfiẓ, of course, is the richly evocative dramatic dialogical embedding of these shifting perspectives, whose mysterious and intentionally provocative development is best illustrated through the actual analysis of the short poems later in this chapter. In other words, just as throughout the Qur’ān, each line of Ḥāfiẓ normally suggests and requires the most careful attention to the dynamic, often highly unstable, inner connection or implicit ‘conversation’ between four equally essential elements. These elements of metaphysical dialogue include the particular momentary existential situation (at once spiritual, psychological, material) of the external reader/listener; the corresponding apparent, imagined state of the internal speaker(s) of each line; the potential audience(s) for the internal speaker(s); and, finally, the spectrum of possible tones, purposes and (mis-)understandings connecting the first three essential participants (reader, internal speaker and that speaker’s audiences).