103 For other studies on hypocrisy in Ḥāfiẓ’s thought, see Muḥammad Shafī‘ī, ‘Mubāriza-i Ḥāfiẓ bā riyā’’, in Manṣūr Rastigār (ed.), Maqālātī dar-bāra-i zindagī va shi‘r-i Ḥāfiẓ, pp. 330–41; Fattī, Hāfiẓ rā chinīn pindāshta-and, pp. 105–12; Yathribī, Āb-i ṭarabnāk: taḥlīl-i mawḍū‘ī-yi Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, pp. 483–5, who devotes an entire sub-section in his chapter on Ḥāfiẓ’s verses about hypocrisy to those written on the theme of the ‘preference of vice [fasād] over hypocrisy and ostentation’.
104 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 335: 4.
105 Khurramshāhī, Ḥāfiẓ-nāma, II, p. 818.
106 Anṣārī, Sad maydān, in Majmū’a-i Rasā’il-i fārsī-yi … Anṣārī, pp. 318–19.
107 Khurramshāhī, Ḥāfiẓ-nāma, II, p. 818. Also cf. Lāhūrī’s definitions of hypocrisy: Sharḥ-i ‘irfānī, II, p. 1460.
108 Nahj, p. 83; Peak, p. 216. I am indebted to Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi, here and elsewhere throughout this chapter, for all references to Nahj al-Balāgha.
109 Cited by Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī in his commentary on Sūra Yūsuf, XII: 106; ‘And most of them believe not in God, except that they are polytheists [illū wa hum mushrikūn]’, Al-Muḥīṭ al-a‘ẓam, I, p. 284. The ḥadīth is found in slightly differing versions in Masnad Ibn Ḥanbal, vol. 4, p. 403; al-Mustadrak, vol. 1, p. 113; and Tabarsī in his comment on verse VI: 108. I am indebted to Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi for these references, which are given by the editor of Al-Muḥīṭ, Muḥsin al-Mūsawī al-Tabrīzī, vol. I, p. 284, n. 54.
110 Hamlet III.i.47–9. Polonius to Ophelia.
111 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khanlari, ghazal 262: 2. Trans. by Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 31. See also ghazal 347: 4.
112 On Ḥāfiẓ’s bacchanalia (a topic frequently discussed and studied by scholars), the best sources relevant to my analysis here are: Bukhārā’ī, Farhang-i ash‘ār-i Ḥāfiẓ, pp. 197–8; Khurramshāhī, Ḥāfiẓ-nāma, I, pp. 153–4.
113 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khanlari, ghazal 26: 7. Trans. by Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 31.
114 Ibid., ghazal 126: 10.
115 Ibid., ghazal 191: 6. Ḥāfiẓ’s doctrine in this verse follows Niẓārī Quhistānī’s bacchanalian tenets exactly, as I have shown in my ‘Sufism and Ismā‘īlī Doctrine in … Nizārī Quhistānī’, pp. 233–5.
116 Ibid., ghazal 25: 4.
117 Dīwān-i Khwāja Ḥāfiẓ-i Shīrāzī, ed. Anjawī-Shīrāzī, p. 145.
118 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 115: 4.
119 Ibid., ghazal 30: 6.
120 Ibid., ghazal 385: 9.
121 Ibid., ghazal 25: 7–8. Cf. Khurramshāhī, ‘Mayl-i Ḥāfiẓ bih gunāh’, p. 74; Mazār‘ī, Mafhūm-i rindī dar shi‘ri Ḥāfiẓ, pp. 107–8.
122 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 399: 8.
123 See also Khurramshāhī’s remarkable essay on ‘Ḥāfiẓ’s Penchant for Sin’ (‘Mayl-i Ḥāfiẓ bih gunāh’), in his Dhihn u zabān-i Ḥāfiẓ, pp. 61–92; also his Ḥāfiẓ-nāma, I, pp. iii–viii, where the same subject is broached.
124 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 84: 7.
125 Cf. Yohannan, ‘The Persian Poet Ḥāfiẓ in England and America’, pp. 107–19.
126 Lāhūrī, Sharḥ-i ‘irfānī-yi ghazalhā-yi-i Ḥāfiẓ, I, p. 490. See also Losensky (trans.), Farid ad-Din ‘Attār’s Memorial of God’s Friends, p. 51.
127 Tadhkirat al-awliyā’, ed. Isti‘lāmī, p. 17.
128 Nahj al-Balāgha, 43, p. 414; trans. Sayed Ali Reza, Peak of Eloquence, no. 46, p. 581.
129 John Taylor, ‘Ja‘far al-Ṣādiq: Spiritual Forebear of the Ṣūfīs’, pp. 112ff.; Carl Ernst, ‘The Stages of Love in Early Persian Sufism’, pp. 436–7.
130 See my ‘Overview: Iranian Islam and Persianate Sufism’, in Lewisohn (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism, I, pp. 19–24, where this distinction is discussed in detail.
131 Anṣārī, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyya, pp. 7, 321; cited by Khurramshāhī, Ḥāfiẓ-nāma, I, p. v.
132 Ibn Munawwar, Asrār al-tawḥīd, ed. Shafī‘ī-Kadkanī, pp. 302–3; cited by Khurramshāhī, Ḥāfiẓ-nāma, I, p. v. These sayings were also cited in my footnote to Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, pp. 87–9, n. 3.
133 ‘Ilāhī! Bīzāram az ṭā‘atī kay marā bi-‘ujb andāzad; mubārak ma‘ṣīatī kay marā bi-‘udhr āwarad!’
134 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 154: 6.
135 ‘Uthmān, Miftāḥ al-hidāya, p. 103.
136 Mirṣād al-‘ibād, ed. Riyāḥī, p. 71.
137 Dāryūsh Āshūrī, ‘Irfān u rindī dar shi‘r-i Ḥāfiẓ, pp. 122–3.
138 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 75: 8. Trans. by Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 10.
139 Diwan-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 127: 3.
140 Āshūrī, ‘Irfān u rindī, pp. 128f.
141 Cf. this verse: Man-i sar-gashta ham az ahl-i salāmat būdam / Dām-i rāham shikān-i turra-yi hindū-yi tu būd (I once belonged among the sound and fit / though now I am a wanderer adrift. / Your pleated Hindu ringlet was set as ruse / there on my way: I tripped the noose and took the bait), in Dīwān-i Khwāja Ḥāfiẓ-i Shīrāzī, ed. Anjawī-Shīrāzī, p. 77. Cf. the term salāmat (‘sound and fit’) employed by Rāzī in the above passage in exactly the same sense; for further comparisons of similar terms, see Āshūrī, ‘Irfān u rindī, pp. 68–139.
142 Kashf al-asrār, III, p. 297.
143 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 329: 3. Cf. Lāhūrī, Sharḥ- ‘irfānī, IV, p. 2393.
144 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 332: 6.
145 Ibid., ghazal 78: 6. Translation by Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 33.
146 Measure for Measure II.i.38, Escalus to Angelo.
147 This idea is best expressed by the Qājār Persian poet Mu‘tamid Nishāṭ-i Iṣfahānī (d. 1244/1828) in this verse: ‘If one cannot behave with pious obedience then commit a sin one must: by hook or crook a way must be found to gain the heart of the Friend!’ (Ṭā‘at az dast niyāyad guna’ī bayād kard/ dar dil-i dūst bi-har ḥīla rahī bayād kard.), Dīvān-i Nishāṭ-i Iṣfahānī, p. 96, ghazal 117: 1.
148 See Daud Rahbar’s God of Justice: A Study in the Ethical Doctrine of the Qur’an, which analyses 90 different concepts of divine Forgiveness in the Qur’an.
149 A.J. Arberry’s translation of the Qur’ān (3:134–5), slightly modified.
150 Qur’ān 3:156; 40:7.
151 Qur’ān 39:53.
152 Furūzānfar, Aḥādīth-i Mathnawī, p. 26, n. 64.
153 Four ghazals at least (58: 1–3; 306: 3; 314: 10; 332: 5) in his Dīvān testify to Ḥāfiẓ’s faith in God’s ultimate redemption and forgiveness of all sins. In many other ghazals, he begs God to forgive his faults, conceal his vices and overlook his sins, since ‘the good name of the Sharī‘a will not be tarnished by something so trite’ (219: 7). Basing himself on Qur’ān: ‘Do not despair of God’s mercy, Who forgives all sins’ (39:53), in ghazal 397 (v. 4), he reiterates the doctrine of this angelic messenger (surūsh): ‘Bring wine, for the seraphim of the Unseen realm gives glad tidings that the grace of God’s mercy prevails over all.’ Lāhūrī explains the doctrine: ‘The ascetic recluse as well as the drunken libertine, the pious philanthropist as well as the miscreant sinner all should have hope in God’s grace and mercy.’ Sharḥ-i ‘irfānī-yi ghazalhā-yi-i Ḥāfiẓ, IV, p. 2611.
154 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 279: 1–3.
155 Aflākī, The Feats of the Knowers of God (Manāqeb al-‘ārefīn), trans. John O’Kane, p. 554.
156 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 178: 2. The entire ghazal is discussed in extenso by Leili Anvar above, pp. 123–39.
157 Ibid., ghazal 219: 6. The reading of first hemistich cited here appears in five of Khānlarī’s variant manuscripts, although Khānlarī’s own lectio (‘Cover the faults of a drunk like me under the skirt of your forgivenes
s…’) demonstrates this point with equal effectiveness.
158 Ibid., ghazal 468: 4, following here the variant reading of rawnaq [for Khānlarī’s fasḥat], found in the editions of Haravī, Khurramshāhī, Anjavī Shīrāzī and several other editions.
159 Romeo and Juliet, II.iii.17–18.
160 Ḥāfiẓ’s most famous verse (from a ghazal absent from many scholarly editions of the Dīvān), often cited in this context, is: ‘Infidelity is unavoidable in the Workshop of Love. If Abū Lahab did not exist, then who would be burnt in Hellfire?’ Cf. Dārābī, Laṭīfa-yi ghaybī, p. 122; Lāhūrī, Sharḥ-i ‘irfānī, I, p. 1091.
161 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 36: 4.
162 Ibid., ghazal 190: 5.
163 See the analyses of this verse by Isti‘lāmī, Dars-i Ḥāfiẓ, I, p. 535; Khurramshāhī, Ḥāfiẓ-nāma, I, p. 713; Lāhūrī, Sharḥ-i ‘irfānī-yi ghazalhā-yi-i Ḥāfiẓ, II, p. 1439.
164 Ghazālī, Kīmiyā-yi sa‘ādat, II, p. 326; cited by Khurramshāhī, Ḥāfiẓ-nāma, I, pp. 713–14.
165 On whom, see Heshmat Moayyad and Franklin Lewis, The Colossal Elephant and His Spiritual Feats, Shaykh Ahmad-e Jām: The Life and Legend of a Popular Sufi Saint of 12th Century Iran.
166 The reference here to the burning light is taken from the following famous Qur’ānic verse (24:35): ‘God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. This lamp is kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. God guides unto His light whom He will. And God speaks to mankind in parables, for God is the Knower of all things.’
167 See the long footnote with detailed discussion of the provenance of this ḥadīth, given by the text’s editor ‘Alī Fāḍil, Rawḍat al-Mudhbibīn, pp. 259–61.
168 Aḥmad Jām, Rawḍat al-Mudhbibīn va jannat al-mushtāqīn, chapter on ‘Wisdom and Guidance of People’, pp. 34–7.
169 Kashf al-asrār, VI, p. 190.
170 I have detailed many of the influences of Nizārī’s antinomianism and imagery on Ḥāfiẓ in a paper on ‘The Influence of Nizārī on Ḥāfiẓ’, delivered at the International Society for Iranian Studies 6th Biannual Conference, London, as part of a panel on ‘Classical Persian Poetry and Ismaili Thought’ (3 August 2006).
171 Dīvān, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 77: 7. Trans. by Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 66. See Dīvān-i Ḥakīm Nizārī Quhistānī, I, pp. 920–1, vv. 3429–37. Both ghazals are written in the same Baḥr-i mujtath-i muthamman-i makhbūn-i makhzūf metre. Khwājū Kirmānī (Dīvān-i Khwājū Kirmānī, ed. Qāni‘ī, pp. 385–6, ghazal 57: 1–10) also later imitated Nizārī’s rhyme and meaning (although Khwājū’s metre is different), attesting to influence of both poets on Ḥāfiẓ. Haravī (Sharḥ-i ghazalhā-yi Ḥāfiẓ, I, p. 361) points out that verse 3 of this ghazal (77) is also modelled on a quatrain by Khayyām.
172 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 306: 3.
173 Ibid., ghazal 179: 4. Trans. by Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 39. Lāhūrī explains that the poet means that one cannot recognize the truth of religion until one first perceives the Reality (ḥaqīqat) of faith and attains inward certainty. As a consequence of that inward certainty, ‘one looks with compassion and mercy on the followers of all other faiths and creeds, and does not deny them however benighted and misguided they may be. This is one of the ideas especially recognized by the Sufis ... As long as the Reality (ḥaqīqat) of faith is not unveiled to one, the aspirant will rely on his powers of deduction and personal striving (qiyās va ijtihād), which only generate religious differences (ikhtilāf).’ Lāhūrī, Sharḥ-i ‘irfānī-yi ghazalhā-yi-i Ḥāfiẓ, III, pp. 1183–4.
174 On Ḥāfiẓ’s immersion in Sufi writings, see Zarrīnkūb, Az kūcha-i rindān, p. 168.
175 On Ḥāfiẓ’s ethics, see Khurramshāhī, ‘Ḥāfiẓ dar farhang-i mā’, pp. 151–2.
176 In this respect, I fully endorse Khurramshāhī’s (‘Mayl-i Ḥāfiẓ bih gunāh’, p. 92) conclusion that ‘Ḥāfiẓ’s understanding of the true sense and inner meaning of sin did not lead him “astray” into “error”, but rather conveyed him from the error of Appearance along the royal road to Reality and Truth. By understanding the interior truth of sin, he freed himself from the narrow straits of pride and egotism, to be raised into the wide open expanse of heart-consciousness, where he experienced some of the sublimest degrees the human soul may know. In this fashion, when he partook of the Fruit of Knowledge from the Tree of Sin, the secrets of the philosophy of “inspired libertinism” (rindī) were revealed to him.’
177 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 278: 6.
Jalāl al-Dīn Davānī’s Interpretation of Ḥāfiẓ
Carl W. Ernst
One of the perennial debates about the poetry of Ḥāfiẓ has revolved around the interpretation of his poetry, whether it should properly be considered part of the secular tradition of Persian court poetry, or whether it should be interpreted in some kind of mystical or allegorical sense in relation to Sufism. This question has been discussed since the very dawn of European Orientalist scholarship, having formed a significant part of the labours of Sir William Jones and his successors. Without attempting to summarize the details of this extensive debate, we can take a recent example as an indication of how hotly this question can be argued; I have in mind the overview to the multi-authored article on Ḥāfiẓ in the Encyclopaedia Iranica, penned by the distinguished scholar and editor of the Encyclopaedia, Dr Ehsan Yarshater. He writes:
It was only natural that a Sufistic interpretation should be applied to the poems of Hafez, ignoring in the process many indications to the contrary. Some commentators and even some Western translators of Hafez, notably Wilberforce Clarke, a translator of the Divān (London, 1974), satisfied themselves, to the point of utter absurdity, that every single word written by Hafez had a mystical meaning and no line of Hafez actually meant what it said. The reading of Hafez as codified poetry implying an esoteric meaning for each line or word propounded the view that his ghazals can be read at two levels, one apparent, the other hidden – the latter representing the intended meaning. Deciphering Hafez’s underlying meaning grew into an esoteric art, not dissimilar to the explanations offered by the addicts of ‘conspiracy theories’ (q.v.) in political affairs....
Then, acknowledging some ambiguity in the application of the term ‘ārif (gnostic) to Ḥāfiẓ, Dr Yarshater makes it quite clear that he rejects any significant association of the poet with institutional Sufism:
On the other hand, if by ‘āref is meant a ‘mystic,’ that is, a person who believes in the theory and practice of Sufism, is attached to a certain Order or the circle of a Sufi mentor (pīr) or a khānaqāh, or allows the clarity of his mind to be clouded by the irrational and obfuscated by the woolly thinking of some Sufis and their belief in miraculous deeds ascribed to their saints, then the epithet is a misnomer.1
The Encyclopaedia is not of one mind on this matter; the section by Franklin Lewis on the image of the rogue (rind) in Ḥāfiẓ is considerably more nuanced in balancing the denunciation of religious hypocrisy with the symbolism of spiritual authenticity.2
Be that as it may, in this article I will not attempt to decide whether Ḥāfiẓ is by intention a secular or mystical poet, since the question as posed may in fact be badly framed. Instead, I would like to examine the case of one of the very earliest formal commentators on the poetry of Ḥāfiẓ, Jalāl al-Dīn Davānī (d. 908/1502), the eminent philosopher and scholar of Shīrāz.3 Davānī is credited with half a dozen short untitled texts commenting on various verses by Ḥāfiẓ. Although these are generally undated, in one of these writings the author refers to the near completion of another of his works (the Shawākil al-ḥūr, dated 872/1468); thus we can conclude that Davānī is certainly one of the earliest, if not the very
first, to write a separate commentary on Ḥāfiẓ. The fact that Davānī lived in Shīrāz not long after the death of Ḥāfiẓ gives his interpretations a special significance for the likely reader reception of his poetry by at least some contemporary audiences.4 Three of these commentaries by Davānī have been collected together in a convenient edition by Ḥusayn Mu‘allim, entitled Naqd-i niyāzī, and as representative samples, these will constitute the basis for the following observations.5
The first of Davānī’s commentaries on Ḥāfiẓ focuses on the well-known verse, dūsh dīdam ki malāyik dar-i maykhāna zadand / gil-i Ādam bi-sirishtand u bi-paymānah zadand: ‘Last night I saw the angels knocking on the tavern door; / they mixed the clay of Adam and threw it as a cup.’ In the opening pages, he describes his aim as follows:
The purpose of this introduction is that certain of the sincere lovers, in the times of conversation and the hours of closeness, asked about the commentary on a verse by ‘the tongue of the moment’, Master Shams al-Millat wal-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ … After that request was fulfilled, two or three words were speedily written down to the taste of the unitarians and the path of the Sufis. On completion, that document was lost. Once more they began to ask, and with the help of time it was formed in our way with correct composition and written with a verified description. Its basis was established in the path of the unitarians, the Sufis, and the sages, since to each of these groups on this subject there is a perspective and a reflection, and in accordance with the grasp of every soul there is a condition of recollection. Beware not to get lost in ‘every tribe knew its drinking place [mashrab]’ (Q 2:60). Every person in this knowledge is associated with a path. One may have achieved eternal happiness, while another is stuck at the beginning of the alphabet. One person takes pleasure in ecstasy and listening to music, while another finds peace in dancing. Most sought textual confirmation [for their path] from the verses of the poet referred to, so that their objectives would also become illuminated [by his poetry], and the sorrowful soul would find fresh fragrances from the breeze of that garden.6
Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry Page 35