Hafez's Poetry: Where Artistic Form Meets Practical Wisdom

On Hafez Day, the Deputy Minister of Culture for Cultural Affairs wrote that the Prophetic saying «Indeed, some poetry is wisdom» may refer to this sacred capacity to join artistic form with practical wisdom, and that Hafez's poetry is undoubtedly the highest example of this meaning.

According to the report of Iran's Ambassador of Arjan, the 20th day of October in Iran's cultural calendar is named after "Khwaja Shamsuddin Mohammad Hafiz Shirazi". This short note is an opportunity to observe the hidden language and reflect on the moral aspects of his poetry.

Poetry is an artistic word that emerges on the basis of using the power of imagination to create a beautiful picture and an original painting. Unlike visual arts, the essence of beauty in poetry relies on linguistic functions, i.e. melody and meaning.

According to Aristotle's classification, if we divide the human speech faculty into two main theoretical branches (with the dimensions of Sophia, Episteme and Nous) and practical (with the dimensions of Techneh and Fransis), then poetry is placed in the category of craft and artistic innovation. Even when poetry gives a narrative of reality, its intrinsic value is not based on the truth or falsity of claims, but depends on the beauty of words and the association of meanings; Poetry, in the first place, is not abstract knowledge or pure intuition of truth, but is an art for creating beauty.

On the other hand, ethics is a practical knowledge whose goal is to know the way to happiness and guide the will to follow it. Since happiness and moral life is an objective and concrete matter and the path to reach it is mixed with real opportunities and harms, this fundamental question has always been raised, what role can poetry play in reaching the home of happiness with its imaginary nature?

The answer to this question depends on recognizing the place of imagination and beauty in the field of moral motivation. If, like Plato, we consider ethics to be based on the perception of exemplary and purely rational truths that motivate a person to act by knowing them, then there is not much left for poetry; It is as if, in the Platonic view, a motivation that is not entirely in the light of reason has no moral originality.

But the more we step towards accepting the effect of emotions and imagination in moral motivation, the role of poetry becomes more prominent. Aristotle assigns a wider place to art and poetry in the field of ethics; Because he does not consider human motivation and action to be exclusive to reason, but considers individual and collective feelings and desires to be involved in driving the will.

Verbal and artistic beauty is able to play a central role in moral education by softening and directing emotions. In addition, poetry prepares a person's soul for moral life by softening the soul; A soul that is familiar with beauty and art will accept the past and decency more smoothly than cruelty and malice. The connection between the beauty of poetry and the gentleness of morals makes reaching happiness more pleasant and possible.

Perhaps the prophetic hadith "Innah minna al-Sha'ar al-Hikmah" (indeed some poems are full of wisdom) refers to this sacred capacity in linking artistic form with practical wisdom, and Hafez's poem is undoubtedly the highest example of this meaning. In the field of Hafez's thinking, the most fundamental foundation of the moral is the eternal love of man to God. Happiness and salvation, which Hafez often interprets as government, has an inseparable connection with this divine grace:

You put the treasure of love in our ruined heart/ You cast the shadow of the government on this ruined corner

This understanding of happiness opens up a wider horizon than the dry calculations of rational moral philosophy; As he himself says:

The problem of love is not within the scope of our knowledge/ we cannot make a mistake in solving this point

And in another place, he considers the treatment of human existential pain/ not in mere wisdom, but in a man standing on this pain in love:

There is no love in the doctor's office of wisdom/ O heart, listen to the pain and do not ask the name of the medicine

A love that, although it is associated with sadness and hardship, is a constructive and sublime sadness:

Nashem said, "What art does love have except sadness?"

Along with these existential foundations, Hafez Mashhoun's poetry is one of the pure teachings of practical wisdom and concrete life lessons. He considers friendship and tolerance to be the source of happiness and hatred to be the cause of destruction:

Plant a tree of friendship that will satisfy your heart's palate / Plant an enmity sapling that will cause countless suffering

Avoiding harming people and protecting human dignity is his moral compass:

Do not seek harm and do whatever you want/ there is no other sin in our law

And he summarizes the final salvation in this principle:

His heart moans and ends it, Hafez/ that eternal salvation is in less suffering

Hafez is so narrow-minded in respecting people's rights that he wishes not to blow even a speck of dust for anyone's sake:

Be such a goat that if you die, no one will be reminded of our passing away

Justice and truth are the other pillars of Tayyaba's life in his thought:

Make the stream of property the flowing water of your sword/ make the tree of justice the spur of the evil-doers

And he sings about the value of truth gems:

To the truth of Kush that the sun was born from your soul/ that turned dark from lies in the first morning

In the intellectual system of Al-Lan al-Ghaib, the biggest pest of moral life is falsehood and hypocritical asceticism; To the extent that he prefers innocent sin to hypocritical obedience:

It is better to eat a hundred sins than to change the hijab/ better than the obedience they show and hypocrisy

And finally, in the eyes of Hafez, this purity and moral honesty, lack of statehood and adherence to the truth of the family of Prophethood are not acceptable; Since the condition of receiving the companionship and grace of God is to walk honestly on this path:

Hafez, if you walk on the path of the family to the truth

On the occasion of Hafez Day, the deputy minister of cultural affairs wrote: Perhaps the prophetic hadith "Inna minna al-Sha'ar al-Hikmah" (some poems are full of wisdom) refers to this holy capacity in linking artistic form with practical wisdom, and Hafez's poetry is undoubtedly the highest example of this meaning.

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