This paper examines the origins and core doctrines of Sufism — the mystical school of thought that emerged from Islam during the ninth and tenth centuries — and traces its development through key figures including Rabiya Al-Adawiyya, Rumi, and Attar. The paper then focuses on the life and poetry of the Persian poet Hafiz (c. 1310–1379 C.E.), analyzing how his verses express central Sufi concepts such as the Unity of Being, Divine Love, the annihilation of the self (Fana), and the transcendence of fear. Drawing on translated poems and scholarly commentary, the paper argues that Hafiz's work remains the most lyrical and accessible expression of the Sufi path to God-realization.
Sufism is a school of religious thought that developed out of Islam during the ninth and tenth centuries. It is a departure from orthodox Islam in that it advocates practices in addition to following the Divine Law — the rules set down by Muhammad — as the path to enlightenment. While following the Divine Law is one component of the path to enlightenment, it is not sufficient without the addition of zikr, meaning "remembrance" (Bayat, 10). According to Sufism, all of creation is the physical manifestation of God, or Allah — meaning that man was, is, and always will be one with God — and the key to enlightenment is the attainment of God-remembrance. In the words of Muhammad, "He who knows himself knows his Lord" (Helminski, xx). Among the practices utilized for remembrance, reading, writing, music, poetry, and trance-like chanting are still practiced today.
The term "Sufi" came into existence about 150 years after the passing of Muhammad (Bayat, 10). Meaning "wool," it is thought that the early Sufis came to be known as such for the rough wool clothing worn by the early orders, the purpose of which was to signify a renunciation of worldly material comforts (Schwartz, 35). Inspired by the early Christian monks, as well as the mystics of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Persian Zoroastrianism, these early Sufis lived simple, ascetic lives in communal settings.
It was during the period from about 850 C.E. to 1450 C.E. that a significant shift occurred in Sufi thought. Rather than focusing on the threat of the fires of Hell or the promise of Heaven's paradise — as in orthodox Islam — focus was shifted to the concept of "Unity of Being," in which all of existence is a "manifestation of God's attributes and, as such, is not separate from Him" (Bayat, 11). Considered the Golden Age of Sufism, this era produced Sufi masters including Ibn Arabi, Rabiya Al-Adawiyya, Rumi, Attar, and Husayn bin Mansur Hallaj.
Although not as well-known as her Sufi companions, it is Rabiya Al-Adawiyya — born in 801 C.E. — who is credited as one of the first Sufis to eloquently speak of Divine Love, meaning love of the creator and every aspect of existence as his manifestation. Wrote Rabiya:
I have never worshiped God so I would be rewarded; nor have I ever prayed to be saved. If I did I should be an ordinary servant. I pray only because I love God with all my soul. To weep and cry out for God's mercy would be for nothing; for all I want is to approach God and dissolve my inner self in Him. (Schwartz, 38)
Such words exemplify the departure of Sufism from traditional Islam, in which reward or punishment is not sought in the afterlife, but in the here and now — in one's realization, or lack of realization, of one's oneness with God. By succeeding in attaining God-realization, one attains a kind of paradise of the mind, in which one is intoxicated with love of the Divine; while the lack of God-realization results in a "grief" easily likened to Hell. Says Rabiya in a poem published by Charles Upton:
The source of my grief and loneliness is deep in my breast.
This is a disease no doctor can cure.
Only Union with the Friend [God] can cure it.
I was not born to the Grief of God —
I only grieve to be like those
Who are pierced with the love of God —
I would be ashamed for my love
To appear less than the grief of others:
Therefore I grieve.
The path to enlightenment is therefore not without its little hells, not without its yearnings and pitfalls. In fact, one is required to struggle, doubt, yearn, fall down, and pick oneself up again on the path. Much as the early Christian ascetics believed that suffering was a way to God, so also did the early Sufis see suffering as necessary to enlightenment, since in order to seek God-realization, one must first acknowledge the lack of it.
Rabiya's early writings inspired countless Sufi masters, including the poets Farid ud-Din Attar of the tenth century, Saadi and Jalaluddin Rumi of the eleventh century, and Hafiz of the twelfth century. While all great poets in their own right, it is the writings of Hafiz that most beautifully express the Sufic yearning for oneness with God. Says Hafiz in his aptly titled poem "This Constant Yearning": "We are / Like lutes / Once held by God. / Being away from His warm body / Fully explains / This / Constant / Yearning" (Ladinsky, 116).
Hafiz was born in the Persian city of Shiraz, sometime between 1310 and 1325 C.E. As a young man of about 15, he fell in love with Shakh-e Nabet, a beautiful woman whom he saw while delivering bread. It is said that Hafiz's first love poems were inspired by his love of Shakh-e, and that out of a desperate desire to win her returned love, he resolved to sit for 40 nights at the tomb of the poet Baba Kuhi, who was said to grant three wishes to anyone able to stay awake for 40 nights in dedication to him. However, on the first night of the vigil, Hafiz was visited by the Angel Gabriel, whose beauty so entranced him that he decided to seek God's beauty alone. The Angel Gabriel then advised Hafiz to seek the counsel of Muhammad Attar, a spiritual master who could lead him down the path to God. While Hafiz spent the rest of his life in study with Muhammad Attar, he also married Shakh-e Nabet in his early twenties, and they had one child.
As a child, Hafiz was called by the name Shams-ud-din Muhammad. Having learned and memorized the Koran by listening to his father's recitations, he later took the name Hafiz, meaning "one who knows the Koran by heart." Hafiz had a great talent for memorization and committed several other literary works to memory, including the poems of Saadi, Farid ud-Din Attar, and Rumi. As for his own poems, he became a poet in the court of Abu Ishak in his twenties, where he remained until his early thirties. During this period — known as his period of "Spiritual Romanticism" — Hafiz composed several love poems to the Divine and served as a professor of Koranic studies at the college in Shiraz.
Unfortunately, not everyone was pleased with the Sufi concept of Unity of Being, nor with Hafiz's passionate verses. At the age of 33, the power-hungry tyrant Mubariz Muzaffer captured Shiraz and expelled Hafiz from the court and his teaching post, resulting in the composition of what is known as his "protest poems" (Shahriari, para. 15):
Every Friend who talked of love, became a foe.
Every eagle shifted its shape to a crow.
They say the night is pregnant, and I say,
Who is the father? And how do you know? (Shahriari 2, Rubaiyat 13)
Later, at the age of 38, Muzaffer's son Shah Shuja overthrew his father and reinstated Hafiz at the college. However, in his early forties, Shuja too found fault with Hafiz, causing Hafiz to flee to the city of Isfahan. The poems of this time largely center on Hafiz's yearning for his home, his wife and son, and his spiritual teacher, Muhammad Attar. This self-imposed exile lasted four years; Hafiz returned to Shiraz at the age of 52, upon Shuja's invitation.
At the age of 60, after nearly four decades of spiritual study, Hafiz undertook his second 40-night vigil. It is said that on the morning of the fortieth day — which was also the anniversary of his meeting with Attar — Attar rewarded him for his pursuits with a cup of wine that, after drinking, fully revealed to Hafiz his oneness with God. From this point until his death at age 69, Hafiz composed hundreds of poems, many ecstatic in nature, regarding this oneness and his journey to God-realization. Says Hafiz in "The Crystal Rim":
The
Earth
Lifts its glass to the sun
And light — light
Is poured.
A bird
Comes and sits on a crystal rim
And from my forest cave I
Hear singing,
So I run to the edge of existence
And join my soul in love.
I lift my heart to God
And grace is poured.
An emerald bird rises from inside of me
And now sits
Upon the Beloved's
Glass.
I have left that dark cave forever.
My body has blended with His.
I lay my wing
As a bridge to you
So that you can join us
Singing.
Thus Hafiz illustrates with masterful lyricism the journey from darkness — a place devoid of God-realization — to a place of light and full consciousness of unity with God.
"Four stages of enlightenment illustrated through poetry"
"Fear as obstacle; love as path to Divine union"
The influence of Hafiz's poetry on modern-day Sufism is made apparent, particularly in regards to the notion of enlightenment as something to be consciously and actively pursued on the part of the seeker, as opposed to a state of mind one passively comes by. In other words, one has to do the work. While having a spiritual master as a guide can be helpful, it is ultimately the responsibility of the seeker to open his heart to the point that God-realization becomes possible, for as Hafiz says, "However great be the teacher, he is helpless with the one whose heart is closed" (Khan, 256).
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