born 1325/26, Shiraz,
Persia
died 1389/90, Shiraz, Persia
Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafiz-e Shirazi, usually known simply as "Hafiz" or "Hafez" for short, was a
poet and
mystic of
Sufism. Hafiz was born in
Shiraz, Iran around 1325-36
CE. His father died while he was still young, leaving him and his mother in
poverty. Hafiz worked in a
bakery, giving (according to accounts of his life some 300 years later) one third of his earnings to his mother, one third to a local
school in which he was enrolled, and one third to
charity. At the school, he learned the
Qu'ran by heart, thus earning the name
Hafiz.
His
education included great poets such as
Saadi of Shiraz,
Farid-ud-din Attar,
Rumi, and others. He attended
poetry meetings, but was ridiculed for beign a dunce. According to
legend, he fell in
love with a rich young
lady who was unavailable to him, and he began writing his poetry out of longing for her. In his
desperation, he held a
vigil at the tomb of
Baba Koha, a local
saint, for forty nights -- it was said that anyone who could do so would have his heart's desire. After forty nights, the
angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him he could have whatever he wished. Stricken by the
beauty of God's messenger, he said. "If God's messenger is so beautiful, how much more beautiful must
God be!" He told the angel, "I want God!" Gabriel directed him to a local
Sufi named
Muhammad Attar, and there Hafiz began training.
Many books of Hafiz's poetry are currently in print, including but not limited to:
- The Gift
- The Subject Tonight Is Love
- I Heard God Laughing