Hafez Quotes

Persian poet and mystic (1325–1389)

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Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī (known by his pen name Hafez or Hāfiz) (1325/26–1389/90) was a Persian mystic poet.

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Pen Names: حافظ

Native Name: خواجه شمس‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی

Alternative Names: of Shiraz Šams-al-Din Moḥammad • Anacreon of Persia • Khāja Shamsu Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī • Shamsoddin Mohammad Hafez-e Shirazi • Ḥāfeẓ • Moḥammed Shams od-Dīn Ḥafeẓ • Ḥāfiẓ • Ḥāfiẓ Shīrāzī • Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī • Shams-ud-Din Mohammed • Moḥammed Šams al-Dīn Ḥafeẓ • Hafiz • Khafiz • Hafis • Haafiz • Häfiz

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یک دم غریق بحر خدا شو گمان مبر

کز آب هفت بحر به یک موی تر شوی

In essence, all mysticism deals with processes of love and the ways in which one joins God through love. For Hafiz, the focus of love is often a Master of Love,

Laughter What is laughter? What is laughter?
It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
It is the sun poking its sweet head out
From behind a cloud
You have been carrying too long,
Veiling your eyes and heart.
It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure
That is your Real body — called Truth.
It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight
To embrace everyone and everything in this world.
Laughter is the polestar
Held in the sky by our Beloved,
Who eternally says,
“Yes, dear ones, come this way,
Come this way toward Me and Love!

I WISH I COULD SPEAK LIKE MUSIC I wish I could speak like music. I wish I could put the swaying splendor
Of the fields into words So that you could hold Truth
Against your body
And dance. I am trying the best I can
With this crude brush, the tongue, To cover you with light. I wish I could speak like divine music. I want to give you the sublime rhythms
Of this earth and the sky’s limbs As they joyously spin and surrender,
Surrender
Against God’s luminous breath. Hafiz wants you to hold me
Against your precious
Body And dance,
Dance.

That is why all the Great Ones speak of
The vital need
To keep Remembering God,
So you will come to know and see Him
As being so Playful
And Wanting,
Just Wanting to help.

Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.

Why does the most exquisite rose have the sharpest thorns

If you asked for a few words of comfort and
guidance I would quickly kneel by your side
and offer you a whole book … — Hafez, from “Companion for LIfe,” Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, eds. Phyliis Cole-Davis & Ruby R. Wilson (Grayson Books, 2017)

من از چه حافظ این شهرم جوی نمی ارزم
مگر تو از کرم خویش یار من باشی
حافظ

Every Movement I rarely let the word “No” escape
From my mouth
Because it is so plain to my soul
That God has shouted, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
To every luminous movement in Existence.

What does life give me in the end but sorrow?
What do love's good and evil send but sorrow?
I've only seen one true companion - pain,
And I have known no faithful friend but sorrow.