God is the enduring one, and everything else is transient.
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Sufi
Hafiz
Sufic. 1315 – c. 1390Shiraz, Persia (modern-day Iran)179 quotes· 2 sources
Hafiz (Khwaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi) was a 14th-century Persian poet whose ghazals — short, intoxicating lyric poems — use the imagery of wine, taverns, and earthly love as symbols for the soul's union with the divine. He is considered the supreme master of the Persian ghazal and his Divan has been used as a book of spiritual divination for centuries.
Born and living almost his entire life in Shiraz, Hafiz memorized the Quran as a young man (giving him his pen name, which means 'one who has memorized the Quran') and spent decades studying Sufi poetry and Islamic learning. He became court poet and was known for his extraordinary wit, charm, and an ability to speak simultaneously on multiple levels — as love poetry, as social satire, and as mystical teaching. His Divan (collected poems) contains around 500 ghazals that are so rich in ambiguity that they have been interpreted as literal love poetry, as Sufi mysticism, and as coded political commentary. In Iran and across the Persian-speaking world, the Divan of Hafiz is kept in homes alongside the Quran and consulted as an oracle by opening to a random page. His influence on Goethe, Emerson, and countless other Western thinkers helped bring Persian mystical poetry to global audiences.
Wisdom
Don't give me spiritual teachings until I've removed my own ignorance and misconceptions.
When I die, open my grave and you'll see smoke rising, proving the fire in my heart still burns, even setting my shroud ablaze.
Even a hundred years after I'm dead, if the scent of her hair reaches my dust, my decaying bones will rise and dance out of the grave.
Only the nightingale truly understands the value of the rose, because many people read the words but don't comprehend their meaning.
Get up, oh cup-bearer, and bring the cup they praise to those who are thirsty. It seemed like love was an easy thing, but my feet have stumbled upon difficult paths.
Patience and wisdom, Hafiz, are drowned in a sea of your own tears; your misery cannot be stilled or hidden from curious eyes.
The joy of her companionship is mine, whose soothing lips are on mine. This is enough for me!
Sorrow has ravaged the kingdom of my heart like a ruthless army. Come back, glad Lord of Rome, and liberate the land! Before your power, the enemy will shatter and flee.
Not all earthly happiness is worth a moment of pain. If I trade my spiritual robe for wine, what I gain is worth more than what I sell.
Seek the treasure of a peaceful mind and store it in the treasury of ease. Not even all the riches of your lands and seas are worth a loyal heart and a tranquil breast.
My lady, who transformed my house into heaven when she lived here, was wrapped in divine angelic grace from head to toe; she was pure and sinless.
The one who has longed for his lady's face will experience great contentment when she arrives.
The heart of one who lives in solitude will be broken, remembering a loved one's beauty.
Don't ask the monk for the pure gold of truth, he conceals no wealth beneath his deceitful appearance.
No heart is dark when the kind moon shines.
True love has disappeared from every heart.
When death approaches you, and your life's sand is slipping away, death lays two fingers on your ears and two on your eyes, and one on your lips, whispering: be silent.
Hafiz says, "I am the servant of all who scatter the dregs of the cup and are clothed in one color, that is, clothed in sincerity, but not of those whose bodies are clad in blue while black is the color of their heart."
I see great turmoil beneath the moon's orbit, with every part of the earth filled with evil and wickedness. There is strife among our daughters and contention among our mothers, and fathers are ill-disposed towards their sons.