By Maryam Bashirpour

The 20th of Mehr (October 12), the day commemorating Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez Shirazi, is not merely a date on the calendar. It is an opportunity to revisit a voice that, after seven centuries, continues to resonate from the heart of Iranian history and beyond.

Hafez Shirazi continues to make waves, from Shiraz to Paris, from Cairo to Delhi, and from Istanbul to Samarkand, with echoes of liberation, love, mysticism and spirituality, and, at the same time, steadfastness in the face of oppression and injustice.

Today, Hafez’s Divan, a collection of poems written by the poet-philosopher, holds a place not only in Iranian homes but also in universities and literary circles around the world.

Hafez, known as Lesan al-Ghayb (the Tongue of the Unseen), is a poet whom UNESCO called “one of the greatest poets of Persian literature” and “one of the greatest poets in world literature.” He lived during a period when Iran was struggling to breathe under the boots of foreign Mongol invaders and, subsequently, local dynasties acting as their subordinates.

Yet what transformed him from a Persian-language poet into one of the most influential poets in human history went far beyond the rhythmic arrangement of words and the composition of poetry. He had memorized the Holy Quran according to fourteen recitations, understood the language of the human soul, and stood against the oppression of his time – not with a sword, but with words and through rendi (spiritual nonconformity) and mysticism.

Today, as the world once again witnesses wars, aggression, sanctions and global arrogance, Hafez’s message to freedom-loving nations, the Axis of Resistance and all those who stand against the excessive ambitions of hegemonic powers is more alive than ever.

As German poet Goethe said, his words are “as great as eternity.” Nietzsche and Emerson, too, read and praised his works for years, because he transcended his own time and place.

Hafez’s mysticism: Peace, tolerance and rejection of sanctimonious violence

Hafez should not be regarded merely as a poet of the ghazal. He was a mystic who had attained spiritual union with the Divine and expressed the subtleties of mysticism with unparalleled finesse.

Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution, consistently referred to Hafez as the “mystic of Shiraz” and, in his works, including Adab al-Salat (The Disciplines of Prayer) and his commentary on Surah Al-Fatiha, cited Hafez’s verses to explain the stages of spiritual journeying toward God.

This profound connection between Hafez’s mysticism and Imam Khomeini’s thought demonstrates that Hafez’s mysticism is neither rigid nor detached from society; rather, it is a mysticism rooted in the struggle for justice and freedom.

Abdoljabbar Kakaei, a poet and literary researcher, clearly explains that “Hafez’s mysticism embodies a perspective infused with peace and tolerance” and “softens rigid and harsh asceticism and sets aside the war among the 72 nations.”

This is the mysticism of “the peace of both worlds,” whose interpretation consists of just two lines: “Show kindness to friends and tolerance toward enemies.” Yet this tolerance does not mean surrendering to oppression.

Even as Hafez calls for peace, he employs sharp satire and criticism against the rulers of his time and challenges the Mohtaseb – a symbol of hypocrisy and sanctimonious authority.

“The Mohtaseb saw a drunkard on the road and seized him by the collar; The drunkard said, ‘My friend, this is a shirt, not a bridle.’”

This verse is a protest against those who dominate people behind deceptive outward masks.

Hafez, architect of identity and the language of resistance

Hafez lived during a period when Iran was under foreign domination. The cultural adviser of Iran in Qatar rightly observes that “Hafez has always been known in the collective memory of Iranians as a poet of love and mysticism, whereas, considering the historical period in which he lived, particularly the presence of foreign Mongol invaders, his poetry is by no means devoid of themes of hope, perseverance and the struggle to preserve Iranian and Islamic identity.”

Through the language of rendi, Hafez challenged “hypocrisy” and “pretence” and “valued spiritual freedom.” In the face of veils of deception, he warns:

“At this very moment, a sedition has been set in motion behind the curtain; What will they do when the curtain finally falls,” he wrote.

This verse is fully applicable today to the Zionist regime and its supporters – a regime that, with the backing of the United States and the West, has drawn a curtain of lies and deception over its diabolical crimes. But when “the curtain falls,” its true face will be revealed.

Researchers, through discourse analysis of his ghazals, have concluded that Hafez’s texts contain four sub-discourses: sovereignty, resistance, mysticism and official Sufism. The central conflict within the text is the confrontation between the discourse of “resistance” and the “hegemonic discourse of the ruling authority of the time.”

Hafez does not communicate through direct political language. Instead, by “transferring signs to his audience” and “gradually making them aware of the prevailing social, cultural and political context,” he transforms them from mere “spectators” into “active participants” in “determining their own destiny.”

This is the very “soft war” that the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, repeatedly emphasized. He regarded Hafez not merely as a historical phenomenon but as “the bearer of a message and a culture,” and believed that “the content of Hafez’s poetry is a treasure and a reserve for our nation today and for future generations, as well as for other nations, because the highest human values know no borders.”

Hafez and global arrogance: From Mohtaseb to Trump

In today’s world, “global arrogance” has assumed a new face. Just as Hafez regarded Mohtaseb as a symbol of sanctimonious power and hypocrisy, an “enemy of the people,” today hegemonic powers pressure nations under the masks of “democracy” and “human rights.”

Hafez teaches us that, in confronting arrogance, we must neither behave hypocritically like the Mohtaseb nor retreat in fear like an ascetic. Through his rendi, he points toward a third path: burning in the fire of truth and consciously standing firm against hypocrisy.

Just as the “Greatest Name” in Hafez’s poetry “does its work,” today the Axis of Resistance, relying on the “Greatest Name” – that is, faith, unity and perseverance – stands against the global front of evil and continues to do its work.

The Axis of Resistance, comprising Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Yemen and “all freedom-loving nations of the world,” bears today the same mission that Hafez carried through his words.

Hafez spoke of the “martyrs in blood-soaked shrouds” and criticized the disloyalty of oppressors in the face of the “Samarkand Turks” and “Khwarazmians” who had established control over Iran. Today, too, resistance fighters in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq are the same martyrs in blood-soaked shrouds who have stood against global oppression.

The martyred Leader repeatedly emphasized the connection between Hafez’s “highest human values” and “resistance.” From a deeper perspective, Hafez’s mysticism is not only compatible with resistance but also “nurtures within itself the heroic spirit of jihad and resistance.”

Hafez’s mysticism is not a mysticism of submission to the oppressor. It is a mysticism of “struggle against the self” and “jihad against the self,” which serves as a prelude to confronting the “commanding self” at the social and political levels.

Hafez’s global message: Beyond borders, beyond time

Hafez does not belong only to Persian speakers. Goethe of Germany became enamored with him and composed his West–Eastern Divan in emulation of Hafez. Nietzsche praised him. In 1987, UNESCO commemorated the 600th anniversary of his death and described his Divan as a “treasure of lyric poetry” and of “mysticism and philosophical inquiry” that “transcends the limitations of time and cultural boundaries.” In 2025, UNESCO also commemorated the 700th anniversary of Hafez’s birth, emphasizing his “message of tolerance, humanism and peace.”

Cultural diplomacy – that is, the exchange of poetry, music and ideas – sometimes accomplishes what no political treaty can. A reader in Berlin moved by Hafez’s poetry, a student in New York translating a Persian ghazal, or a poet in South Africa inspired by him builds a bridge that no sanctions can destroy.

Iran, which is often portrayed in Western media only through the language of security, reveals another face through Hafez: a civilization of poets, scientists and mystics.

This universality stems from the fact that Hafez’s poetry draws from “Quranic teachings.” As the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution stated, “Hafez’s Divan draws upon the Quran, and he himself acknowledges that he learned Quranic insights and opened his own language to them.”

Hafez himself says: “He recited the Quran from memory in fourteen recitations.” This connection with the Quran is a connection with the “Book of Life” and the “eternal lesson of humanity,” which “knows no borders” and is not bound by time.

Hafez, the voice of all freedom-loving people in world

Today, as the Islamic world and freedom-loving nations stand against the excessive ambitions of hegemonic empires, Hafez is not merely a name; he is a “language” – the language of resistance, mysticism, peace and steadfastness.

He teaches us that it is possible to stand against the Mohtaseb; to speak of Iran in the face of the “Samarkand Turks”; and to invoke the “Greatest Name” and “resistance” in the face of “global arrogance.”

Today, the Axis of Resistance, from Gaza to Lebanon, from Yemen to Iraq, and from Iran to Palestine, follows the same path that Hafez paved with his words. Six centuries after his death, Hafez remains what he always was: the physician of hearts and the witness of his age.

And in a world where powers believe they have the right to decide the value of human lives, a poet from the fourteenth century reminds us that no empire grants the dignity of the human spirit, and no empire can take it away.

Perhaps this is why, when an Iranian is asked, “What is the reason for your extraordinary resilience?” they respond with a verse from Hafez. Like a living companion who has stood beside them through every dark night, he still says, with a smile, that dawn is near.

Yet Hafez no longer belongs to Iran alone. He belongs to all human beings who have spent a night waiting for dawn. His language is the language of the heart, and the heart knows no borders. A world sinking into polarization and wars today needs such a voice: a voice that speaks both of standing firm against oppression and of love for humanity.

Hafez is not merely the poet of Shiraz; he is the voice of all freedom-loving people in the world.

Maryam Bashirpour is a university researcher and writer based in Tehran.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)