Hafez Mysticism

Hafez’s mysticism is one of the important and wide issues in the present era. Referring to some words like wine, beloved, cup bearer and cup used in Hafez sonnets, some intellectuals exclude Hafez from the utopia of mysticism and regard him as an atheist, pleasure seeker and swinger. On the contrary, some others, in line with many predecessors, firmly believe in Hafez’s mysticism. Still some others hold the belief that he is merely a poet not belonging to any of the other social classes. Through historical or exophoric references on the one hand, and endophoric references on the other hand, and with an emphasis on symbolism in Hafez poetry as an outstanding feature of mystical literature, this paper seeks to develop and confirm the theory of Hafez’s mysticism.