A Comparative Study of Piety in the Poetry of Sanayi and Hafiz

Sanayi is the first poet who extensively entered mysticism into Persian poetry. He divides piety into two types: real and unreal. He praises real piety and despises hypocritical piety. The contempt of hypocritical piety is in fact the critical-social aspect of his poems, which is in contrast with the pious of his time. Likewise, Hafiz borrows his critical attitude from the poets before him, especially from Sanayi. Like Sanayi, he sees the pious of his time committing acts which were against what they preached. Hence, Sanayi and Hafiz despise and contempt such piety, praise and laud real piety, and stand in opposition to untrue claimers of piety. As a matter of fact, their piety is a piety of objection that encourages introspection and discourages hypocrisy and pretense.