The Relation of Hafez to Asharite and Determinism Schools

One of the signifying issues about poetry and thought of Hafez, a Persian poet, is determinism and fatalism. Although a number of researchers have studied this topic from different aspects, it is still, like so many other issues about Hafez, seriously debatable. A part of scholars have stressed on determinism in his poetry, even if they don’t reach to any common point about his being Ash’ari. Most of them have believed in not his being a part of these two schools. In this paper, firstly, a quick review of different standpoints about Hafez’s thought world will put forward. Then the discussion goes through the dissension of Ash’arite and Mutazilah schools, which based on the human’s intended or chosen’s act, considering that every deterministic belief is not attributed to Ash’arite or any kind of theological approach. Finally, through focusing on the freethinking behavior of Hafez toward the determinism, based on various examples from his poetry book, it is rendered that these reneges of poems are composed in reply to his reproachers who had charged him with the profligacy and love. At the end, the viewpoint of researchers who believed in determinism of Hafez is negotiated. As a result, most of Hafez’s poems which are apparently in harmony with determinism school, considered as his disputing with the reproachers as well as criticizing Ash’arite and Mutazilah in terms of ignoring freedom of choice. To come to the point, being a part of determinism and Ash’rite school not only could not explain Hafez as he is but also is against his disagreement with these schools.