Peaceful Pages – AFM Library
Book Reviews Coordinated by AFM Friend, Thomas Wolfe
Week of N 5.05.2024
Sufi Poetry Week – Hafiz of Shiraz
Art by Saliha Green
Also in the AFM Library:
Hafiz: Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West
Author’s Bio
It is said by some in the Faith of Islam that Quakers are the Sufi’s of Christianity. It is fair to say that the belief of the Light Within is found to be common to both Sufi’s and Quakers. Added to the Testimony of Light Within, Simplicity in worship is common to both Friends and Sufis which at various times found both Sufis and Quakers judged by the Orthodox Religious.
“No reciter of Scripture who stands in the prayer niche,
Has ever enjoyed such delight as I have received
From the wealth of the Qur’an”
Page 68
Hafiz and Rumi are accepted as the most famous of the Sufi poets.
Though Rumi (Sunna Islam) is reported by the New York Times to be the best selling poet in the USA, Hafiz of Shiraz, (Shia Islam), (1320-1390) also has a lot to say about what is Real Light on the Sufi path. “The Illuminated Hafiz: Love Poems for the Journey to Light” is a most beautifully illustrated introduction to Sufi poetry and the Light of Sufism according to Hafiz of Shiraz.
Author’s Relationship to Quaker Testimonies
Peace Testimony
“For many years my heart wanted something from me,
Not knowing that it was itself that it wanted: Stay closed and wait.”
Hafiz Page 116
The lover says to the Master…
“You have taught me something that has made me forget everything.
You have created in me a desire that sus do not desire anything,
You have given me that One Word which says:words mean nothing.”
Hafiz Page 71
Equality Testimony
“If I’ve left the orthodox mosque and made my way to Truth
Don’t scold me …
For preachers sermons are long winded and the day is soon over”
Hafiz page 48
Simplicity Testimony
“Consider this metaphor for Hafiz’s poetry. The sound of rain is language being used. Silence is an orchard when it’s not raining, the ground moisture being quietly drawn up into the fruit trees. Then there is the Hafiz place, in between silence and speaking, when it;s quit raining, but a rain-like dripping continues in the orchard. Hafiz’s poetry is a peace so fine it keeps overflowing, as though from nowhere.” .
Coleman Barks on Hafiz Page 59
Truth Testimony
I said to the Master of the tavern”Tell me, which is the road of salvation?”
He lifted his cup and siad
“Not talking about the faults of other people”
Hafiz page 15
Order in Community
“We are the whirling ecstatics
Who have left our hearts go to the wild
We are musty scholars of Love
And old Friends of the cup of heaven”
Hafiz Page 52