The tongue of the unseen
Shams al-Din Muhammad lived almost his whole life in Shiraz, through wars and changes of ruler, and took the pen name Hafez because he had memorised the Quran. His ghazals, short poems of love and wine, are also poems about God, and about the hypocrisy of those who preach virtue without living it. Iranians call him Lesan al-Gheyb, the Tongue of the Unseen.
The fal
Iranian families keep his Divan close, and on Yalda night, at Nowruz, or whenever a decision is hard, someone makes a wish and opens the book at random. The ghazal on that page is the answer, the fal-e Hafez. Street vendors in Shiraz still sell fals picked by trained canaries.
Visit
Hafez lies in a garden pavilion in Shiraz, the Hafezieh, one of the most visited places in Iran. See the Tomb of Hafez.
