Hafiz’s Honesty Step in Following the Prophet’s Household (Rereading and analysis of the couplet “O Hafiz! If you put step in the path of the Household / The endeavors of the Sheriff of Najaf will accompany you”)

Hafiz’s art is not restricted to his couplets in ghazal (romantic songs) or formal and spiritual depictions. Rather, those beautiful images are accompanied, in high harmony, by sublime semantic or spiritual concepts. The present study uses a semantic approach, or even esoteric hermeneutics, to discuss Hafiz’s religious and esoteric path, and to scrutinize the last couplet of the ghazal number 296 in his collection of ghazals (Ghani-Qazvini copy), to explore this issue and analyze and interpret its various dimensions. The finding of this study is that, in the couplet “O Hafiz! If you step in the path of the [Prophet’s] dynasty/ the endeavors of the sheriff of Najaf will accompany you”, Hafiz both refers – briefly and emphatically – to his personal and Shiite wayfaring, and restates the conditions for such a wayfaring, referring to its immediate and future results and benefits. Here, we investigate and analyze the importance of honesty and honest steps taken in the path of the Prophet’s Household, which are emphasized in the Quranic verses and traditions as well as the teachings of the mystics, and are associated with the concept of Shiism as well as the supportive, protective and guiding roles of Imam Ali in Hafiz’s honest wayfaring.