Bismillah Hir Rahman Nir Raheem.

Jaz Allahu Thaalah Anna Muhammadan ( Sal-lal-lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam )
Maa Huwa Ah-luh.

‘Ala Inna Auliya Allahu La-Qaufum Alaiheem Walahum Yazanoon.

Dargah Name : Hazrat Hafiz Shirazi ( Rahmatullah Allaih )

Place : Musalla Gardens, along the banks of Ruknabad River in Shiraz
( Place is also referred as Hafezieh )

Country : Iran.

Birth Date : Sometime between the years 1310-1325 a.d. or 712-727 A.H. The most probable date is either 1320, or 1325 a.d.

Place : Shiraz, in South-central Iran

Name : Shams-ud-din Muhammad

Pen-Name : Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) or Hafez (a title given to those who
had memorized the Koran by heart. It is claimed that Hazrat Hafiz ( RA) had done this in fourteen different ways).

Full Title : Khwaja Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hazrat Hafiz -e- Shirazi

Other variations of spelling are:
Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi,
or Khwaje Shams ud-Din Mohammed Hafiz-e-Shirazi

Father : Hazrat Baha-ud-Din ( RA)

Brothers : He had two older brothers

Wife : Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) married in his twenties, even though he
continued his love for Shakh-e Nabat, as the manifest symbol of her
Creator's beauty.

Children : Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) had one child.

Important Events
Teens : He had memorized the Koran by listening to his father's
recitations of it. He also had memorized many of the works of his
hero, Hazrat Saadi (RA), as wells as Hazrat Attar (RA), Hazrat Rumi
(RA) and Hazrat Nizami (RA).

Teens : His father who was a coal merchant died, leaving him and his
mother with much debt. Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) and his mother went to live
with his uncle (also called Saadi). He left day school to work in a
drapery shop and later in a bakery.

Age 21 (1341 ad) :
While still working at the bakery, Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) delivered bread
to a wealthy quarter of town and saw Shakh-e Nabat, a young woman of
incredible beauty. Many of his poems are addressed to Shakh-e Nabat.

Age 21
In pursuit of reaching his beloved, Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) kept a forty
day and night vigil at the tomb of Baba Kuhi. After successfully
attaining this, he met Attar and became his disciple.

Early twenties to early thirties
Became a poet of the court of Abu Ishak. Gained much fame and
influence in Shiraz. This was the phase of "Spiritual Romanticism" in
his poetry.

Age 33
Mubariz Muzaffar captured Shiraz, and among his various deeds, he
ousted Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) from his position of teacher of Koranic
studies at the college. At this time he wrote protest poems.

Age 38
Shah Shuja took his tyrant father as prisoner, and re-instated Hazrat
Hafiz ( RA ) as a teacher at the college. He began his phase of subtle
spirituality in his poetry.

Early forties
Falling out of favor with Shah Shuja.

Age 48
Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) fled Shiraz for his safety, and went into
self-imposed exile in Isfahan. His poems mainly talk of his longing
for Shiraz, for Shakh-e Nabat, and for his spiritual Master, Hazrat
Attar (RA) ( not the famous Hazrat Farid-uddin Attar of Neishabour -
who predates Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) by a couple of centuries - but the
lesser known Hazrat Attar (RA) of Shiraz).

Age 52
By invitation of Shah Shuja, he ended his exile and returned to
Shiraz. He was re-instated to his post at the College.

Age 60
Longing to be united with his Creator, he began a forty day and night
vigil by sitting in a circle that he had drawn himself.

Age 60
On the morn of the fortieth day of his vigil, which was also on the
fortieth anniversary of meeting his Master Attar, he went to his
Master, and upon drinking a cup of wine that Attar gave him, he
attained Cosmic Consciousness or God-Realization.

Sixties
In this phase, up to the age of 69 when he died, he composed more than
half of his ghazals., and continued to teach his small circle of
disciples. His poetry at this time, talk with the authority of a
Master who is united with God.

Poetry
Deewan-e-Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )
Some 500 ghazals, 42 Rubaiyees, and a few Ghaseedeh's, composed over a
period of 50 years. Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) only composed when he was
divinely inspired, and therefore he averaged only about 10 Ghazals per
year. His focus was to write poetry worthy of the Beloved.

Compiler of Deewan
Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) did not compile his poetry. Mohammad Golandaam,
who also wrote a preface to his compilation, completed it in 813 A.H
or 1410 a.d, some 21-22 years after Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )'s death.

Also another person who compiled Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )'s poetry was one
of his young disciples Sayyid Kasim-e Anvar, who collected 569 Ghazals
attributed to Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ). He died in 1431 a.d. some 42-43
years after Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )'s death.

Wisal Date:
Late 1388 or early 1389 a.d. or 791 A.H. at the age of 69.
Place : Shiraz
Dargah Shareef / Mazar-e-shareef : in Musalla Gardens, along the banks
of Ruknabad river in Shiraz, which is referred to as Hafezieh.

Controversy:
The orthodox clergy who always opposed Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ), refused to
allow him to have a Muslim burial. Yet his grass-roots support among
the people of Shiraz created an atmosphere of conflict.

The Oracle:
To resolve the controversy, they decided to use Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )'s
poetry, by dividing his ghazals into couplets, and asking a young boy
to draw a couplet. It was agreed that however the couplet directed
them, they would all consent to follow.
The couplet that was chosen was verse 7 of Ghazal #79, which was a
tongue-in-cheek response from Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) to the orthodox
clergy. It reads:
Neither Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )’s corpse, nor his life negate,
With all his misdeeds, heavens for him wait.
??? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ?????
?? ?? ?? ??? ???? ??? ????? ?? ????
To this day, Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )'s Deewan (Poetry) is utilized as an
Oracle to give guidance to our questions, and direction to realize our
wishes.

After His Death
What others say about Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ):
Goethe: In his poetry Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) has inscribed undeniable
truth indelibly ... Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) has no peer!

Emerson: Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) defies you to show him or put him in a
condition inopportune or ignoble ... He fears nothing. He sees too
far; he sees throughout; such is the only man I wish to see or be.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: ...You may remember the old Persian saying,
'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for
whosoever snatches a delusion from a woman.' There is as much sense in
Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world.

Edward Fitzgerald: The best musician of Words.
Gertrude Bell: It is as if his mental eye; endowed with wonderful
acuteness of vision, had penetrated into those provinces of thought
which we of a later age were destined to inhabit.

A. J. Arberry: ... Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) is as highly esteemed by his
countrymen as Shakespeare by us, and deserves as serious
consideration.

________________________________________

References:
References for Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )'s biographical information are taken from:
Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) - Tongue of the Hidden, Versions by Paul Smith
The Green Sea of Heaven - Fifty Ghazals from Diwan of Hazrat Hafiz (
RA ), Translated by Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.
Odes of Hazrat Hafiz ( RA ) - Poetical Horoscope, Translated from the
Persian by Abbas Aryanpur Kashani, LL.D.
The Hafez Poems of Gertrude Bell, Introduction by E. Denison Ross
Divan-e Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )-e Shirazi, by
Mohammad Ghazvini and Dr. Ghasem Ghani (in Persian)
Divan-e Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )-e Shirazi, by Dr. Seyyed Mohammad Reza
Jalaly Nayeenii (in Persian)
Divan-e Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Hazrat Hafiz ( RA )-e Shirazi,
compiled by Mohammad Jaafar Mahjoobi (in Persian)