Lecture
Hafez's Spiritual Outlook; A Lecture by Seddiq Qotbi
This lecture explores Hafez's spiritual outlook and the way spirituality manifests in his poetry. In this program, Seddiq Qotbi reads Hafez not only as a poet of love and profligacy, but also as a spiritual thinker on the horizon of Persian language and experience.
About this video
Hafez is one of the most important figures in Persian poetry and culture; a poet in whose language love, profligacy, the critique of hypocrisy, faith, doubt, hope, and spiritual experience are intertwined. In this lecture, Seddiq Qotbi addresses "Hafez's Spiritual Outlook" and attempts to show how spirituality is understood in Hafez's poetry.
The subject of the discussion is not merely the explication of a few couplets or literary interpretation, but rather an examination of the horizon within which Hafez speaks of God, humanity, love, suffering, hope, and inner freedom. From this perspective, Hafez's Divan can serve as an occasion for understanding a kind of poetic and critical spirituality; a spirituality that distances itself from dry asceticism and outward formalism.
This program was organized by the Center for Hafez Studies and the Hafez Research Chair and is suitable for those interested in Persian literature, mysticism, religious studies, and Iranian spirituality. Its importance lies in rereading Hafez as a poet who can still be present in the spiritual questions of contemporary humanity.
