Infinite praise and endless glorification and immeasurable thanks to the Lord whose permission and will controls the collection of sustenance-providers' works. The Unique One whose raising of the seven layers is a sign of His causeless wisdom. The Wise One who made the sugar-eating parrot of human faculty speak the heart-opening words 'Indeed, some eloquence is magic' in front of the mirror of contemplating the brides of meanings. The Knower who brought the melodious nightingale of language in the narrow cage of mouth to sing 'Indeed, in poetry there is wisdom' through the power of minds.

That Nurturer of servants who placed the tongue in mouth

Placed the pearl of speech in every language's shell

To the soul He gave from grace a sweet delicate food

For the heart He placed joy from words in expression

In the sea of chest, He nurtured the pearl of meanings

In the mine of nature, He placed endless rubies of speech

And infinite arranged jewels of blessings, and scattered pearls of endless salutations be upon the triumphant spirit and expanded chest of the eloquent one who delivered the soul-enhancing call 'I am the most eloquent of Arabs and non-Arabs' to the hearing of the inhabitants of the dusty earth and travelers under the green dome, and from the fragrant breeze of the soul-nurturing 'Indeed, the Holy Spirit has breathed into my heart,' made the souls of the living-hearted in both worlds fragrant and refreshed, and adorned the locks of the brides of speech with the aid of 'Indeed, I have been given the Quran and its like with it,' and decorated the neck and ears of heart's treasures with the soul-enhancing benefits and miracle-showing precious pearls of 'I have been given the comprehensive words' of his pearl-scattering speech.

I mean the prophetic presence, the master of the realm of wisdom, the preface of the book of rhetoric, the truthful proof of 'Sad. By the Quran containing reminder,' the owner of the collection of 'We did not teach him poetry,' the chief of the prophets' scroll, the verse of the chosen ones' ode, Muhammad Mustafa, upon whom be the most excellent blessings and the most perfect, pure, and blessed salutations.

The eye and light of all messengers, guide of paths

Sultan of the four-cushioned palace of the chosen ones

Treasury of the truths of universal secrets

Collection of the noble ethics of prophets

His hand the ocean of generosity, his breath the elixir of knowledge

His speech the place of truth, his heart the mine of purity

And endless salutations and infinite greetings be upon the pure spirits and holy forms of the masses of his family and companions and the famous men and beloved ones who placed the adorning saddle on the gracefully-walking steed of expression and the swift horse of metaphor and allegory, and pranced in the field of eloquence, and with the polo stick of fluency and rhetoric stole the ball of artistry and rhetoric from the eloquent orators and writers of far and near, until they delivered the sound of prophetic fame and the call of majestic voice 'Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, and those with him are firm against the disbelievers' to the conscious ears of the eloquent ones of the world and the rhetoricians of all nations

The spearhead of tongue and sword of expression 'And the poets - [only] the deviators follow them' remained in the sheath of weariness and dullness from the awe of prophetic majesty, and the famous ones of the battle line

They cast with long sermons, and at times

The revelation of glances, for fear of the watchers

At the time of challenge and dispute, they drew the shield of inability and supplication in the face of argument, [admitting] that 'they could not produce the like of it, even if they backed up one another'

May their spirits be immersed in salutations and praise

As long as the day has light and the candle has radiance

It is not hidden from the critics of the path of rhetoric and the jewelers in the daily market of virtue and excellence, the renowned ones of the realm of speech and the horsemen of the field of intelligence and wisdom, the travelers of the paths of poetry and prose and the owners of the kingdoms of poetic subtleties, that the jewel of speech in its essence is highly valuable and pure, and versified speech in itself is greatly precious and costly. In the shop of possibility, no merchandise more valuable than it can be bought, and in the market of ages, no goods loftier than it can be seen. The money-changer of intellect finds no currency dearer than it in the hand of heart, and the painter of thought sees no image more beautiful than it in the veil of imagination.

None know the weight and measure of this royal pearl except the perfect sages, and none recognize the worth and value of this full-standard currency except the wise jewelers.

If there were a jewel beyond speech

It would have descended in place of speech

And it is a field that cannot be crossed except by the forerunners of minds, and a scale that cannot be lifted except by the hands of insightful expression. However, the artistry of speech styles and the variety of prose and verse compositions are many and countless, and the difference in states of speakers and the contrast in degrees of artists is according to the correspondence of souls and natures and the observance of conformity with customs and conditions.

And it has been said that eloquence is not in lengthening the reins of the pen and its points, or extending the race of speech and its field, but rather it is in reaching the intended goal with precise words and unique meanings. Every skilled poet who reaches the essence of this point and becomes aware of the clarity of this matter, his expression's countenance gains freshness and the beauty of his speech accepts elegance, until it reaches a point where one of his verses becomes equivalent to an ode, and one of his ghazals takes the place of a whole collection, and from a piece receives a territory's grant, and for a quatrain collects tribute from a quarter of the inhabited world.

When the rhyme-measurers draw their pens

They draw the treasure of both worlds into speech

Especially the key that belongs to the treasure's door

Is under the tongue of the speech-weighing man

And without affectation, the essence of these words and the specialist of these preliminaries was the angelic-natured being, the great blessed master, the deceased martyr, pride of scholars, teacher of accomplished literati, mine of spiritual subtleties, treasury of divine knowledge, Shams al-Milla wa al-Din Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Shirazi - may Allah perfume his grave and elevate his rank in the holy world.

Whose flowing poetry is the envy of the water of life, and whose creative thoughts are the jealousy of heavenly maidens and youths, whose heart-attracting verses abrogate the words of Sahban, and whose grace-mixed compositions make one forget the beneficence of Hassan.

Like the arrangement of pearls and the garden of Paradise

And the peace of heart and the sweetness of sleep

He made the taste of common people sweet with firm words, and kept the mouth of the elite savory with clear meanings, opened the doors of familiarity to both the people of the apparent and added materials of enlightenment for the people of the hidden, spoke appropriate words for every occasion, and created a strange novelty for every subtle meaning, spent many meanings with few words, and included various innovations in the jewel box of composition.

Sometimes he kept the intoxicated ones of love's alley on the path of romance and flirtation, and shattered their glass of patience on the stone of instability:

Wash away the pages if you are our fellow student

For the science of love is not in books

And sometimes he encouraged the dregs-drinkers of the tavern of devotion to attend to the elder of the Magian temple and to dwell near the sacred house of the tavern:

As long as there remains any trace of the tavern and wine

Our head will be the dust of the Magian elder's path

The outpouring of his gentle nature, which has the quality of 'This is sweet, palatable drinking water,' encompasses both the elite and common people, and the benefit of his overflowing grace's effects, like 'a niche within which is a lamp,' is evident and radiant to those far and near. His lawful magic nature has tied knots in the speaking tongue, and his arranged necklace of thought has outweighed the merchandise of sea and mine. The drops from the springs of his brilliant mind have given freshness to the gardens of intimate gatherings with the quality of 'flowing water and from water is every living thing.'

And the fragrances of his thought's garden have revealed in the meadows of souls the meaning of the verse 'So observe the effects of the mercy of Allah - how He gives life to the earth after its lifelessness.' His eloquent words, like the breath of Jesus, have given life to the dead heart, and the drops of his Khidr-like pen have shown the white hand on the throne of speech. It's as if the air of commerce gained gentleness from the breeze of his character, and the cheek of rose and wild rose took beauty and freshness from his flowing poetry, and the height of box tree and the heart-attracting stature of the free cypress accepted balance and swaying from the uprightness of his opinion:

Why do you envy Hafez, O weak-versed one

The acceptance of mind and grace of speech is God-given

And without affectation, every pearl and jewel that existed in the corner of nature's jeweler shop, he strung in the thread of poetry for the adornment of the maidens in the private chamber of his consciousness. Inevitably, when he saw himself adorned with the garment and dress of expression and the ornament of metaphor, he opened his tongue in claim and said:

The era of Majnun has passed and it's our turn

Everyone has their turn for five days

And he engaged with both friends and opponents in playfulness and elegance, and arranged gatherings in the assembly of the elite and common people and in the private chambers of religion and state for king and beggar and scholar and layman, and in every station he mixed in disturbances and stirred up excitements,

Hafez the recluse went to the tavern last night

He broke his covenant and became intimate with the wine cup

And since they were protected and guarded from the taint of doubt and the calamity of desire, and no stranger's hand of interference had reached the hem of their chastity, and no one had pulled down the corner of their modesty's lock with the fingertip of betrayal, and the countenance of their conditions remained preserved in the protection of chastity and the amulet of trust from the shame of disgrace and the distress of reproach, as they have said:

If I am of sullied skirt, what wonder

The whole world bears witness to his chastity

Inevitably, the riding beasts of his world-conquering ghazals reached the furthest parts of Turkestan and India in the shortest time, and the caravans of his heart-pleasing words spread to the regions and corners of the two Iraqs and Azerbaijan in the least time. It blew like the blowing of wind and crept like the creeping of Christ, nay, it traveled like the travel of proverbs and journeyed like the journey of imagination. The Sufis' sama would not warm up without his passion-stirring ghazal, and the wine-worshippers' gathering would not find splendor without the relish of his taste-mixing words.

Hafez's ghazal-composing reached such heights that the heavens

Forgot Venus's melody in Paradise's minstrelsy

He did justice to speech in ghazal in such a way

That no poet ever did such justice to verse

When you memorize his sweet flowing poetry, you say

May a thousand divine mercies be upon Hafez's soul

However, due to his preservation of Quran lessons, and adherence to piety and benevolence, and discussion of Kashshaf and Miftah, and study of Matali and Misbah, and acquisition of literary rules, and investigation of Arab collections, he did not attend to gathering the scattered ghazals and did not occupy himself with compiling and recording the verses,

And the writer of this page - may Allah forgive his past [the humblest of creatures Muhammad Gulandam (or: Gul-andam)] - in the religious school of our master and leader, teacher of mankind, support of the nation and religion, Abdullah - may Allah elevate his ranks in the highest heavens - whenever the discussion turned to what we mentioned, he would say during the conversation that all these precious benefits should be strung in one necklace and these brilliant pearls should be joined in one thread so that they become a necklace for the neck of the existence of the people of the time and an amulet for the sash of the brides of the era,

And that honorable one would refer the raising of this building to the crookedness of time and would make excuses about the treachery of the people of the age until in the year seven hundred and ninety-two he entrusted the deposit of life to the agents of fate and destiny and carried the belongings of existence out from the narrow corridor of death and his pure soul became associated with the dwellers of the higher world and became the companion of the pure-faced houris,

In the year of ba and sad and dhal in abjad

From the day of Ahmad's blessed migration

Towards the highest paradise departed

The unique of the age, Shams al-Din Muhammad

When I passed by his pure earth

I observed the purity and light of his tomb

And after some time, the precedents of companionship rights, and the necessities of love's covenants, and the encouragement of pure-hearted dear ones, and the urging of faithful friends, whose faces' radiance gives beauty to the page of circumstances, and whose good upbringing brings perfection to the goods of virtues, became the carrier and cause for this poor one to arrange this book and organize these chapters,

Hope in the generosity of the Bestower of existence and the Dispenser of goodness and bounty that He will grant the speaker and transmitter and compiler and listener, during these circumstances and in the midst of this occupation, a fresh life and boundless joy, and overlook the stumbles through encompassing grace and perfect kindness, for He is indeed capable of that and worthy of response.