Fal-e Hafez: How Iranians Consult Hafez’s Poetry

A fal-e Hafez is a way of asking the poet Hafez for guidance: you hold a question or wish in your mind, open his Divan (collected poems) at random and read the ghazal on that page as his answer. Iranians do it on Yalda night, at Nowruz, at Hafez’s tomb in Shiraz, or anytime they need encouragement.

Who was Hafez?

Shams al-Din Mohammad, known by his pen name Hafez (حافظ, Hâfez), was born in Shiraz in the first quarter of the 14th century and died there in 1389 or 1390. The exact years are uncertain: the Encyclopaedia Iranica gives about 1315 for his birth and about 1390 for his death, and notes that scholars disagree, while Britannica gives 1325 or 1326 to 1389 or 1390. He spent his whole life in Shiraz, and the city appears again and again in his poems.

His pen name is a title: a حافظ is someone who knows the Qur’an by heart. Hafez’s fame rests on his دیوان (divân), and especially on his ghazals, short lyric poems about love, wine, hope, hypocrisy and the beloved. The widely used Ghazvini and Ghani edition, followed by the online library Ganjoor, numbers 495 ghazals. Over time Hafez earned the title لسان‌الغیب (Lesân al-Gheyb), “the Tongue of the Unseen”, a name that already appears in a 15th-century work that also mentions the use of his Divan for divination.

What is a fal?

The Persian word فال (fâl) means an omen or a fortune. To take one is فال گرفتن (fâl gereftan), and a Hafez fal is فال حافظ (fâl-e Hâfez). In English the practice is called bibliomancy: looking for guidance by opening a book at random.

According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica, using books of poetry this way is older than Hafez, but it is “closely associated with the Dīvān of Ḥāfeẓ”. One of the earliest references to using Hafez for a fal is in Abu Bakr Tehrâni’s Ketâb-e Diârbakriyye, written between 1469 and 1478, about 80 years after the poet died. Iranica also notes that the cards that street fortune-tellers’ birds pick out are usually based on verses from Hafez.

Many Iranians treat the fal as a mix of faith, fun and literature. In a 2024 report from Iran, the Shiraz writer Ahmad Akbarpour told Al-Monitor that many people “practice the tradition without really believing in it”. Even skeptics enjoy it, because the reward is a beautiful poem read aloud with friends.

How a Hafez fal is traditionally done

Families differ in the details, but the classic steps are these:

1. Make an intention. Close your eyes and think of your question or wish, without saying it aloud. This is your نیت (niyyat). The person who opens the book does not need to know what it is.
2. Say a short prayer. Traditionally people recite the Fatiha and the short sura Qol huwa Allâh and dedicate them to the soul of Hafez. Many people skip this step.
3. Call on Hafez. The best-known words are a small rhyme:
   ای حافظ شیرازی، تو محرم هر رازی، بر ما نظر اندازی Listen
   Ey Hâfez-e Shirâzi, to mahram-e har râzi, bar mâ nazar andâzi.
   “O Hafez of Shiraz, you are the keeper of every secret; cast a glance on us.”
   Some people add: تو را به خدا و به شاخ نباتت قسم می‌دهم، آنچه صلاح و مصلحت من است برای من آشکار کنی (to râ be khodâ va be shâkh-e nabâtat ghasam midaham, ânche salâh va maslahat-e man ast barâye man âshkâr koni), “I ask you, by God and by your Shâkh-e Nabât, to show me what is good and right for me.” شاخ نبات (shâkh-e nabât) literally means “a stick of rock candy”, and the phrase comes from Hafez’s own ghazal 183.
4. Open the Divan. With eyes closed, open the book at random. Often a friend or relative opens it and reads for you.
5. Read the ghazal. The reader reads the ghazal on that page aloud, and everyone looks for the lines that seem to speak to your question. Some families focus on the last couplet, which often carries the poem’s message and the poet’s name.
6. Interpret, kindly. Hafez is famously open to more than one reading. A fortune-teller interviewed by Al-Monitor, who has interpreted Hafez for over 30 years, called the poems “ambiguous and multifaceted”. That is part of the charm: almost every fal can be read as a word of hope.

Today you will also see fal apps, websites and printed cards. At Hafez’s tomb in Shiraz and in some streets, fortune-tellers let a small bird, often a parakeet, pick an envelope with a poem in it.

Spoken Persian for a fal night

When Iranians consult Hafez

Yalda night

شب یلدا (shab-e Yaldâ) is the longest night of the year, the last night of the month of Âzar, which falls around December 20 or 21. Families stay up late with pomegranates, watermelon, nuts and poetry. In 2022 UNESCO added Yaldâ/Chella, shared by Iran and Afghanistan, to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, noting the reciting of poetry and storytelling among the night’s activities. In many families the evening includes a Hafez fal for each person, read as a forecast for the coming year.

Nowruz

At نوروز (Nowruz), the Persian New Year in March, many families read Hafez as the year begins. As one Iranian woman told Al-Monitor, Iranians “start the year with the poems of Hafez”.

At the Hafezieh in Shiraz

Hafez’s tomb, the حافظیه (Hâfeziye), sits in a garden in Shiraz. Visitors come to read his poems, and fal readers work nearby.

Have you ever taken a fal-e Hafez? What did yours say? Tell us in the comments.

A famous example: the first ghazal of the Divan

The Ghazvini and Ghani edition of the Divan opens with this ghazal. It is a good example of how Hafez sounds, and it is the poem many people meet first:

الا یا ایها الساقی ادر کأسا و ناولها / که عشق آسان نمود اول ولی افتاد مشکل‌ها Listen
Alâ yâ ayyoha-s-sâghi, ader ka’san va nâvelhâ, ke eshgh âsân nemud avval vali oftâd moshkel-hâ.
Literal: “Ho, cupbearer, pass a cup around and hand it to me, for love seemed easy at first, but then difficulties came.”

The first half-line is in Arabic, the second in Persian. The Persian half is often quoted on its own, and anyone who has started something with high hopes understands عشق آسان نمود اول ولی افتاد مشکل‌ها.

The ghazal’s last couplet carries the poet’s name:

حضوری گر همی‌خواهی از او غایب مشو حافظ / متی ما تلق من تهوی دع الدنیا و اهملها Listen
Hozuri gar hami-khâhi, az u ghâyeb masho, Hâfez; matâ mâ talgha man tahvâ, da’i-d-donyâ va ahmelhâ.
Literal: “If you want presence, Hafez, do not be absent from the beloved; when you meet the one you love, leave the world and let it go.”
The Persian pronoun او (u) can mean “him” or “her”, one reason Hafez reads as both a love poet and a mystical poet.

A fal that everyone hopes for: ghazal 255

Some ghazals feel made for a fal. Ghazal 255 repeats “do not grieve” at the end of every couplet:

یوسف گم‌گشته بازآید به کنعان، غم مخور / کلبهٔ احزان شود روزی گلستان، غم مخور Listen
Yusof-e gomgashte bâz âyad be Kan’ân, gham makhor; kolbe-ye ahzân shavad ruzi golestân, gham makhor.
Literal: “Lost Joseph will come back to Canaan, do not grieve; the hut of sorrows will one day become a rose garden, do not grieve.”
The image comes from the story of Joseph, whose father Jacob mourned him for years until he was found again.

How to read a Hafez ghazal

You will enjoy a fal much more if you know how a ghazal is built:

• Couplets. A ghazal is made of couplets, each called a بیت (beyt). Each couplet has two half-lines, each a مصراع (mesrâ’). The Encyclopaedia Iranica describes the ghazal as a short lyric of some seven to fourteen lines, and Hafez’s first ghazal has seven couplets, ghazal 255 has ten.
• One meter and one rhyme. The whole poem keeps a single meter and a single rhyme. Often a repeated word or phrase follows the rhyme, called the ردیف (radif). In ghazal 255, the rhyme is Kan’ân / golestân and the radif is غم مخور.
• Each couplet can stand alone. A couplet usually makes a complete statement, which is why people quote single couplets and why a fal reader can pick the line that fits your question.
• The signature. In the last couplet Hafez usually names himself: حافظ or حافظا (“O Hafez”). This pen name is the تخلص (takhallos). He often speaks to himself in that line, which makes it feel like advice, and it is one reason many people pay special attention to it in a fal.

A practical tip: read each couplet twice. First read for the literal picture (the cupbearer, the rose, Joseph in Canaan), then ask what it might mean for the question you have in mind.

Reading Hafez in Persian: where to start

Hafez is harder than he looks. His language is compact, full of Arabic words and wordplay, and almost every image has more than one meaning. Still, many of his half-lines are everyday sayings in Iran, and once you can read the script you can start collecting them. Which Hafez line would you like explained next? Leave it in the comments.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Iranica: Hafez (life and times), Encyclopaedia Britannica: Hafez, Encyclopaedia Iranica: Fāl-nāma, Encyclopaedia Iranica: Ghazal, characteristics of the Persian ghazal, Al-Monitor: Iranians seek guidance from ancient poetry of Hafez (2024), Louisa Shafia, Food52 via Salon: On Shab-e Yalda, red fruit and fortune-telling rule the night, UNESCO: Yaldā/Chella, Tehran Times: Yalda night on UNESCO list, Taaghche (in Persian): how to take a fal-e Hafez, Ganjoor: Hafez, ghazal 1, Ganjoor: Hafez, ghazal 255, Ganjoor: Hafez, ghazal 183, Ganjoor: Hafez, ghazal 495

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