Ay Padshahe Khooban

Ay Padshahe Khooban draws its ghazal from Hafiz, who frequently uses the figure of the 'king of beauties' (padshahe khooban) — the beloved elevated to royal station, with the lover as a subject petitioning the throne. The appeal from weakness is the appropriate mode of address: you are king, I am the afflicted one; help accordingly.

The garden image cuts through: 'This garden's rose does not stay fresh and blooming always / Help the weak ones in the time of their strength.' The transience of beauty is turned into an argument for mercy — if the rose does not last, then the time for generosity is now, while both parties still have the capacity for it. Hafiz rarely argues from abstract principle; he argues from the specific, time-bound nature of the world.

The final couplet names the rend's code: 'There is no thinking for oneself in the world of the rend / It is disbelief in this creed to be self-seeing and self-opinionated.' The rend (the antinomian Sufi lover) has renounced self-regard as the foundational act of their devotion. Self-opinion — holding views about oneself — is declared a form of heresy in love's creed. Zahir's performance of this Hafiz text carries the paradox with exactly the right measure of playfulness.