Sanai

• Name — Sana'i Ghaznavi • Native Name — fa • Born — 1080 • Birthplace — Ghazni, Ghaznavid Empire • Died — 1131/1141 • Place of death — Ghazni, Ghaznavid Empire • Occupation — Persian literature • Genre — Sufi poetry, Wisdom Literature • Notable Works — The Walled Garden of Truth Notable early

Sanai was an Iranian poet who lived in the late 11th and early 12th century and was associated with Ghazni. He was connected with the court of Bahram Shah. The details of Sanai’s personal life are not well documented, and much of his biography is based on later sources. His surviving poetry is the principal source for understanding his literary and religious ideas.

He wrote an enormous quantity of mystical verse, of which The Walled Garden of Truth or The Hadiqat al Haqiqa (حدیقه الحقیقه و شریعه الطریقه) is his master work and the first Persian mystical epic of Sufism. Dedicated to Bahram Shah, the work expresses the poet's ideas on God, love, philosophy and reason. For almost 900 years The Walled Garden of Truth has been consistently read as a classic and employed as a Sufi textbook. According to John Stephenson, "Sanai’s fame has always rested on his Hadīqa; it is the best known and in the East by far the most esteemed of his works; it is in virtue of this work that he forms one of the great trio of Sūfi teachers — Sanā'ī, Attar, Jalālu d Dīn Rūmī." Sanai taught that lust, greed and emotional excitement stood between humankind and divine knowledge, which was the only true reality (haqq). Love (ishq) and a social conscience are for him the foundation of religion; mankind is asleep, living in a desolate world. To Sanai common religion was only habit and ritual. Sanai's poetry had a tremendous influence upon Persian literature. He is considered the first poet to use the qasidah (ode), ghazal (lyric), and the masnavi (rhymed couplet) to express the philosophical, mystical and ethical ideas of Sufism.

Sanai's poetry stresses the possibility of an "awakening." His means for this awakening is surrender to God. His poetry has been called "the essential fragrance of the path of love." He hits out at human hypocrisy and folly: Others are heedless,—do thou be wise, and on this path keep thy tongue silent. The condition laid on such a one is that he should receive all food and drink from the Causer, not from the causes. Go, suffer hardship, if thou wouldst be cherished; and if not, be content with the road to Hell. None ever attained his object without enduring hardship.

Guillermo del Toro's 2017 film The Shape of Water ends with a recitation of one of Sanai's poems; Sanai is named in the closing credits.: Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with your love. It humbles my heart, for you are everywhere.