How to read a fal

The custom is simple: hold a question in mind, open the Divan, read the ghazal that comes. What is said less often is that the ghazal is not there to answer; it is there to change the question.

The opening couplet is called the shahed and is usually general. What the tradition weighs more heavily is the last one — the maqta — where Hafez's pen-name appears and the ghazal gathers its tone.

And one rule everybody keeps: you do not take a second fal for the same question in one sitting. If you did not like the answer, it is still the answer.