Two important, long-standing, and distinct debates surrounding the figure and poetry of Hafiz have prompted this paper. The first concerns his historical status, whether the person of Shams al-D?n Mu?ammad “??fi?” Sh?r?z? (d. 792/1390) was a libertine influenced by the images of mystical poetry, or an actual Sufi, whose anti-sanctimonious inclinations found symbolic disguise in ribaldry tropes. The second debate surrounding Hafiz, and the ghazal form more broadly, is that of order: whether the particular sequence of lines indeed matters to the poet or the poet’s audience. Instead of answering these questions, this paper attempts to address a possible impetus for the very existence of such uncertainties and the fascination they evoke, namely, a quality in the poetry of Hafiz that may lend to it its unique voice of equivocation. What is called “hidden narrative” is in fact a phenomenon that exists entirely for the reader or listener, a sense of a larger and vaguely remembered narrative, intimated through fragmented allusions, images, names, and places. Using critical theory concerning the role of narrative in lyrical poetry, especially Herbert F. Tucker’s discussion of “overhearing” lyric, this paper investigates a feature of Hafiz’ poetry which might be centrally responsible for the complementary sense of bewilderment and appeal it instills in its audience. This sense of profound story, while in some ways similar to the use of narrative in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and the Qur’an, is nevertheless distinctive – made possible by the poet’s signature use of opening lines, metaphor, minimalism, and evocative disconnectedness. Lastly, this paper applies its literary investigation of Hafiz to medieval Sufi theory concerning the soul’s receptive encounter with meaning and beauty, in an attempt to explain why N?r al-D?n ‘Abd al-Ra?m?n J?m? (d. 898/1492), for example, while unsure of Hafiz’ historical stance as an initiated wayfarer, emphatically affirms the poet’s congruence to the taste of Sufis.