Mansur Al-Hallaj
Encyclopedia
Mansur al-Hallaj (c. 858 – March 26, 922) (Hijri
c. 244 AH-309 AH) was a Persian
mystic, revolutionary writer and pious teacher of Sufism
most famous for his poetry, accusation of heresy and for his execution at the orders of the Abbasid
Caliph Al-Muqtadir
after a long, drawn-out investigation.
and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.
Al-Hallaj later married and made a pilgrimage to Mecca
, where he stayed for one year, facing the mosque, in fasting and total silence. After his stay at the city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way. He traveled as far as India
and Central Asia
gaining many followers, many of whom accompanied him on his second and third trips to Mecca
. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid
capital of Baghdad
.
During his early lifetime he was a disciple of Junayd Baghdadi
and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both. Sahl al-Tustari
was also one of Al-Hallaj's early teachers.
. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism
with the masses, yet Al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He thus began to make enemies. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God.
During one of these trances, he would utter Anā l-Ḥaqq "I am The Truth," which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, since al-Ḥaqq "the Truth" is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. In another controversial statement, al-Hallaj claimed "There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God," and similarly he would point to his cloak and say, Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh "There is nothing in my cloak but God."
These utterances led to a long trial, and his subsequent imprisonment for 11 years in a Baghdad
prison. He was publicly executed on March 26, 922.
to Mecca
(the Hajj
), which he, however, had performed three times. In reality, his concern was more with the spiritual meaning of Hajj, and he thus "spoke of the spiritual efficacy and legitimacy of symbolic pilgrimage in one's own home." (Mason, 25) For him, the most important part of the pilgrimage to Mecca was the prayer at Mount Arafat
, commemorating the sacrifice of Abraham in an offering of oneself.
, whereas man's prayer was to be one of kun
, surrender to his will: "Love means to stand next to the Beloved, renouncing oneself entirely and transforming oneself in accordance to Him." (Massignon, 74) He spoke of God as his "Beloved," "Friend" "You," and felt that "his only self was (God)," to the point that he could not even remember his own name." (Mason, 26)
(the oneness) of both." (Mason, 25) For his desire of oneness with God, many Muslims criticized him as a "'crypto-Christian' for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way." (Mason, 25). His death is described by Attar as a heroic act, as when they are taking him to court, a Sufi asks him:"What is love?" He answers: "You will see it today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow." They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that. "This is love," Attar says. His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, "I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there's only one step to heaven, cut that if you can." And when his hands were cut off he paints his face with his own blood, when asked why, he says: "I have lost a lot of blood, and I know my face has turned yellow, I don't want to look pale-faced (as of fear)... ."
who came to realize the inherent divine nature of all men and women. While many Sufis theorize that Hallaj was a reflection of God's truth, scholars of the other Islamic schools of thought continue to see him as a heretic and a deviant.
The supporters of Mansur have interpreted his statement as meaning, "God has emptied me of everything but Himself." According to them, Mansur never denied God's Oneness and was a strict monotheist. However, he believed that the actions of man when performed in total accordance with God's pleasure, lead to a blissful unification with him. His life was studied extensively by the French scholar of Islam, Louis Massignon
.
suggested that Mansur al-Hallaj might have been the origin of the character Hiram Abiff
in the Freemasonic Master Mason ritual. The link, he believes, was through the Sufi sect Al-Banna ("The Builders") who built the Al-Aqsa Mosque
and the Dome of the Rock
in Jerusalem. This fraternity could have influenced some early masonic guilds which borrowed heavily from the Oriental architecture in the creation of the Gothic
style.}
Islamic calendar
The Hijri calendar , also known as the Muslim calendar or Islamic calendar , is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries , and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic...
c. 244 AH-309 AH) was a Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
mystic, revolutionary writer and pious teacher of Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
most famous for his poetry, accusation of heresy and for his execution at the orders of the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
Caliph Al-Muqtadir
Al-Muqtadir
Al-Muqtadir was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 908 AD to 932 AD .After the previous Caliph, al-Muktafi, was confined for several months to his sick-bed, intrigue was made for some time as to his successor...
after a long, drawn-out investigation.
Early life
Al-Hallaj was born around 858 in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means "cotton-carder" in Arabic). His grandfather was a Zoroastrian. His father lived a simple life, and this form of lifestyle greatly interested the young Al-Hallaj. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'anQur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.
Al-Hallaj later married and made a pilgrimage to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
, where he stayed for one year, facing the mosque, in fasting and total silence. After his stay at the city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way. He traveled as far as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
gaining many followers, many of whom accompanied him on his second and third trips to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
capital of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
.
During his early lifetime he was a disciple of Junayd Baghdadi
Junayd Baghdadi
Junayd of Baghdad was one of the most famous of the early Persian Muslim mystics, or Sufis, of Islam and is a central figure in the golden chain of many Sufi orders. Junayd taught in Baghdad throughout his spiritual lifetime and was an important figure in the development of central Sufi doctrine...
and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both. Sahl al-Tustari
Sahl al-Tustari
Sahl al-Tustari or al-Tustari, born Abu Muhammed Sahl ibn 'Abd Allah , was a arab Muslim scholar and early classical Sufi mystic...
was also one of Al-Hallaj's early teachers.
Teachings, arrest and imprisonment
Among other Sufis, Al-Hallaj was an anomalyAnomaly
Anomaly may refer to:-Astronomy and celestial mechanics :* In astronomy, an anomaly is a quantity measured with respect to an apsis, usually the periapsis...
. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
with the masses, yet Al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He thus began to make enemies. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God.
During one of these trances, he would utter Anā l-Ḥaqq "I am The Truth," which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, since al-Ḥaqq "the Truth" is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. In another controversial statement, al-Hallaj claimed "There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God," and similarly he would point to his cloak and say, Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh "There is nothing in my cloak but God."
These utterances led to a long trial, and his subsequent imprisonment for 11 years in a Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
prison. He was publicly executed on March 26, 922.
Works
Hallaj wrote many works in both prose and poetry. His best known written work is the Kitab al Tawasin, Arabic (كتاب الطواسين), which includes two brief chapters devoted to a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3). Al-Hallaj stated in this book:If you do not recognize God, at least recognise His sign, I am the creative truth -Ana al-Haqq-,
because through the truth, I am eternal truth.
Mystical universalism
His method was one of "universalist mystical introspection: It was at the bottom of the heart that he looked for God and wanted to make others find Him. He believed one had to go beyond the forms of religious rites to reach divine reality. Thus, he used without hesitation the terminology of his opponents, which he set right and refined, ready to make himself hostage of the denominational logic of others." (Massignon: "Perspective Transhistorique," p. 76) Even beyond the Muslim faith, Hallaj was concerned with the whole of humanity, as he desired to communicate to them "that strange, patient and shameful, desire for God, which was characteristic for him." (Massignon, p. 77) This was the reason for his voyage beyond the Muslim world (shafa'a) to India and China.Spiritual meaning of the pilgrimage to Mecca
In the trial that led to his execution, he was accused of preaching against the pilgrimagePilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
(the Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
), which he, however, had performed three times. In reality, his concern was more with the spiritual meaning of Hajj, and he thus "spoke of the spiritual efficacy and legitimacy of symbolic pilgrimage in one's own home." (Mason, 25) For him, the most important part of the pilgrimage to Mecca was the prayer at Mount Arafat
Arafat
Arafat is a surname or given name, and may refer to:* Yasser Arafat , Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority * Fathi Arafat , Palestinian physician...
, commemorating the sacrifice of Abraham in an offering of oneself.
Re-interpretation of the tawhid and desire for unification with God
Al-Hallaj believed that it was only God who could pronounce the TawhidTawhid
Tawhid is the concept of monotheism in Islam. It is the religion's most fundamental concept and holds God is one and unique ....
, whereas man's prayer was to be one of kun
Kun
Kun may refer to:* Kun and Peng, two forms of a creature from Chinese mythology* Kun is in Finnish mythology* Kunqu or Kun Opera, a Chinese opera genre* kun , a Japanese honorific* the kun'yomi reading of Kanji...
, surrender to his will: "Love means to stand next to the Beloved, renouncing oneself entirely and transforming oneself in accordance to Him." (Massignon, 74) He spoke of God as his "Beloved," "Friend" "You," and felt that "his only self was (God)," to the point that he could not even remember his own name." (Mason, 26)
Death
Mansur believed in union with the Divine, that God was within him, and that he and God had become one and the same. Mansur was cut into many pieces because in the state of ecstacy he exclaimed Ana al Haq "I am the truth". He was executed in public in Baghdad. They cut him into pieces and then they burnt his remains. He kept repeating "I am the Truth" as they kept cutting his arms, legs, tongue and finally his head. He was smiling, even as they chopped off his head. Al-Hallaj wanted to testify of this relationship to God to others thus even asking his fellow Muslims to kill him (Massignon, 79) and accepting his execution, saying that "what is important for the ecstatic is for the One to reduce him to oneness." (Massignon, 87) He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die "in the supreme confession of the cross" (Olivier Clément. Dio è carita, p. 41) Like Christ, he gave his execution a redemptive significance, believing as he did that his death "was uniting his beloved God and His community of Muslims against himself and thereby bore witness in extremis to the tawhidTawhid
Tawhid is the concept of monotheism in Islam. It is the religion's most fundamental concept and holds God is one and unique ....
(the oneness) of both." (Mason, 25) For his desire of oneness with God, many Muslims criticized him as a "'crypto-Christian' for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way." (Mason, 25). His death is described by Attar as a heroic act, as when they are taking him to court, a Sufi asks him:"What is love?" He answers: "You will see it today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow." They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that. "This is love," Attar says. His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, "I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there's only one step to heaven, cut that if you can." And when his hands were cut off he paints his face with his own blood, when asked why, he says: "I have lost a lot of blood, and I know my face has turned yellow, I don't want to look pale-faced (as of fear)... ."
Contemporary views
The writings of al-Hallaj are important to Sufi groups. His example is seen by some as one that should be emulated, especially his calm demeanor in the face of torture and his forgiving of his tormentors. Many honor him as an adeptAdept
An adept is an individual identified as having attained a specific level of knowledge, skill, or aptitude in doctrines relevant to a particular author or organization.-H. P. Blavatsky:...
who came to realize the inherent divine nature of all men and women. While many Sufis theorize that Hallaj was a reflection of God's truth, scholars of the other Islamic schools of thought continue to see him as a heretic and a deviant.
The supporters of Mansur have interpreted his statement as meaning, "God has emptied me of everything but Himself." According to them, Mansur never denied God's Oneness and was a strict monotheist. However, he believed that the actions of man when performed in total accordance with God's pleasure, lead to a blissful unification with him. His life was studied extensively by the French scholar of Islam, Louis Massignon
Louis Massignon
Louis Massignon was a French scholar of Islam and its history. Although a Catholic himself, he tried to understand Islam from within and thus had a great influence on the way Islam was seen in the West; among other things, he paved the way for a greater openness inside the Catholic Church towards...
.
Possible influence on Masonic guilds
In his book The Sufis, the Afghan scholar Idries ShahIdries Shah
Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
suggested that Mansur al-Hallaj might have been the origin of the character Hiram Abiff
Hiram Abiff
Hiram Abiff is a character who figures prominently in an allegorical play that is presented during the third degree of Craft Freemasonry...
in the Freemasonic Master Mason ritual. The link, he believes, was through the Sufi sect Al-Banna ("The Builders") who built the Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque also known as al-Aqsa, is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem...
and the Dome of the Rock
Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock is a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The structure has been refurbished many times since its initial completion in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik...
in Jerusalem. This fraternity could have influenced some early masonic guilds which borrowed heavily from the Oriental architecture in the creation of the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style.}
See also
- Arabic literatureArabic literatureArabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
- List of Persian poets and authors
- SufismSufismSufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
- Shams Tabriz
- Zendiq
- Jalal al-Din Rumi
- Sachal SarmastSachal SarmastSachal Sarmast was a Sufi poet from Sindh during the Kalhora era. He was born in daraza near Ranipur, Sindh. His real name was Abdul Wahab and "Sachal" was his nickname. He also used it in his own poetry. Sachu means truthful in Sindhi while Sarmast means mystic in Sindhi and Urdu...
Further reading
- E. G. BrowneEdward Granville BrowneEdward Granville Browne , born in Stouts Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, England, was a British orientalist who published numerous articles and books of academic value, mainly in the areas of history and literature...
. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998. ISBN 0-7007-0406-X - Herbert Mason. Memoir of a Friend: Louis Massignon. Notre Dame 1983: University of Notre Dame Press.
- Louis MassignonLouis MassignonLouis Massignon was a French scholar of Islam and its history. Although a Catholic himself, he tried to understand Islam from within and thus had a great influence on the way Islam was seen in the West; among other things, he paved the way for a greater openness inside the Catholic Church towards...
. "Perspective Transhistorique sur la vie de Hallaj," in: Parole donnée. Paris 1983: Seuil, p. 73-97. - Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968 . ISBN 90-277-0143-1
- Idries Shah. The Sufis. W.H. Allen: London. 1964
- Jawid Mojaddedi, ḤALLĀJ,ABU’L-MOḠIṮ ḤOSAYN b. Manṣur b. Maḥammā Bayżāwi in Encyclopædia Iranica http://www.iranica.com/articles/hallaj-1
External links
- The Tawasin of Mansur al-Hallaj
- "Al Hallaj Mystic and Martyr"
- Doctrine of Al-Hallaj
- Articles at Poet Seers
- al-Hallaj at the Internet Medieval Source Book
- complete Works of Mansur Hallaj
- original persian deewan of Mansur Hallaj single pdf file uploaded by Javed Hussen