Heresy and Orthodoxy in the Case of Mansur Al-Hallaj

On 29 Dhu 'l-Qa'da 309 AH (28 March 913 CE (Arberry 357)) Hosain ibn Mansur al-Hallaj was executed in Baghdad. His crime: his ecstatic cry of ana al-Haqq ("I am the Truth" or "I am the Absolute Truth"), decried by the orthodox theologians of his day as heresy. According to the account of Farid al-Din Attar in his Tadhkirah al-Awliyya ("Memorial of the Saints"), Hallaj first had his hands chopped off, then his feet, then his eyes were plucked out, followed by the cutting off of his ears and nose, the cutting out of his tongue, and finally the death blow as he was decapitated. But through all of this, says Attar, Hallaj laughed and smiled, even as the final blow was being delivered. (Arberry 364-6)

Although condemned and executed as a heretic, Mansur al-Hallaj has become to many Sufis a hero, a martyr and a saint, his life seen as the most profound example of one caught in the raptures of Divine Love, proven for the ages as he offered himself in martyrdom. Attar tells this story in his Tadhkirah:

When Hallaj was in prison, he was asked: "What is love?" He answered: "You will see it today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow." And that day they cut off his hands and feet, and the next day they put him on the gallows, and the third day they gave his ashes to the wind...(Schimmel 63-4)

So, was Hallaj a heretic? It is a question that is difficult to answer, as even today Muslims are not united in their opinion. There are many still today who denounce Hallaj as a great heretic, even as many, especially the Sufis continue to idolize him as a martyr and a saint. It speaks somewhat of the tension between orthodox Islam and the more esoteric and mystical Islam practiced among the Sufis. For while Sufism is not necessarily incompatible with orthodox Islam, there are tensions and conflicts between the two that play a large role in the case of Hallaj, who can perhaps best be seen as both a heretic and a saint at the same time.

Mansur al-Hallaj was born in the year 244 AH (858 CE) in the province of Fars. He grew up in the area of Wasit and Tostar. Cotton was an important business there and Hallaj's father was a cotton-carder. This is most likely where Mansur picked up the name Hallaj, which means "cotton-carder" or "wool-carder." (Schimmel 66)

Hallaj was a well-traveled man. When he was eighteen he moved to Tostar, where he was a disciple of mystic Sahl ibn Abd Allah. He served him for two years, before moving on to Basra where he came under the wing of Amr' ibn Othman. Eighteen months he served Amr', but the two had a falling out when Hallaj married the daughter of the mystic Ya'qub-e Aqta'. He also had a falling out with his father-in-law, however, who would later call him "a cunning sorcerer and miserable infidel." (Schimmel 66)

Hallaj then went on to Baghdad, we he accompanied the famous Sufi Jonaid for a time. Hallaj went on the Hajj, and stayed in Mecca for a year before returning to Baghdad, where he along with several other Sufis called upon Jonaid, asking him several questions that he did not answer.

Here Attar tells a story of Jonaid foretelling the end of Hallaj, which also is telling of the conflict between Sufism and orthodoxy in the case of Hallaj:

"The time will soon come," Jonaid told him, "when you will incarnadine a piece of wool."

"The day when I incarnadine that piece of wool," Hallaj replied, "you will be wearing the garb of the formalists."

So it turned out. On the day when the leading scholars pronounced the verdict that Hallaj must be executed, Jonaid was wearing the Sufi robe and did not sign the warrant. The caliph said that Jonaid's signature was necessary. So Jonaid put on the academic turban and gown, went to the madrassa and endorsed the warrant. "We judge according to externals," he wrote. "As for the inward truth, that God alone knows." (Arberry 358)

Whether or not this story happened as Attar told it, or if it happened at all, it does point at the conflict between the orthodox theologians and scholars and the mystics and Sufis. Jonaid, himself a Sufi, cannot bring himself to sign the warrant calling for Hallaj's execution in his Sufi robes, and must instead wear the dress of the scholars. And even then he still has reservations, qualifying his judgment as one only of externals, and not of internals.

On the surface, it is easy to see how Hallaj's statement is heretical. The Truth is one of the names of God, one of his divine attributes, and for a man to declare "I am the Truth" is the same as to say "I am God," a clear blasphemy and heresy. Many thought that he was espousing pantheism with this statement, others the doctrine of incarnation. Both of these views, while understandable, miss the complexity of Hallaj's thought. But I shall return to this later in this essay.

After his time with Jonaid, where the elder Sufi refused to answer his questions, Hallaj returned to Tostar to preach and received wide acclaim. The theologians grew envious however of his popularity and that he did not follow the prevailing doctrines of the scholars.

Hallaj then discarded his Sufi robes and went out among the common folk. According to Attar he disappeared for five years, visiting during this time such places as Khorasan, Transoxiana, and Sistan. After this time he came to Ahwaz to preach once more, and once more became popular, not just with the common folk but the nobility and aristocracy as well. But then he left again, going to the eastern lands of India, and according to Attar even all the way to China. (Arberry 359)

Later he went once more on the Hajj, and stayed in Mecca for two years. After this journey, Attar says he was a "different man, calling people to the 'truth' in terms which no one understood." (Arberry 360) Attar records that during his preaching he was expelled from as many as 50 cities. During this time he became a polarizing figure, many hated him while many loved him. But finally it was agreed upon that he should be executed for his heresy. Attar says:

Finally all were united in the view that he should be put to death because of his saying "I am the Truth."

"Say, He is the Truth," they cried out to him.

"Yes. He is All," he replied. "You say that He is lost. On the contrary, it is Hosain that is lost. The Ocean does not vanish or grow less."

"These words which Hallaj speaks have an esoteric meaning," they told Jonaid.

"Let him be killed," he answered. "This is not the time for esoteric meanings." (Arberry 360)

Is there a time and a place for esoteric meanings? Is there a time and a place for the ecstatic cries of mystical union with God of which Hallaj speaks at his trial? Is this a time and a place that must be separated from other times? Jonaid says yes. Unlike Hallaj, who feels that always must the love of God be declared, Jonaid seems more reserved, more held back, more moderate. Jonaid in his dealings with Hallaj seems to have reservations about his actions, at least mixed feelings. Yet ultimately he felt that Hallaj had gone too far.

Even Hallaj himself seemed to understand the nature of what was happening, and the conflict between his own vision of Allah and that of those who would crucify him. Again quoting from Attar:

"What do you say," asked a group of his followers, "concerning us who are your disciples, and these who condemn you and would stone you?"

"They have a double reward, and you a single," he answered. "You merely think well of me. They are moved by the strength of their belief in One God to maintain the rigour of the law." (Arberry 364)

Both Hallaj and the judges of Hallaj were moved to action by their love of Allah, and faith in His Divine Oneness. Hallaj accepts this, and is willing to sacrifice himself out of love of God for the love of God. He accepts the contradictory nature of his predicament, perhaps seeing something of the story of Satan in his own tale.

Hallaj tells his version of the story of Satan in the Ta-Sin of Before Endless-Time and Equivocation, a chapter in his Tawasin. Satan, in Hallaj's view, was cursed by Allah for not following Allah's command out of his supreme love for Allah and his faith in the oneness of Allah. "Among the inhabitants of heaven there was no unitarian or worshipper like Iblis [Satan]," says Hallaj. But even cursed Satan was not punished, for never did he give up his love of Allah, and realizing the oneness of Allah he realized he could never be separated from him. Only by obeying Allah would he truly betray him: this is the conundrum of Satan. And now Hallaj, who in his faith in the oneness of Allah, and out of his profound and unconditional love of Allah, he commits the heresy for which he is condemned, and which he cannot deny for to do it would be to deny his love.

In the Ta-Sin of Before Endless-Time and Equivocation we find Hallaj's declaration of "I am the Truth!" and somewhat his explanation for it:

21. The Master Abu 'Umar Al-Hallaj said: 'I deliberated with Iblis [Satan] and Pharon [Pharoah] on the honor of the generous. Iblis said: "If I had prostrated myself I would have lost my name of honor." Pharon said: "If I had believed in this Messenger I would have fallen from my rank of honor."

22. I said: "If I had disavowed my teaching and my speech, I would have fallen from the hall of honor."

23. When Iblis said: "I am better than him," then he could not see anyone other than himself. When Pharon said "I know not that you have other Divinity than me," he did not recognize that any of his people could distinguish between the true and the false.

24. And I said: "If you do not know Him, then know His signs, I am His sign (tajalli) and I am the Truth! And this is because I have not ceased to realize the Truth!"

25. My companion is Iblis and my teacher is Pharon, Iblis was threatened with the fire and did not retract his allegation. Pharon was drowned in the Red Sea without retracting his allegation or recognizing any mediator. But he said: "I believe that there is no Divinity but He in whom the tribe of Israel believe, " and don't you see that Allah opposed Jibril [Gabriel] in His glory? He said: "Why did you fill your mouth with sand?"

26. And I was killed, crucified, my hands and feet cut off without retracting my assertion.

It is interesting that Hallaj identifies himself with two figures generally looked upon with negative connotation: Satan and Pharoah. But Hallaj sees in them something like what he himself is going through: Suffering martyrdom for their belief, and their refusal to deny their love and faith in Allah.

But what does Hallaj mean when he says "I am His sign," or "I am the Truth!"? Who is the I which is speaking? It is easy to think he speaks merely of himself. And in a way he does: he is a sign of Allah, he is a revelation of Allah, the Truth. One can see parallels to the vision of Christ in the Gospels here. Christ too proclaimed a sort of Oneness with God. In John 14:9 he says: "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." In Christianity this is taken as evidence of the Triune Godhead. But Hallaj might see it differently, and certainly sees his own exclamations differently.

In the Ta-Sin of Purity Hallaj says:

6. From the Burning Bush, on the side of Sinai what he [Moses] heard speak from the Bush was

not the Bush nor its seed but Allah.

7. And my role is like the Bush.

8. So reality is reality and the created is created. Reject your created nature, that you may

become Him, and He, you - in respect to reality.

9. I-ness is a subject, and the object defined is also a subject in reality, so how is it defined?

10. Allah said to Musa [Moses]: 'You guide to the Proof, not the Object of the Proof. And as for

Me I am the Proof of every proof."

For Hallaj, Allah was One. Everything led to Allah, He was the Proof of every proof. For Hallaj creation is a veil between us and the Divine: if we remove the veil of creation, if we lose ourselves, we will become one with the One. And this is the quest of Hallaj, and his vision of the true quest of the mystic, the loss of oneself, the rejection of the created nature and realization of the Unity in Allah.

The Burning Bush was not an incarnation of God. It was not proof that God is in everything, in some sort of pantheistic vision: rather it was a vessel which through which the veil of creation was broken, to reveal beneath that there is only One, and that is Allah. When the created nature is removed, there is nothing there but Allah. Hallaj then is like the Bush, his I-ness is lost in the I-ness of Allah, so that he is Allah and Allah is he and all distinction is lost.

In the Ta-Sin of Understanding, Hallaj tells the story of a moth who flies about a flame until the morning, when it returns to its brethren and tells them of the beauty and majesty it has seen. But simply seeing the flame or feeling its heat is not enough to appease the moth, no, it must be consumed by the flame, become one with it, be burned within its radiant glory. This is the state of the mystic for Hallaj, one who cannot bear to merely see the light of Allah, but must himself be consumed by Allah, until his self is extinguished and there is nothing left but Unity with the One. "The light of the flame is the knowledge of reality, its heat is the reality of reality, and Union with it is the Truth of the reality," (Tawasin 2:3) says Hallaj. Become one with the flame, and become one with the Truth.

"Oh you who are uncertain," says Hallaj, "do not identify 'I am' with the Divine 'I' - not now, nor in the future, nor in the past. Even if the 'I am' was a consummated gnostic, and if this was my state, it was not the perfection. Even though I am His I am not He." (Tawasin 2:6) Hallaj sees himself as subsumed by Allah, but not Allah. It is Hosain that is lost, lost in the grand Sea of the Divine. "I am the Truth," he says, not speaking as himself, not speaking as Allah, but speaking in the ecstasy of Divine Union, when such distinctions become meaningless.

But is his proclamation heretical? Or blasphmemous? The Sufi and intellectual al-Ghazzali said in his Ihya-ul-ulumof this statement of Hallaj's, and those of others like him:

The matter went so far that certain persons boasted of a union with the Deity, and that in His unveiled presence they beheld Him, and enjoyed familiar converse with Him, saying, 'Thus it was spoken unto us and thus we speak.' Bayazid Bistami (ob. A.D. 875) is reported to have exclaimed, 'Glory be to me!' This style of discourse exerts a very pernicious influence on the common people. Some husbandmen indeed, letting their farms run to waste, set up similar pretensions for themselves; for human nature is pleased with maxims like these, which permit one to neglect useful labour with the idea of acquiring spiritual purity through the attainment of certain mysterious degrees and qualities. This notion is productive of great injury, so that the death of one of these foolish babblers would be a greater benefit to the cause of true religion than the saving alive often of them. (The Alchemy of Lights, Introduction)

Al-Ghazzali also said in The Niche for Lights: "The words of Lovers Passionate in their intoxication and ecstasy must be hidden away and not spoken of . . ." While recognizing the dangers of such mystical expressions among the people, al-Ghazzali understood the emotion and truth behind such statements, but felt they should be kept away, not brought out into the open. A more moderate and practical mystic than Hallaj was, he might have followed the path of Jonaid in condemning Hallaj to death, judging only by externals, the internals of which only Allah could know.

But Hallaj could not have followed al-Ghazzali's advice. For him, to deny the truth of his experience would be somehow to deny the Truth of Allah, and himself. He could not take the moderate path of Jonaid or al-Ghazzali, his was the path of the moth who can see nothing but the flame, until ultimately it is consumed in death. In his martyrdom Hallaj not only proved his love and devotion to Allah, but he became completely consumed by his love, this was his moment as the moth at the moment it achieves unity with the flame. In death his existence is totally extinguished, his created nature completely shed, so there is nothing but Reality beneath it. And in this Hallaj found happiness, according to Attar smiling even as the killing blow was struck. (Arberry 366) His final words before his head was chopped off were: "Love of the One is isolation of the One." And this is the essence of his beliefs: To love Allah is to see nothing but Allah, wherever you look you would see Allah, for He was there. The Reality beyond reality, the Proof behind all proofs. He is the All.

But where does that leave the legacy of Hallaj? Was he a saint? A heretic? Something else entirely? His devotion to Allah and his belief in His Oneness radiates throughout his writings, such as his Tawasin. And that he was willing to die for his beliefs and his convictions is evident from the events of his trial and death. In Attar's account we read:

Then he rubbed his bloody, amputated hands over his face, so that both his arms and face were stained with blood.

"Why did you do that?" they enquired.

"Much blood has gone out of me," he replied. "I realize that my face will have grown pale. You suppose that my pallor is because I am afraid. I rubbed blood over my face so that I might appear rose-cheeked in your eyes. The cosmetic of heroes is their blood."

"Even if you bloodied your face, why did you stain your arms?"

"I was making ablution."

"What ablution?"

"When one prays two rak'as in love," Hallaj replied, "the ablution is not perfect unless performed with blood."

While obviously not a precise rendering of the events of Hallaj's death, it does portray the heroic character of Hallaj, defiant to the end in his love Allah even as he prepares to join with Him for all eternity. Reading such stories as these it is easy to see how later Sufis, such as the famous Persian poet Rumi, would hold up Hallaj as an ideal prototype of the mystical lover of Allah.

But the case of Hallaj does portray some of the tensions between Sufism and orthodoxy in Islam. When one becomes so centered upon Allah, seeing naught but Him, as Hallaj did, it becomes too easy to forget all else that is and leave it behind, even the religion of Islam itself. While the orthodox believe firmly in the ways of tradition, and following the example of Mohammed and the Law of the Qur'an, the Sufi enters a new realm, where such obviously (to orthodox eyes) heretical statements such as "I am the Truth" become a possibility. For all the due respect and reverence that Hallaj gives to Mohammed in his writings, still he finds himself making such proclamations as "I am the Truth," something that not even Mohammed, the Prophet himself, said. Blasphemy, heresy, or perhaps just conceit, such things are not consistent with the orthodox vision of Islam.

Perhaps Hallaj was the one who came closest to the truth when he claimed Satan as his companion. Both condemned for their own visions of how to love God in Oneness, cursed for their devotion. At once profound examples of the possibilities of love and union with the Divine, while at the same time rebels, disobedient servants of Allah, heretics, blasphemers. The contradiction of love of the One, found in isolation of the One. But if such contradiction exists, can it truly be the correct path? Or is it the will of Allah that such is the way things come to pass? Is it important? As Hallaj says in ending his Tawasin: "Allah is Allah. Creation is creation. And it does not matter!"

Works Cited

Schimmel, Annemarie Mystical Dimensions of Islam. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.

Lewisohn, Leanard, ed. The Heritage of Sufism vol. I: Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi (700-1300). Oxford: Oneworld, 1999.

Mason, Herbert. "Hallaj and the Baghdad School of Sufism" The Heritage of Sufism Vol. I: Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi (700-1300). Ed. L. Lewisohn. Oxford: Oneworld, 1999. 65-81.

Ahmad, M.M. Zuhur-ud-Din An examination of the mystic tendencies in Islam in the light of the Quran and the traditions. Lahore: Sh. Muhammed Ashraf, 1973

Attar, Farid al-Din. Translated by A.J. Arberry. Muslim Saints and Mystics. Available online at http://www.omphaloskepsis.com/ebooks/pdf/mussm.pdf Ames, Iowa: Omphaloskepsis

Halsall, Paul. "Mansur al-Hallaj: Sayings." Medieval Sourcebook Online. 17

April. 2003. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/all-hallaj-quotations.html

Al-Hallaj, Mansur. Translated by Aisha Abd Ar-Rahman At-Tarjumana. "The Tawasin of Mansur al-Hallaj." Online. 17 April, 2003 http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/Sufism/tawasin.html

Al-Ghazzali. Translated by W.H.T. Gairdner "The Niche for Lights." The Canadian Society of Muslims. Online. 17 April, 2003. http://www.muslim-canada.org/niche1.html

Al-Ghazzali. Translated by Claud Field. "The Alchemy of Happiness." The Canadian Society of Muslims. Online. 17 April, 2003. http://www.muslim-canada.org/ghapreface.html