Hallaj, Al-(858-922)

views updated

HALLAJ, AL-(858-922)

The mystic and martyr Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj was born in 858 in Bayda, Persia. An Arabized Iranian whose grandfather was a Zorastrian, al-Hallaj's father, a cottonwool carder (hallaj) by trade, converted to Islam. The family had emigrated through textile centers in Iran, settling in Sunni (Hanbali) Wasit, Iraq, where the young Hallaj was educated in grammar, the Qur˒an, and exegesis. He returned in 873 to Tustar and placed himself in the service of the noted Sufi shaykh Sahl. In 857 in Basra he received the Sufi habit (khirqa) and came under the influence of such noted shayks as Muhasibi and ˓Amr Makki, both of whom were associated with al-Junayd, head of the Baghdad school of Sufism.

In the period between 877 and 883 he married and had a daughter and three sons. The third son, Hamd, left an eyewitness account of his father's last days in prison and his public execution. He became involved in the black slave (Zanj) revolt centered around Basra, which was driven ideologically by Shi ite opponents of the Sunni ˓Abbasid Caliphate. Though Sunni, he moved in Shi˓ite circles and was later accused of having been influenced by Mahdism. He made the first of this three yearlong retreats to Mecca, and uttered his famous statement "I am the Truth" (Ana al-Haqq), which his opponents interpreted as blasphemy but which later supporters interpreted as "God has emptied me of everything but Himself." This was the most extreme expression of mystical union with God in the history of Islamic mysticism.

After his family settled in Baghdad, Hallaj departed on two long missionary journeys to Khurasan and India between 887 and 901, preaching especially to Turkish nomads and Manichean Uyghur Turks. During this period he composed his first books and was given the sobriquet "the reader of hearts" (al-Hallaj al qulub). Between journeys he made his second pilgrimage to Mecca and met two noted shaykhs, the aging Nuri and the young Shibli. In 904 he visited Jerusalem, praying in the Holy Sepulcher of Jesus, who in an earlier period he had proclaimed the Mahdi. At this time he also preached the idea of fulfilling the pilgrimage obligation outside Mecca by creating miniature Ka˓bas in homes, which was raised against him as a transgression of sacred law at his trial. He preached openly against the tax scandals and political corruption linked to the weakened Caliphate, which finally resulted in his arrest, in the name of public order, and long imprisonment (913–922). In 922 in Baghdad he was charged with heresy, flogged, gibbeted, and his body was burned.

Masked as a legal trial for heresy, the death of Hallaj has remained a controversial subject throughout subsequent Islamic history, and has become a dramatic theme of many modern plays in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and English.

Among his principal mystical ideas were total union with God and the Essence of Desire (˓ishq dhati), speech with God (shath), the existence of substitute saints (abdal) for the whole community, the present witness (shahid ani) of the Eternal, fraternal union of two souls (ittihad an-nafsayn), and the outcry for justice (sayha bi˒l-haqq).