Hazrat Mansur Hallaj

He was born in "Madina al-Bayda", a little village in the ancient province of Fars, in southern Persia (Iran), in the year 224 A.H. (858 A.D). He grew up in "Wasit" and in "Tustar" where the cultivation of cotton was the main occupation of most of the people. His father was a cotton-carder from which he gained his name of Hallaj-one who cards cotton.

Even when he was a young child Mansur Hallaj felt drawn towards a spiritual life, and at the age of sixteen he attached himself to the Shaikh Sahl at-Tustari whom he accompanied when he moved from Tustar to Basra in Iraq. He served this Shaikh for two years and then, when he was eighteen years old, he left him and went to Baghdad.

However, the young Hallaj did not stay long in Baghdad, and soon returned to Basra where he became a student of Amr al-Makki, who was Junaid Baghdadi's friend. Mansur Hallaj remained with Amr al-Makki for a period of about eighteen months, until an estrangement came between them when his Master offered Mansur Hallaj his daughter in marriage. But he preferred to marry another person's (Yaqub ibn Aqta) dauther, who remained his only wife. They had three sons, one of whom was Hamid who recorded much of the existing information about Mansur Hallaj's later life.

As a result of this estrangement with his Shaikh Amr al-Makki, Mansur Hallaj again left Basra and once more travelled to Baghdad, where this time he went to see Junaid Baghdadi and asked his permission to become his disciple. Junaid accepted him and became his Spiritual Teacher.


Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi counselled Mansur Hallaj to seek solitude and silence for himself, but at the same time he knew that his student's heart was full of yearning to help all the people whom he met, and to whom his spirit was moved to speak to about the One Beloved and His Love. Hazrat Junaid also knew that it was for this reason that Mansur Hallaj could not remain in any one place for long. But he was always urged to go here and there, so that he travelled further and further from his native land, his
outward journeys inspired by his inward searching and walking with his Beloved.

Hallaj was now widely acclaimed and loved by the people. But the religious scholars could not accept him, and they doubted the reports of his miracles and took exception to his utterances, such as when he said: "I wonder at You and me. You annihilated me out of myself into You. You made me near to
Yourself, so that I thought that I was You, and You were me." They also grew angry when they heard him say: "My spirit mixes with Your Spirit, in nearness and separation, so that I am You, just as You are I." They could not understand how anyone could utter such sayings. Then, one by one, they
began to turn against him and to shun his company.

At other times the religious authorities and scholars accused him of being a heretic (zindiq) when he said such things as: "Your Spirit mixed in my spirit just like wine and clear water, and if something touches You it touches me, for You are I in every state."

Attacks now mounted against him in Baghdad and grew in frequency so that he left the city, and for five years travelled far from his homeland. For part of the five years that he spent away from Baghdad, he was in Khurasan, Transoxania and Sistan (Iran). He then returned to Ahwaz in south west
Iran where he was accepted and loved, both by the elite and by the people who drank from his words. He used to speak of the secrets in men's hearts, and for that reason they called him al-Hallaj of the secrets.


Mansur Hallaj was so much lost in the Almighty God, that he forgot dualism, wherever he looked, he saw God. Even once when he looked at himself, he didn't found himself, but only God. By doing so, he said: "Is it You or I?"

Later her went to Makka for the Pilgrimage, dressed in the ragged clothes of the darwish and with a large number of followers accompanying him, all dressed like him. When he reached Makka, one of the authorities there denounced him as a heretic and a magician; so he returned to Basra, and from there he went to the town of Ahwaz in south west Persia (Iran) where he remained for some period. But Mansur Hallaj's spirit would not allow him to stay for long in any place, so took a boat & went to Indian sub-continent, and then to China.

He travelled to Gujarat (India), and from there he wandered through the Sindh (Now a province of Pakistan) and the lower Indus valley (Sindh), which had been part of the Muslim Empire since 711 A.D. He met many people in all his journeying and spoke to thousands, and many people loved him and followed him in those distant lands. The seeds which he sowed there grew and remained with the people, and it is said that they can still be found in the religion and the poetry of those who claim
to descend from them in that province.

From the Sindh, he travelled to the northern borders of India, then to Khurasan, and to Turkestan, and eventually to Turfan. It is suggested that he may have gone with the caravans carrying brocade from his home town of Tustar to the East, and returning with Chinese paper to the Islamic countries. Some say that his teachings were written down on precious paper which was decorated in the style of the Manichaen manuscripts from Central Asia.


Mansur Hallaj's travel to many countries & states made the government of Baghdad very suspicious of him, and not only suspicious, but they began to look upon him as a threat to the security and stability of their power.

When someone asked him about the Unity of Allah (Tauhid), he answered him: "Allah, Most High, is the very One Who Himself affirms His Unity by the tongue of whomsoever of His creatures He wishes. If He affirms His Unity in my tongue it is He Who does so, and it is His Affair. Otherwise, my brother, I myself have nothing to do with affirming Allah's Unity."

Mansur Hallaj once said about the Holy Qur'an: "In it there are signs of Divine Lordship, tidings of the
Resurrection, and news about the future until the Eternity of Eternities. Whoever knows the Qur'an, for him it is as though he were in the Resurrection."

Mansur Hallaj once said, "When you become obliterated, you arrive at a place in which nothing is either obliterated or confirmed. It is the Divine erasings and effacements, and it cannot be expressed in words." Here he was reaching out, in Sufi language and terminology, to express what no human
language can truly express. Only the hearts of the true beloveds whose eyes are open and who are in the deep surrender to Allah in all His Faces, can touch something of the meaning of Hallaj's words. It was this hidden language, beyond the understanding of the rational mind, which disturbed
and angered the orthodox religious scholars and guardians of the peace of Baghdad.

In a letter to one of his close beloveds Mansur Hallaj wrote: "May Allah veil you from the outside of the Religious Law, and may He reveal to you the Reality of unbelief, because the outside of the Religious Law is a hidden idolatry, while the Reality of unbelief is a manifest knowing. In the Name of Allah the Merciful, the Compassionate, Who manifests Himself through everything, the revelation of a clear knowing to whomsoever He wishes, peace be upon you, my son. This praise belongs to Allah Who manifests Himself on the head of a pin to whom He wishes, so that one testifies that He is not, and another testifies that there is none other than He. But the witnessing in the denying of Him is
not rejected, and the witnessing in the affirming of Him is not praised. And the purpose of this letter is that I charge you not to be deceived by Allah, neither to despair of Him, and not to covet His Love, and not to be satisfied with not being His lover, not to affirm Him, and not to deny Him, and beware of speaking about the Oneness of Allah! Peace."

One of Mansur Hallaj's followers, Ibrahim ibn Fatik, said that when his Master was asked: Who is a Sufi? he replied, "He who is single in essence."

Mansur Hallaj often said: "An-al-Haq" (means: I'm God). So many people became his opponent & accused him to be a heretic (zindiq). Some people asked him: "Is it right for a creature to declare himself as God?" Mansur replied: "God is everywhere & in everything, he isn't lost by your words, but only Hussain (Mansur Hallaj) is lost!" People later complained the ruler of Baghdad against him, and Scholar condemned him as an infidel. People also went to Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi, who was the chief judge of Baghdad at that time, and asked him: "Is there any interpretation of the claims of Mansur Hallaj?" Hazrat Junaid replied: "The time of the interpretation has already passed, now you people shouldn't say anything about this matter."

Hazrat Abu Bakkar Shibli, who was a new comer in Sufism at that time, and was newly became a disciple of Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi, once went to Mansur Hallaj with the intention to myrter him. Mansur Hallaj knew about his intention with the divine inspiration & told him: "You should not kill me, because I'm inviting to my death by myself!"

Later, Mansur Hallaj was imprisonned, but his disciples continued to meet him in prison. After some time no one was permitted to meet him, so for five months no one met him. On the first day of his imprisonment, Mansur Hallj disappeared from the prison; and on the second day, both Mansur Hallaj & the prison were disappeared, and on the third day the prison as well as Mansur Hallaj both were there. People asked him about that strange incident. Mansur said that on first day I went to visit the Holy Prophet, that's why I was disappeared; and on the second day he himself visited me in the prison, so whole prison was disappeared; and on the third day the Holy Prophet sent me here for the honor of Sharia't (Islamic Law).

After five months, the ruler sent two scholars to him in prison to urge him for renunciation & stop to recite "An-al-Haq", but Mansur refused to do so.

There were about three hundred prisoners impressined in the same jail, so one day Mansur Hallaj asked them, that if they want to be free then he could help them. The prisoners replied: "If you have such power, then why don't you free yourself?" Mansur Hallaj didn't reply, and quietly looked towards their iron chains, which were broken. Then Mansur looked towards the prison lock, which broke instantly. Then Mansur said them: "Go, I've freed you all!" The prisoners asked him to escape with them. Mansur Hallaj replied: "There is such a secret between me & my Lord, which couldn't be solved until I would be hanged to death." In the morning when people checked the prison, they found all the the prison empty, only Mansur Hallaj was there. They asked Mansur Hallaj about the prisoners, Mansur said: "I've freed them all, but I stayed to bear the punishment of my Lord." When this news was reached to the ruler of Baghdad, he ordered to the executioner to lash Mansur Hallaj till his death. So he lashed him 300 times, and Mansur beared the lashes without any making any move & voice. The executioner later told the people that on every lash he heard the Divine voice: "O Mansur! don't be afraid."

Because Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi was the chief judge of Baghdad at that time, so he signed on the death order of Mansur Hallaj, and he also wrote in the death order: "Under Islamic Law, he is guilty. According to the Inner Reality, God knows."

When Mansur was taken to be hanged (in 913 A.D), from his clothes a huge scorpion came out, people were scared & tried to kill that scorpion. But Mansur stopped them to do so, and said: "This Scorpion is my companion since 12 years, so don't kill him." At the time of the hanging of Mansur Hallaj, about one hundred thousand people were there, and they all were reciting loudly "Haq.... Haq..."

A dervish asked Mansur Hallaj that what is Ishq (love)? Mansur said: "You will know it tomorrow & the day after tomorrow." Mansur Hallaj was hanged to death on the same day, his dead body was burnt instead of burrying (as people declared him heretic) on the 2nd day, and on the 3rd day his ashes were thrown into the river tigris. So then the dervish understood what Mansur Hallaj meant by Ishq!

When the ashes of Mansur Hallaj were thrown into the river tigris, the water level of the river started to rise. People scared to see that & thought that whole Baghdad would be flooded. Mansur already told one of his disciples that my ashes would cause a flood in the river tigris, so if the water level start to rise, you should throw my pouch into the river. So when his disciple threw his pouch into the river, the water level of the river started to decrease & became normal as before.

After the death of Mansur Hallaj, Hazrat Abu Bakkar Shibli was grieved & asked God that why did He let His true lover to suffer from such a horrible death? After saying that he was thrown into the state of engrossment and he sighted God, who told him: "I did so with Mansur Hallaj only because he disclosed my secrets to others."

Miracles

During the journey to Makka for pilgrimage, many disciples accompanied Mansur Hallaj. They didn't have food, and travelled many days with hunger. When the hunger became out of the countrol, his companions complained about their hunger. Mansur Hallaj told them to sit down, and then took his hand behind his waist, and when he took his hand ahead, he was holding two breads & some pieces of cooked beaf. He repeated that many times, and always two breads & some cooked beaf appeared in his hands. He distributed them in his companions. It is said that at that time he was accompanying about 400 disciples, and all of them ate as much as they could.

In the same way, once his disciples desired to eat sweets in the jungle, and Mansur Hallaj presented them fresh sweets in a box. Later when they reached back to Baghdad, a sweet maker became surprised to see that box in which Mansur Hallaj presented them the sweets. The sweet maker said that this box belongs to him, which was lost from his shops some days back. When the disciples of Mansur Hallaj told them whole story, he became a devotee of Mansur Hallaj.

 

Some selected couplets of Mansur Hallaj