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Early Islamic Mystics (Contd...)

© Nasim Fatima

Al - Hallaj

Despite the dramatic power, the ecstatic utterances of Abu Yazid al Bistami are overshadowed by those of the most famous of the Baghdad mystics, Husayn ibn Mansoor al-Hallaj. He was born in 857 at al-Tur in the Iranian province of Fars. His initiation into Sufism began early in life, while he was still a teenager. For over twenty years he lived in seclusion and was trained by a number of great Sufi masters of the period: Sahl al-Tustari, 'Amr al-Makki, and al-Junayd.

Eventually, however, al-Hallaj broke away from his teachers and became an itinerant preacher. His wandering led him through Arabia and Central Asia to the Indian Subcontinent. He came in contact with sages and mystics from a number of other religious traditions who expanded the horizons of his own religious experience. As he continued to mature spiritually, al-Hallaj continued to attract a large number of disciples. He became known as hallaj al-asrar "the carder of consciousness," a play on the family name al-Hallaj, which meant, "cotton carder."

The core of al-Hallaj's preaching was a call to moral reform and to the experience of intense union with the Beloved. Among al-Hallaj's poetic and prose writings, one phrase stands out as the paradigmatic expression of mystical ecstasy, his famous "Ana al-Haq!" ("I am the Divine Truth"). To the ears of non-Sufis and to more sober elements in Sufism, al-Hallaj's self divining cry was tantamount to shirk, if not a bald rephrasing of Christian notion of incarnation (hulul).

The creativity of Hallaj's work is reflected most strikingly in his ingenious use of science of opposites. In his Kitab al-tawasin al Hallaj describes his two role models as Iblis (the devil) and Pharaoh. Both suffered condemnation at the hands of God, al Hallaj attests, yet neither swerved from his appointed course. The Qur'anic text affirms on several occasions that Iblis, who was chief of angels and the most dedicated of the monotheists, was commanded by God to bow to the newly created Adam. He refused, despite God's threat to condemn him forever, and chose, like al Hallaj to become martyr of love.

My refusal is the cry, "Holy are you!"
My reasons are madness, madness for you.
What is Adam, other than you?
And who is Iblis to set apart one from the other?

All three are outcasts who have transgressed the law to attain a higher goal. Yet the reason for transgression is one's love relationship with God, which functions as a higher law for the perfected Sufi.