Brief Biography of Imam al-Mugits Husayn ibn Manswur al-Hallaj (q.s.)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

This is the story of Imam al-Mugits Husayn ibn Manswur al-Hallaj (q.s.), who was born in Madina al-Bayda, a little village in the ancient province of Fars, in southern Persia, in the year 224 A.H./857 CE, two years before his shaykh, Imam Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd ibn Muhammad al-Baghdadi (q.s.). 

He grew up in Wasith 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 “al-hallaj” - one who cards cotton.  Even when he was a young child, Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) felt drawn towards a spiritual life, and at the age of sixteen he attached himself to Imam Abu Muhammad Sahl ibn ‘Abdullah at-Tustari (q.s.), whom he accompanied when he moved from Tustar to Baswra, in ‘Iraq.  He served this shaykh for two years and then, when he was eighteen years old, he left him, and went to Baghdad. 

The young Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) did not stay long in Baghdad, and soon returned to Baswra where he became a student of Shaykh ‘Amr ibn ‘Utsman al-Makki (q.s.).  This shaykh, a companion of Imam al-Junayd (q.s.), was a scholar to whom Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) wrote some of his well-known Rasa’il. 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) remained with Shaykh ‘Amr al-Makki (q.s.) for a period of about eighteen months, until an estrangement came between them when his shaykh offered Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) his daughter in marriage.  He preferred to marry a lady who remained his only wife, the daughter of another shaykh, Shaykh Abu Ya’qub ibn Aqtha’ (q.s.).  They had three sons, one of whom was Hamid, who recorded much of the existing information about Imam al-Hallaj’s (q.s.) later life. 

As a result of this estrangement with his shaykh, Shaykh ‘Amr al-Makki (q.s.), Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) again left Baswra, and once more travelled to Baghdad, where this time he went to see Imam al-Junayd (q.s.), and asked his permission to become his student.  Imam al-Junayd (q.s.) accepted him and became his guide and master in the spiritual path.  Imam al-Junayd (q.s.) came to know everything about Imam al-Hallaj’s (q.s.) heart, which was very sensitive and exactly like that of a child.  He knew his soul and what Allah (s.w.t.) had created in his spirit.  He saw that this new student was an ‘ashiq, an ecstatic. 

Imam al-Junayd’s (q.s.) path was that of sobriety, in which the secret of Divine Love had to be contained, and only revealed to those who could understand it.  For Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.), the secret of Divine Love seized and intoxicated his entire being.  The former was the school of Jalal, Majesty, while the latter was of Jamal, Beauty. 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.), while he was still a youth said, “And already, Love had engraved Him in my heart with its red-hot iron of desire - what a branding!” 

Then he said, speaking with the Tongue of the Truth, “I am He Whom I love, and He Whom I love is I.  We are two spirits dwelling in one body.  If you see me, you see Him; and if you see Him, you see us both.”  These words can be compared with what Shaykh ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Ibrahim al-Jili (q.s.), several centuries later, was to say: “We are the spirit of One though we dwell by turns in two bodies.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said, “The beloved does not drink a single drop of water without seeing His Face in the cup.  Allah is He Who flows between the pericardium and the heart, just as the tears flow from the eyelids.” 

He said about this, in a poem: 

“I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart,

And I said, ‘Truly there is no doubt that it is You,’

It is You that I see in everything’;

And I do not see You through anything.

You are the One Who Owns all places.

And yet no place is You.

And if there were a place given by You for the place,

That place would know where You are.

And if there were an imagination for the imagining of You.

That imagination would know where You are.

I understand everything, and everything that I see,

In my annihilation is You.

My Lord, Bless me and Forgive me,

For I seek no one but You.” 

For a while, Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) remained with Imam al-Junayd (q.s.), in Baghdad, and then he travelled to the Hijaz for the pilgrimage.  After which, he stayed in Makkah for a year, living a very hard life, and all the time giving himself difficult spiritual practices to fulfill.  After that year in Makkah, he returned to Baghdad and immediately went to see Imam al-Junayd (q.s.).  It was said that when he knocked on the Imam al-Junayd’s (q.s.) door, Imam al-Junayd (q.s.) asked, “Who is there?” 

And the reply came, “I am the Truth.” 

Imam al-Junayd (q.s.) said to him, “Beloved al-Hallaj, be careful about the Secret of Allah.  Do not give It to those who cannot understand.”  Then he added, “The time will soon come when you will set fire to a piece of wood.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) replied, “The day when I set light to that piece of wood, you will be wearing the clothes of the judge.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) was now widely acclaimed and loved by the people.  But the religious scholars could not accept him.  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 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.  He also left his Sufi clothes, and put on those of the people amongst whom he went.  For part of the five years that he spent away from Baghdad, he was in Khurasan, Transoxania, and Sistan.  He then returned to Ahwaz in southwest Persia 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.” 

It is related that once, while he was on his travels, he met up with Imam Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Ahmad al-Khawasw (q.s.) whom he asked what he was doing.  Imam al-Khawasw (q.s.) told him that he was travelling to increase his trust in Allah (s.w.t.), and for his general well-being.  Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) then said to him, “You spend your whole life in cultivating your own inner self.  Where, then, is the well-known forgetting of self in the Unity?” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said, “You remain standing in front of your Beloved when your qualities are destroyed, and when your existence has disappeared in His Existence.”  Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) also said, “Suffering is He Himself, whereas happiness comes from Him.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said, “Is it You or I?  That would be two gods in me; but far be it from You to manifest as two - the ‘He-ness’ that is Yours is in my One-ness forever; my all added to Your All would be a double existence.” 

He said, “Love is in the pleasure of possession, but in the Love of Allah there is no pleasure of possession, because the stations of the Reality are wonderment, the cancelling of the debt which is owed, and the blinding of vision.  The Love of the human being for God is a reverence which penetrates the very depths of his being, and which is not permitted to be given except to Allah alone.  The Love of Allah for the human being is that He Himself gives proof of Himself, not revealing Himself to anything that is not He.” 

This was Imam al-Hallaj’s (q.s.) understanding of 

سُوۡرَةُ طٰه

وَٱصۡطَنَعۡتُكَ لِنَفۡسِى (٤١) 

“And I have Prepared you for Myself (for service)” ... (Surah ThaHa:41) 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said, “Love (mahabbah) is from the seed (habbah) of the heart.  The seed of the heart is its pith (lubb), and the pith is the place of the subtlety (lathifah).  The subtlety is the place of Allah, and the place of Allah is the complete freedom (tamalluq) with Him.” 

For the second time, Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) left for the pilgrimage dressed in the ragged clothes of the dervish, with a large number of followers accompanying him, all dressed like him.  It is said that when they reached Makkah, one of the authorities there denounced him as a heretic and a magician; so he returned to Baswra, and from there he went to the town of Ahwaz in southwest Persia, where he remained for a period of time. 

Imam al-Hallaj’s (q.s.) spirit would not allow him to stay for long in any place, and he felt called again to travel to distant places.  He said, “Now I am going to the lands of many gods to call men to Allah.”  He took a boat to India, and from there, he travelled to China.  His enemies said that he went to India to learn magic, and especially the secret of how to perform the Indian rope trick.  He told his family that he wanted to go to India and to the Far East to call the disbelievers to God. 

He travelled to Gujarat, and from there he wandered through the Sind and the lower Indus valley, which had been part of the Muslim Empire since 711 CE.  He met many people in all his journeying and spoke to thousands.  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 Sind, 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 Manichaean manuscripts from Central Asia.  What is certain is that Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) was loved and sought by many people wherever he travelled, and when he returned to Baghdad many of them wrote him letters; the Indians addressing him as “Abu al-Mughits”, the Chinese as “Abu al-Mu’in”, and in all the places which he visited he was given a special name by which he was known. 

All this, and particularly the fact that he had vast followings amongst the people of all the places where he had travelled, made the government of Baghdad very suspicious of Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.), and not only suspicious, but they began to look upon him as a threat to the security and stability of their power.  In Al-Akhbar al-Hallaj, there are many stories which give a good idea about his life in Baghdad, both before and after he returned from his long second journey to the East.  He is said to have taught the people and called them to Allah (s.w.t.) with intense love and asceticism. 

When someone asked him about the Unity of Allah (s.w.t.), he answered, “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.”  He had broken his silence, and torn aside the Veil to reveal the hidden Secret.  His fellow ecstatics and companions, Shaykh Abu Bakr Dulaf ibn Jahdar ash-Shibli (q.s.), Shaykh Ahmad ibn Abu al-Husayn an-Nuri (q.s.), or Shaykh Bayazid Thayfur ibn ‘Isa al-Bisthami (q.s.), although they did not always keep silent, managed to stay away from the anger and the stones of the people.  Shaykh ash-Shibli (q.s.) said, “al-Hallaj and I are of one love and one belief, but my madness saved me, while his intelligence destroyed him.” 

There is a story told by one of Imam al-Hallaj’s (q.s.) young followers, Shaykh Ibrahim ibn al-Fatik (q.s.): “One day I went to see my shaykh, al-Hallaj at a house belonging to him; and I arrived at a moment when he was in a state of absence.  I saw him standing on his head saying, ‘You Who Make me near to You by Your Presence, and Who Set me at a distance by Your Absence, as far as is Eternity from time, You Manifest Yourself to me so that I think of You as the All, and You Withdraw Yourself from me until I deny Your Existence.  But Your Absence does not continue, and Your Presence does not suffice.  War with You does not succeed, and peace with You is not secure.’” 

Shaykh ibn al-Fatik (q.s.) then said, “When he sensed that I was there he sat upright and said, ‘Come in, and do not be afraid!’  So, I came in and sat down before him, and his eyes were like two burning flames.  Then he said, ‘My son, some people testify against me that I am a disbeliever, and some of them testify to my saintliness.  Those who testify that I am a disbeliever are dearer to me, and to Allah than those who testify to my saintliness.’ 

Then I asked him, ‘Master, why is that?’ 

He said, ‘Those who testify to my saintliness do so from their good opinion of me, while those who testify against me of my disbelief do so from zealous defense of their religion.  He who zealously defends his religion is dearer to Allah than he who has a good opinion of anyone.’  Then he said, ‘Ibrahim, what will you do when you see me crucified and killed and burnt?  That will be the happiest day of all the days of my life.’” 

Shaykh ibn Fatik (q.s.) also told about a visit which he paid to Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) on which occasion he found him reciting the Qur’an at full length.  When he had finished, he turned to ibn Fatik, laughing and said, “Do you not see that I pray to try to please Him?  But he who thinks that he has pleased Him has put a price on His Pleasure.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said, “Praise be to him whose humanity manifested the Secret of the splendour of His radiant Divinity, and who then appeared openly to his people in the form of one who eats and drinks!” 

All Sufis have always considered belief as an inner state rather than the more formal one of submission to Allah (s.w.t.) which is generally understood by Muslims.  The Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “Submission is public, and belief is in the heart.”  Then he pointed to his breast three times and said, “Awe of Allah is here, awe of Allah is here!” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said this because he believed that faith was the first step leading to the overwhelming Love of Allah, astonishment and awe.  When reverence is combined with knowledge, then the state of total surrender or intention to the Qur’an becomes possible.  “This,” he said, “is the Reward of the stations of belief.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) spoke about the Qur’an, saying, “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.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) believed that only the awliya’ are destined to reach the Secret of Lordship.  He said, “He who looks for Allah by the light of faith is like he who seeks the Sun by the light of the stars.” 

At the same time, he acknowledged faith as the foundation for all calling upon Allah (s.w.t.), which should be followed by seeking His Face, as he said, “No one can lay claim to Allah in any way except through faith, but in reality there can be no claim to having attained Him.” 

سُوۡرَةُ بنیٓ اسرآئیل / الإسرَاء

قُلِ ٱدۡعُواْ ٱللَّهَ أَوِ ٱدۡعُواْ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنَ‌ۖ أَيًّ۬ا مَّا تَدۡعُواْ فَلَهُ ٱلۡأَسۡمَآءُ ٱلۡحُسۡنَىٰ‌ۚ … (١١٠) 

Say: “Call upon Allah, or call upon Rahman: by whatever name ye call upon Him (it is well): for to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. …” (110) 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) went on to explain that faith, in so far as it means speech, action and intention, is still concerned with the intermediaries.  But these intermediaries, or mediums, are eclipsed as soon as the realities are tasted, so that they remain afterwards only in an outward form for those who need the outward form. 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said, “In none but Him can two opposite attributes be merged together.  He, Allah, is not thereby in contradiction, for knowledge is concealed by ignorance, but He, Allah, is the meeting-place of both the Unity and ignorance.” 

In his Akhbar al-Hallaj, Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) spoke about what he meant by the meeting-place of opposites in Allah (s.w.t.) in relation to faith and disbelief.  He said, “Faith and disbelief are different only in name, because in the Reality there is no belief and no disbelief.  The place where they meet is the place where they are dissolved in the Essence Itself, the Reality.” 

Imam al-Junayd (q.s.) said, “Unity is the isolation of the reality of Allah in Itself.”  The meaning of Imam al-Junayd’s (q.s.) words is the same as the meaning of Imam al-Hallaj’s (q.s.) saying, “In none but Him can two opposite attributes be merged together, but He is not thereby in contradiction.  Allah is the meeting-place of opposites.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said, “When you become obliterated, you arrive at a place in which nothing is either obliterated or confirmed.  It is the Divine effacements, and it cannot be expressed in words.”  He was reaching out, in Sufi language and terminology, to express what no human language can truly express.  Only the hearts of the true beloved, whose eyes are open and who are in the deep surrender to Allah (s.w.t.) in all His Faces, can touch something of the meaning of Imam al-Hallaj’s (q.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. 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) said, in a poem: 

“The long-awaited revealing of a well-kept secret,

Is becoming clear to you.

A dawn is breaking on your darkness.

Your own heart is the veil covering the Secret.

If you had kept yourself,

He would not have been Revealed to you.

But when you destroy your own heart,

He Enters it and Discloses His Divine Revelation.

So, guarded by this Revelation,

An ever-nourishing dialogue will follow;

Its verse and prose delicious to Us both.” 

When Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) finally said, “I became a disbeliever to Allah’s Religion, and disbelief is my duty because it is hateful to Muslims,” this was the culminating point of ecstatic expression for those early beloved of Allah (s.w.t.) who included Shaykh Abu Sa’id ibn Abu al-Hasan Yasar al-Baswri (q.s.), Shaykha Rabi’ah al-‘Adawiyyah al-Qaysiyyah al-Baswri (q.s.), Shaykh Bayazid al-Bisthami (q.s.), and Shaykh Ahmad an-Nuri (q.s.). 

In a letter to one of his close beloveds, Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) wrote, “May Allah Veil you from the outside of the shari’ah, and may He Reveal to you the reality of disbelief, because the outside of the shari’ah is a hidden idolatry, while the reality of disbelief 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.” 

Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) called the external shari’ah ash-shirk khafi, a hidden idolatry because he said that, “It is bound up with outside things-with duality and opposition.  In the measure that a person is preoccupied with the external shari’ah, so he is prevented from being with Allah Alone.”  He wrote many compositions, poems, sayings and books about the religion of Islam and jurisprudence.  His poetry, as well as being profound and subtle, is very tender and full of yearning, as can be seen, and his language is very pure and refined in the style so characteristic of the Persian masters. 

Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Utsman al-Hujwiri (q.s.), writing in the 12^th century, said that he had seen at least fifty works by Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) in Baghdad, and in the neighboring districts, and also in Khuzistan, Fars and Khurasan.  His best-known works are his Diwan, his Akhbar al-Hallaj, his Kitab ath-Thawasin, and a Tafsir al-Qur’an.  Kitab ath-Thawasin, which deals with the subject of the tawhid, and with the science of prophethood, contains eight chapters, each called thasin, from the secret letters at the beginning of Surah an-Naml.  It also contains a dialogue between Allah (s.w.t.) and Shaythan in the form of a discussion Shaythan’s refusal to obey the Order of Allah (s.w.t.), and prostrate to Adam (a.s.).  It addresses the dilemma between not worshipping anybody but Allah (s.w.t.), which is His Divine Will, and on the other hand, His Order to prostrate before a created being.  Kitab ath-Thawasin also contains beautiful poems in honour of the Prophet (s.a.w.).  In the Riwayat of Shaykh Abu Muhammad Ruzbihan al-Baqli (q.s.), who wrote in the late 12^th century, Shaykh al-Baqli (q.s.) said everything that he could find about Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) is gathered together.  In addition, there are some examples in this book of gatherings of ahadits, which Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) made, and which are said to be not very different from the generally accepted ahadits, except that they were confirmed for him by a sanad of cosmic origin, and not human transmitters. 

In the Tafsir of Imam Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahman Muhammad ibn al-Husayn as-Sulami (r.a.), who passed away in 1021 CE, can be found some fragments of Imam al-Hallaj’s (q.s.) Tafsir.  This was the way in which his heart saw the truths and the laws of shari’ah, and he also wrote and spoke about the idea of isqath al-fara’idh, by which he meant that certain religious duties could be exchanged, he claimed, for acts which may be more useful at a particular moment.  For example, he said that instead of performing the haj, people should invite orphans to their houses, to feed and clothe them, and to make them happy on ‘iyd al-akbar.  This idea can be compared with the story of Shaykh Bayazid al-Bisthami’s (q.s.) meeting with the man on the road to the haj who asked him for money, and to walk seven times around him instead of making the journey to Makkah.  But if anyone looks with spiritual sight, he sees that there was never any doubt about Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) being a true Muslim.  One of the ahadits which he believed in is that in which the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “Allah has not created anything which He loves more than He loves Muhammad and his family.” 

In Kitab ath-Thawasin, he wrote in praise of Muhammad (s.a.w.), “All the Lights of the Prophets, may peace be upon them all, proceeded from his Light.  He was before all, and his name is the first in the Book of Destiny.  He was known before all things and all beings, and he will endure after the end of all.  By his guidance, all eyes have attained to sight.  All knowledge is merely a drop.  All wisdom merely a handful from his stream; all time is merely an hour from his life.” 

In a chapter of his Kitab ath-Thawasin, Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) drew a parallel between the hadits of the Prophet (s.a.w.) who said, “Die before you die,” and a moth which is attracted to the flame of a candle.  It circles the flame and little by little approaches it until in the end it is burned by it.  He compared himself to the moth, which does not want either the light or the candle or its heat, but only to throw itself into the flame.  This was exactly the same, he said, as his own case with the Love of his Beloved - to throw himself into the Fire of Divine Love, and to be consumed by It.  For at the moment of being consumed he would reach the completed Perfection of the Order of Allah (s.w.t.) for him, and the Reality of his true existence in Him.  His words, “I am the Truth”, appear in one of the chapters of his Kitab ath-Thawasin, where he writes about his own claim to the saying, and also that of Pharaoh, and that of the Shaythan.  He compares Pharaoh’s words and that of Shaythan: 

سُوۡرَةُ النَّازعَات

… أَنَا۟ رَبُّكُمُ ٱلۡأَعۡلَىٰ (٢٤) 

… “I am your Lord, Most High.” (Surah an-Nazi’at:24) 

سُوۡرَةُ الاٴعرَاف

… أَنَا۟ خَيۡرٌ۬ مِّنۡهُ … (١٢) 

… “I am better than he ...” (Surah al-A’araf:12) 

And he contrasted it with his own words: “I say, I am the Absolute Truth. Inside my cloak is nothing but Allah.” 

This led to a great deal of controversy about the difference between the “I” of Pharaoh and Shaythan, and the Beloved of Allah (s.w.t.).  An answer came in the revelation from Allah (s.w.t.): “Pharaoh saw only himself so he lost Me, and Husayn saw only Me and lost himself.”  The “I” of Pharaoh was a word of total disbelief, but the “I” of Imam al-Hallaj (q.s.) was an expression of Grace from Allah (s.w.t.).  Shaykh ibn al-Fatik (q.s.) said that when his shaykh was asked, “Who is a Sufi?” he replied, “He who is single in essence.”  In that state, he sees only with the Eye of his Reality.

This was the culmination of the holy life of the Beloved of Allah (s.w.t.), Imam al-Mugits Husayn ibn Manswur al-Hallaj (q.s.), the Martyr of the Love of God.  No words are enough to speak of the Beauty and the Majesty of this station, or this case, but Allah (s.w.t.) Himself is the Love and Encompasses everything. From His Order, and in It, His Creation returns to Him.