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{{Short description|Arab mystic, poet and Sufi teacher (c. 858 – 922)}}
{{Redirect|Hallaj|places in Iran|Hallaj, Iran (disambiguation){{!}}Hallaj, Iran}}
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{{Infobox religious biography
| era                = [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]]
| image              = Hallaj.jpg
| name               = al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallāj
| native_name        = {{Nobold|{{lang|fa|منصور حلاج}}}}
| caption            = The execution of Mansur al-Hallaj (manuscript illustration from [[Mughal Empire]], c. 1600)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://art.thewalters.org/detail/78103/the-hanging-of-mansur-al-hallaj |title=The Walters Art Museum. The Hanging of Mansur al-Hallaj, from a manuscript of Diwan of Amir Khusrow, a.k.a. Hasan Dihlavi |access-date=December 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223094722/http://art.thewalters.org/detail/78103/the-hanging-of-mansur-al-hallaj |archive-date=December 23, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| religion           = [[Islam]]
| birth_date         = c. 858 CE
| birth_place        = [[Fars province|Fars]], [[Abbasid Caliphate]] <br> {{small|(present-day [[Iran]])}}
| death_date         = {{death date and age|922|03|26|858}} CE<ref>{{cite book | title=Britannica Ready Reference Encyclopedia | volume=4 | page=249 | isbn=81-8131-098-5}}</ref>
| death_place        = [[Baghdad]], [[Abbasid Caliphate]] <br> {{small|(present-day [[Iraq]])}}
| creed              = [Wahdat al-wujūd]
| works              = 
| influences         = [[Dhul-Nun al-Misri]], [[Bayazid Bastami]]
| influenced         = [[Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani]] [[Hafiz Shirazi]], [[Attar of Nishapur]], [[al-Ghazali]], [[Sanai]], [[Rumi]], [[Balım Sultan]], [[Sachal Sarmast]], [[Imadaddin Nasimi]], [[Madho Lal Hussain|Shah Hussain]], [[Ahmad Yasawi]], [[Adi ibn Musafir]]
| denomination       = [[Sunni]]<ref name="religion">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhVCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA186|title=Vatican II: Catholic Doctrines on Jews and Muslims|quote=...focused on the Sunni mystic al-Hallaj...|author=Gavin D'Costa|year=2014|page=186|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199659272}}</ref><ref name="sunni">{{cite encyclopedia | author=EB | article=al-Hallaj, Hazrat Abu Mughith Al-Hussain Bin Mansour (858-922) | article-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7JInpQL0x8C&pg=PA188 | encyclopedia=Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis: Central Asia and Middle East | pages=187–197, at p. 188 | quote=Al Hallaj, in fact, remained always a Sunni, with a strong leaning towards hard asceticism in observing the Ramadan fasts... | editor-first=N. | editor-last=Hanif | year=2002 | publication-place=New Delhi | publisher=Sarup & Sons | isbn=9788176252669}}{{better source needed|date=September 2024|reason=[[Talk:Batal Hajji Belkhoroev#N. Hanif of Sarup & Sons]]}}</ref>
}}
{{Sufism}}

'''Mansour al-Hallaj''' ({{langx|ar|ابو المغيث الحسين بن منصور الحلاج|Abū 'l-Muġīth al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj}}) or '''Mansour Hallaj''' ({{langx|fa|منصور حلاج|Mansūr-e Hallāj}}) ({{nowrap|c. 858 –}} 26 March 922) ([[Islamic calendar|Hijri]] {{nowrap|c. 244 AH –}} 309 AH) was a [[Persian people|Persian]] [[Hanbali school|Hanbali]]<ref name="Christopher Melchert 2001 p. 352">Christopher Melchert, "The Ḥanābila and the Early Sufis," ''Arabica'', T. 48, Fasc. 3 (2001), p. 352</ref><ref>The Passion of Al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam, Volume 1: ''The Life of Al-Hallaj'' Louis Massignon</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Massignon |first1=L. |title=al-Ḥallād̲j̲ |date=2012-04-24 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/al-halladj-COM_0256 |access-date=2023-09-18 |publisher=Brill |language=en |last2=Gardet |first2=L. |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition}}</ref> mystic, [[poet]], and teacher of [[Sufism]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Irwin|editor-first1=Robert|title=The new Cambridge history of Islam, Volume 4.|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-83824-5|page=47|edition=1. publ.|quote=Perhaps the most controversial Su! was the Persian mystic al-Hallaj (d. 309/922).}}</ref><ref>John Arthur Garraty, Peter Gay, ''The Columbia History of the World'', Harper & Row, 1981, page 288, {{ISBN|0-88029-004-8}}</ref><ref name="Iranica">{{harvnb|Mojaddedi|2012}}</ref> He was best known for his saying, "I am the Truth" ("''Ana'l-Ḥaqq''"), which many saw as a claim to divinity, while others interpreted it as an instance of [[Fana (Sufism)|annihilation of the ego]], which allowed God to speak through him. Al-Hallaj gained a wide following as a preacher before he became implicated in power struggles of the [[Abbasid]] court and was executed after a long period of confinement on religious and political charges. Although most of his Sufi contemporaries disapproved of his actions, Hallaj later became a major figure in the Sufi tradition.<ref name=":0">{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Fiegenbaum | first=J. W. | date=July 20, 1998 | article=Al-Ḥallāj: Islamic mystic: Abū al-Mughīth al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj |article-url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Hallaj|access-date=2020-12-08|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=online | language=en | publication-place=Chicago }}</ref>

== Life ==

=== Early years ===
Al-Hallaj was born around 858 in [[Pars (Sasanian province)|Pars Province]] of the [[Abbasid Empire]] to a [[carding|cotton-carder]] (''Hallaj'' means "cotton-carder" in Arabic) in an Arabized town called al-Bayḍā'.<ref name="EI2-3-99">{{cite book|author=[[Louis Massignon]], [[Louis Gardet]]|title=Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. 3, "Al-Halladj"|year=1986|publisher=Brill|pages=99–100}}</ref> His grandfather was a [[magi|Zoroastrian magus]].<ref name="Iranica" /> His father moved to a town in [[Wasit Governorate|Wasit]] famous for its school of Quran reciters.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> Al-Hallaj memorized the [[Qur'an]] before he was 12 years old and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study at the school of [[Sahl al-Tustari]].<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> During this period al-Hallaj lost his ability to speak Persian and later wrote exclusively in Arabic.<ref name="Iranica"/><ref name="EI2-3-99"/> Al-Hallaj was a [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslim]].<ref name="religion"/><ref name="sunni"/>

When he was twenty, al-Hallaj moved to [[Basra]], where he married and received his Sufi habit from 'Amr Makkī, although his lifelong and monogamous marriage later provoked opposition from the latter.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/><ref>{{Cite web|date=November 10, 2011|title=The story of Hallaj|url=https://www.dawn.com/2011/11/10/the-story-of-hallaj/|access-date=2020-12-08|newspaper=Dawn|location=Pakistan|language=en}}</ref> Through his brother-in-law, al-Hallaj found himself in contact with a [[Zaydism|Zaydi Shi'i]] clan that supported the [[Zanj Rebellion]].<ref name="EI2-3-99"/>

Al-Hallaj later went to Baghdad to consult the famous Sufi teacher [[Junayd of Baghdad]], but he was tired of the conflict that existed between his father-in-law and 'Amr Makkī and set out on a pilgrimage to [[Mecca]], against the advice of Junayd, as soon as the Zanj Rebellion was crushed.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/>

=== Pilgrimages and travels ===

In Mecca he made a vow to remain for one year in the courtyard of the sanctuary in fasting and total silence.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> When he returned from Mecca, he laid down the Sufi tunic and adopted a "lay habit" in order to be able to preach more freely.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> At that time a number of Sunnis, including former Christians who would later become viziers at the Abbasid court, became his disciples, but other Sufis were scandalized, while some [[Muʿtazila|Muʿtazilis]] and Shias who held high posts in the government accused him of deception and incited the mob against him.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> Al-Hallaj left for eastern Iran and remained there for five years, preaching in the Arab colonies and fortified monasteries that housed volunteer fighters in the jihad, after which he was able to return and install his family in Baghdad.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/>

Al-Hallaj made his second pilgrimage to Mecca with four hundred disciples, where some Sufis, his former friends, accused him of sorcery and making a pact with the jinn.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> Afterwards he set out on a long voyage that took him to India and Turkestan beyond the frontiers of Islamic lands.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> About 290/902 he returned to Mecca for his final pilgrimage clad in an Indian loin-cloth and a patched garment over his shoulders.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> There he prayed to God to be made despised and rejected, so that God alone might grant grace to Himself through His servant's lips.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/>

===Imprisonment and execution===
[[File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Execution_of_Mansur_Hallaj_From_the_Warren_Hastings_Album.jpg|thumb|The Execution of Mansur Hallaj. Watercolor from Mughal India circa 1600.<ref>[https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/94856/The_Execution_of_Mansur_Hallaj_From_the_Warren_Hastings_Album Brooklyn Museum. The Execution of Mansur Hallaj, from the Warren Hastings Album.]</ref>]]
[[File:Burning and crucifixion of Mansur al-Hallaj, depiction from a 19th century Kashmiri manuscript.jpg|thumb|Burning and crucifixion of Mansur al-Hallaj, depiction from a 19th-century [[Kashmir]]i manuscript.]]

After returning to his family in Baghdad, al-Hallaj began making proclamations that aroused popular emotion and caused anxiety among the educated classes.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> These included avowing his burning love of God and his desire to "die accursed for the Community", and statements such as "O Muslims, save me from God"<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 22, 2013|title=Execution of Husain Ibn Mansur Al-hallaj|url=https://www.themorgan.org/collection/treasures-of-islamic-manuscript-painting/45|access-date=2021-04-30|website=The Morgan Library & Museum|language=en}}</ref> ... "God has made my blood lawful to you: kill me".<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> It was at that time that al-Hallaj is said to have pronounced his famous [[shath]] "I am the Truth".<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> He was denounced at the court, but a [[Shafi'i]] jurist refused to condemn him, stating that spiritual inspiration was beyond his jurisdiction.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/>

Al-Hallaj's preaching had by now inspired a movement for moral and political reform in Baghdad.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> In 296/908 Sunni reformers made an unsuccessful attempt to depose the underage caliph [[al-Muqtadir]].<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> When he was restored, his Shi'i vizier unleashed anti-Hanbali repressions which prompted al-Hallaj to flee Baghdad, but three years later he was arrested, brought back, and put in prison, where he remained for nine years.<ref name="EI2-3-99"/>

The conditions of al-Hallaj's confinement varied depending on the relative sway his opponents and supporters held at the court,<ref name="EI2-3-99"/> but he was finally condemned to death in 922 on the charge of being a [[Qarmatian]] rebel who wished to destroy the [[Kaaba]], because he had said "the important thing is to proceed seven times around the Kaaba of one's heart."<ref name="EI2-3-101">{{cite book|author=[[Louis Massignon]], [[Louis Gardet]]|title=Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. 3, "Al-Halladj"|year=1986|publisher=Brill|pages=101}}</ref> According to another report, the pretext was his recommendation to build local replicas of the Kaaba for those who are unable to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.<ref name="Iranica"/> The queen-mother interceded with the caliph who initially revoked the execution order, but the intrigues of the vizier finally moved him to approve it.<ref name="EI2-3-101"/> On 23 Dhu 'l-Qa'da (March 25) trumpets announced his execution the next day.<ref name="EI2-3-101"/> The words he spoke during the last night in his cell are collected in ''Akhbar al-Hallaj''.<ref name="EI2-3-101"/> Thousands of people witnessed his execution on the banks of the [[Tigris River]]. He was first punched in the face by his executioner, then lashed until unconscious, and then decapitated{{sfn |Kadri |2012|p=238}}{{sfn |Massignon|1982|p=1:560-625}} or hanged.<ref name="Iranica"/> Witnesses reported that al-Hallaj's last words under torture were "all that matters for the ecstatic is that the Unique should reduce him to Unity", after which he recited the Quranic verse 42:18.<ref name="EI2-3-101"/> His body was doused in oil and set alight, and his ashes were then scattered into the river.<ref name="Iranica"/> A [[cenotaph]] was "quickly" built on the site of his execution, and "drew pilgrims for a millennium"{{sfn |Massignon|1982|p=1:231}} until being swept away by a Tigris flood during the 1920s.{{sfn |Kadri |2012|p=239}}

Some question whether al-Hallaj was executed for religious reasons as has been commonly assumed. According to [[Carl W. Ernst]], the legal notion of blasphemy was not clearly defined in Islamic law and statements of this kind were treated inconsistently by legal authorities.<ref name="EI2"/> In practice, since apostasy was subsumed under the category of ''[[Zindīq|zandaqa]]'', viewing heresy as a political crime, they were prosecuted only when it was politically convenient.<ref name="EI2"/> [[Sadakat Kadri]] points out that "it was far from conventional to punish heresy in the tenth century," and it is thought he would have been spared execution except that the [[vizier]] of caliph [[al-Muqtadir]] wished to discredit "certain figures who had associated themselves" with al-Hallaj.{{sfn |Kadri |2012|p=237}} (Previously al-Hallaj had been punished for talking about being at one with God by being shaved, pilloried and beaten with the flat of a sword, not executed because the [[Shafi'i]]te judge had ruled that his words were not "proof of disbelief."){{sfn |Kadri |2012|p=237}}{{sfn |Massignon|1982|p=1:475}}

== Teachings and practices ==
Al-Hallaj addressed himself to popular audiences encouraging them to find God inside their own souls, which earned him the title of "the carder of innermost souls" (ḥallāj al-asrār).<ref name="Iranica"/> He preached without the traditional Sufi habit and used language familiar to the local Shi'i population.<ref name="Iranica"/> This may have given the impression that he was a Qarmatian missionary rather than a Sufi.<ref name="Iranica"/> His prayer to God to make him lost and despised can be regarded as typical for a Sufi seeking annihilation in God, although [[Louis Massignon]] has interpreted it as an expression of a desire to sacrifice himself as atonement on behalf of all Muslims.<ref name="Iranica"/> When al-Hallaj returned to Baghdad from his last pilgrimage to Mecca, he built a model of the Kaaba in his home for private worship.<ref name="Iranica"/>

Al-Hallaj was popularly credited with numerous supernatural acts. He was said to have "lit four hundred oil lamps in Jerusalem's [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]] with his finger and extinguished an eternal flame in a Zoroastrian [[fire temple]] with the tug of a sleeve."{{sfn |Kadri |2012|p=238}}

Among other Sufis, al-Hallaj was an [[:wikt:anomaly|anomaly]]. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share [[mysticism]] with the masses, yet al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God.<ref>{{Cite web|date=March 13, 2021|title=Life and teaching of Hallaj|url=https://www.onelittleangel.com/wisdom/quotes/hallaj.asp|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041031033857/http://www.onelittleangel.com/wisdom/quotes/hallaj.asp|archive-date=October 31, 2004|access-date=March 13, 2021}}</ref>

Hallaj was also accused of [[ḥulūl]] "incarnationism", the basis of which charge seems to be a disputed verse in which the author proclaims mystical union in terms of two spirits in one body. This position was criticized for not affirming union and unity strongly enough; there are two spirits left whereas the [[fana (Sufism)|Sufi fana']] texts speak of utter annihilation and annihilation in annihilation (the annihilation of the consciousness of annihilation), with only one actor, the deity, left.<ref name="Sells, Michael Anthony 1996">Sells, Michael Anthony. 1996. Early islamic mysticism: Sufi, Qurʼan, miraj, poetic and theological writings. New York: Paulist Press.</ref> Saer El-Jaichi has argued "that in speaking of the unity with the divine in terms of ḥulūl, Hallaj does not mean the fusion (or, mingling) of the divine and human substances." Rather, he has in mind "a heightened sense of awareness that culminates in the fulfillment of a spiritual – super-sensory – vision of God’s presence."<ref name="El-Jaichi, Saer 2018">Early Philosophical Sufism: The Neoplatonic Thought of Ḥusayn Ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press.</ref>

[[Edward Said]] succinctly described al-Hallaj as "quasi-Christlike."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Said |first=Edward |title=[[Orientalism (book)|Orientalism]] |year=2019 |orig-year=1978 | publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-118742-6 |oclc=1200830761}}</ref>

There are conflicting reports about his most famous ''[[shath|shaṭḥ]]'', {{lang|ar|أنا الحق}} ''Anā l-Ḥaqq'' "I am The Truth, " which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, since ''al-Ḥaqq'' "the Truth" is one of the [[names of God in Islam]]. While [[meditating]], he uttered {{lang|ar|انا الحق}} The earliest report, coming from a hostile account of Basra grammarians, states that he said it in the mosque of al-Mansur, while testimonies that emerged decades later claimed that it was said in private during consultations with Junayd Baghdadi.<ref name="Iranica"/><ref name="EI2-3-99"/> Even though this utterance has become inseparably associated with his execution in the popular imagination, owing in part to its inclusion in his biography by [[Attar of Nishapur]], the historical issues surrounding his execution are far more complex.<ref name="Iranica"/> In another controversial statement, al-Hallaj claimed "There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God, " and similarly he would point to his cloak and say, {{lang|ar|ما في جبتي إلا الله}} ''Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh'' "There is nothing in my cloak but God." He also wrote:<ref>{{cite journal|author=Mohammed Rustom|title=Rumi's Metaphysics of the Heart|journal=Mawlana Rumi Review|year=2010|volume=37 |issue=1|pages=69–79 |doi=10.1177/000842980803700101|jstor=26810284|s2cid=144889204 }}</ref>

{{Poem quote|I saw my Lord with the eye of the heart
I asked, "Who are You?"
He replied, "You".}}

In the 11th volume of the [[Salafism|proto-Salafi]] [[Ibn Kathir]]'s book ''[[al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya]]'', it is said that al-Hallaj used to deceive people by putting on plays with his hired men under the guise of spiritual healing, and extorting money from them by cunning and secret, and it is also stated that, he came to India to learn and practice [[Indian magic]].<ref name=abwn>[https://ar.m.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B2%D8%A1_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A_%D8%B9%D8%B4%D8%B1/%D8%AB%D9%85_%D8%AF%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%AA_%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%A9_%D8%AA%D8%B3%D8%B9_%D9%88%D8%AB%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%A9 البداية والنهاية/الجزء الحادي عشر/ثم دخلت سنة تسع وثلاثمائة]</ref> Ibn Kathir also said in the book, "Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami Amr ibn Uthman{{clarification needed|date=May 2023}} said on the authority of al-Makki: He said: "I was walking with al-Hallaj in some streets of Makkah and I read the Qur'an.  I was reciting, and he heard my recitation. And said: I can recite the same (recitation), so I left him".<ref name=abwn/> Narrated by Ibn Kathir, Abu Zari al-Tabari said, I heard Abu Ya'qub al-Aqta say: I gave my daughter in marriage to al-Husayn al-Hallaj when I saw his good conduct and diligence, and after a short time it became clear to me that He is a deceitful sorcerer, a hateful infidel.<ref name=abwn/> Ibn Kathir also said, "Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Razi said: I heard Amr ibn Uthman cursing him and saying: If I could have killed him, I would have killed him with my own hands. I said to him: What did the Shaykh get on him? He Said: "I read a verse of the Book of Allah and He said: I can compose like it and speak like it."<ref name=abwn/> Ibn Kathir also said, and Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri mentioned in his letter in the chapter on preserving the hearts of the sheikhs: Amr bin Uthman entered the house of al-Hallaj when he was in Makkah, he (Hallaj) was writing something on paper and he (Amr) said to him  : What is it?  He (Hallaj) said: It is ''against the [[Qur'an]]''. He said: Then he prayed for him and then he was not successful. Hallaj denied that Abu Ya'qub al-Aqta married him to his daughter.<ref name=abwn/>

== Works ==
Al-Hallaj's principal works, all written in Arabic, included:<ref name="EI2-3-101"/>

* Twenty-seven ''Riwāyāt'' (stories or narratives) collected by his disciples in about 290/902.
* ''Kitāb al-Tawāsīn'', a series of eleven short works.
* Poems collected in ''Dīwān al-Hallāj''.
* Pronouncements including those of his last night collected in ''Akhbār al-Hallāj''.

His best known written work is the ''Book of al-Tawasin'' ({{lang|ar|كتاب الطواسين}}),<ref name="Tawasin">{{cite book| last = al-Hallaj | first = Mansur | title = Kitab al-Tawasin (ed. Louis Massignon) | publisher = Librairie Paul Geuthner| year = 1913 |url=https://archive.org/details/kitbalawsn00usaiuoft}}</ref> in which he used line diagrams and symbols to help him convey mystical experiences that he could not express in words.<ref name="Iranica"/> ''Ṭawāsīn'' is the [[Broken plural#Arabic|broken plural]] of the word ''ṭā-sīn'' which spells out the letters ṭā (ط) and sīn (س) placed for unknown reasons at the start of some [[surah]]s in the Quran.<ref name="Tawasin"/> The chapters vary in length and subject. Chapter 1 is an homage to Muhammad, for example, while Chapters 4 and 5 are treatments of his legendary ascent to Mi'raj. Chapter 6 is the longest of the chapters and is devoted to a dialogue of Satan ([[Devil (Islam)|Iblis]]) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. Satan's monotheistic claim—that he refused to bow before any other than God even at the risk of eternal rejection and torment—is combined with the lyrical language of the love-mad lover from the Majnun tradition, the lover whose loyalty is so total that there is no path for him to any "other than" the beloved.<ref name="Sells, Michael Anthony 1996"/> This passage explores the issues of mystical knowledge (ma'rifa) when it contradicts God's commands for although Iblis was disobeying God's commands, he was following God's will.<ref name="Sells, Michael Anthony 1996"/> His refusal is due, others argue, to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51–3). Al-Hallaj stated in this book:<ref>''Kitaab al-Tawaaseen'', Massignon Press, Paris, 1913, vi, 32.</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>
If you do not recognize God, at least recognize His sign, I am the creative truth
because through the truth, I am eternal truth.</poem>|author=Al-Hallaj | title=Kitāb al-Tawāsīn}}

==Classical era views==

Few figures in Islam provoked as much debate among classical commentators as al-Hallaj.<ref name="EI2-3-104">{{cite book|author=[[Louis Massignon]], [[Louis Gardet]]|title=Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. 3, "Al-Halladj"|year=1986|publisher=Brill|page=104}}</ref> The controversy cut across doctrinal categories.<ref name="EI2-3-104"/> In virtually every major current of juridical and theological thought ([[Hanafi]], [[Maliki]], [[Shafi'i]] [[Hanbali]], [[Maturidi]], [[Ash'ari]], and also [[Ja'fari jurisprudence|Jafari]]) one finds his detractors and others who accepted his legacy completely or justified his statements.<ref name="EI2-3-104"/> His admirers among philosophers included [[Ibn Tufayl]], [[Shahab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi|Suhrawardi]], and [[Mulla Sadra]].<ref name="EI2-3-104"/>

Although the majority of early Sufi teachers condemned him, he was almost unanimously canonized by later generations of Sufis.<ref name="EI2-3-104"/> The principal Sufi interpretation of the ''[[shath]]iyat'' which took the form of "I am" sayings contrasted the permanence (''baqā'') of God with the mystical annihilation (''fanā'') of the individual ego, which made it possible for God to speak through the individual.<ref name="EI2">{{cite encyclopedia|author-link=Carl W. Ernst | last=Ernst | first=Carl W. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Islam | edition=2nd | volume=9 | article=Shath|year=1997|publisher=Brill|pages=361–362}}</ref> Some Sufi authors claimed that such utterances were misquotations or attributed them to immaturity, madness or intoxication, while others regarded them as authentic expressions of spiritual states, even profoundest experience of divine realities, which should not be manifested to the unworthy.<ref name="EI2"/> Some of them, including [[al-Ghazali]], showed ambivalence about their apparently blasphemous nature while admiring the spiritual status of their authors.<ref name="EI2"/> [[Rumi]] wrote: "When the pen (of authority) is in the hand of a traitor, unquestionably Mansur is on a gibbet"<ref>Mathnawi Book 2: line 1398 Translated by Nicholson p.293. Persian: چون قلم در دست غداري بود /  لاجـرم منصور بـر داري بـود</ref>

== Modern views ==
The supporters of Mansur have interpreted his statement as meaning, "God has emptied me of everything but Himself. " According to them, Mansur never denied God's oneness and was a strict monotheist. However, he believed that the actions of man, when performed in total accordance with God's pleasure, lead to a blissful unification with Him.<ref>''Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World'', Thomson Gale, (2004), p.290</ref> [[Malayalam]] author [[Vaikom Muhammad Basheer]] draws parallel between "Anā al-Ḥaqq" and [[Aham Brahmasmi]], the [[Mahāvākyas|Upanishad Mahāvākya]] which means 'I am [[Brahman]]' (the Ultimate Reality in [[Hinduism]]). Basheer uses this term to intend God is found within one's 'self'. There was a belief among European historians that al-Hallaj was secretly a [[Christians|Christian]], until the French scholar [[Louis Massignon]] presented his legacy in the context of Islamic mysticism in his four-volume work ''La Passion de Husayn ibn Mansûr Hallâj''.<ref name="Iranica"/>

== Influence ==
Hallaj highly influenced [[Adi ibn Musafir]].<ref>The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion, Birgül Açikyildiz, 2014, pp. 85, {{ISBN|9780857720610}}</ref> Hallaj was revered in [[Adawiyya]] and later highly revered by [[Yezidism|Yezidis]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://dawa.center/religion/41 | title=اليزيدية }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Nidal Darwish| title=الإيزيديّون السوريّون في كُرداغ والجزيرة: بناء الهويّات في مجتمعٍ متغاير |url=https://www.medaratkurd.com/2017/10/16/2136/|website=MEDARATKURD |date=October 16, 2017|access-date=2024-02-08}}</ref> who composed a few religious hymns devoted to him. Elements of his views expressed in ''Kitab al-Tawasin'' can be found in their religion.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

== See also ==
* [[Arabic literature]]
* [[List of Persian poets and authors]]
* [[Sufism]]
* [[Hasan of Basra]]
* [[Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya]]
* [[Aham Brahmasmi]]
* [[Anal Haq]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFMojaddedi2012}}
*{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat |title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ... |date=2012|publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9780099523277|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC}}
*{{cite book|last1=Massignon|first1=Louis|title=The Passion of al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam|date=1982|publisher=Princeton University Press|translator=Herbert Mason|location=Princeton, NJ|isbn=0691019193|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJTN0S3uKk0C}}
* {{Encyclopædia Iranica Online | first=Jawid | last=Mojaddedi | date=March 1, 2012 | orig-year=2003 | article=ḤALLĀJ, ABU'L-MOḠIṮ ḤOSAYN b. Manṣur b. Maḥammā Bayżāwi | article-url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hallaj-1}} Adapted from {{Encyclopædia Iranica | first=Jawid | last=Mojaddedi | article=ḤALLĀJ, ABU'L-MOḠIṮ ḤOSAYN b. Manṣur b. Maḥammā Bayżāwi | volume=11 | fascicle=6 | pages=589-592}}
*Rodziewicz, Artur (2022). [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-6444-1_6 T''he Mystery of Essence and the Essence of Mystery: Yezidi and Yaresan Cosmogonies in the Light of the'' Kitab al-Tawasin] Macmillan. {{ISBN|978-981-16-6444-1}}.

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |author=Browne, Edward G.   |author-link=Edward Granville Browne |year=1998 |title=Literary History of Persia |location=Richmond |publisher=Curzon Press |url=https://archive.org/details/literaryhistoryo01browiala |isbn=0-7007-0406-X}}
* {{cite book |author=Ernst, Carl W.   |author-link=Carl W. Ernst |year=1985 |title=Words of Ecstasy in Sufism |location=Albany |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=0-87395-917-5}}
* {{cite journal |author=Massignon, Louis   |author-link=Louis Massignon |year=1983 |title=Perspective Transhistorique sur la vie de Hallaj |journal=Parole donnée |pages=73–97 |location=Paris |publisher=Seuil |isbn=202006586X}}
* {{cite book |author=Mason, Herbert   |year=1983 |title=Memoir of a Friend: Louis Massignon |location=Notre Dame |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |isbn=058531098X}}
* {{cite book |author=Michot, Yahya M.   |chapter=Ibn Taymiyya's Commentary on the Creed of al-Hallâj |editor=A. Shihadeh |title=Sufism and Theology |pages=123–136 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2007|doi=10.3366/edinburgh/9780748626052.003.0008 |isbn=978-0-7486-2605-2 }}
* {{cite book |author=Rypka, Jan   |author-link=Jan Rypka |year=1968 |title=History of Iranian Literature |location=Dordrecht |publisher=Reidel Publishing Company |isbn=90-277-0143-1}}
* {{cite book |author=El-Jaichi, Saer   |author-link=Saer El-Jaichi |year=2018 |title=Early Philosophical Sufism: The Neoplatonic Thought of Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ |location=Piscataway, NJ |publisher=Gorgias Press |isbn=978-1-4632-3917-6}}
* {{cite book |author=Shah, Idries   |author-link=Idries Shah |year=1964 |title=The Sufis |url=https://archive.org/details/sufis00shah_0   |url-access=registration   |location=Garden City |publisher=Doubleday |oclc=427036}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}

In English:
*  [https://archive.org/details/HALLAJTawasin The Tawasin of Mansur al-Hallaj in English translation]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120210103609/http://www.khamush.com/sufism/hallaj.html Selected poetry by al-Hallaj in English translation]
* [http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/Hallaj_doctrine.htm Doctrine of Al-Hallaj by Al-Qushayri] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525004941/http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/Hallaj_doctrine.htm |date=May 25, 2006 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060307161709/http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/sufi/al_hallaj/ Articles at Poet Seers]
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/all-hallaj-quotations.html al-Hallaj at the Internet Medieval Source Book]

In other languages:
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqmviHcWzMU Rhythmic prose and poetry by Al-Hallaj recited in Arabic]
* [https://archive.org/details/kitbalawsn00usaiuoft Kitâb al tawâsîn edited and annotated by Louis Massignon (in Arabic and French)] (includes Persian translation and commentary by [[Ruzbihan Baqli]]).
* [https://archive.org/details/lapassiondalhosa02massuoft Louis Massignon (1922) La passion d'Al Hosayn-ibn-Mansour al-Hallaj, vol. 2 (in French)]
* [http://www.alwaraq.net/Core/waraq/coverpage?bookid=3128 Akhbar al-Hallaj (in Arabic)]
* [https://www.scribd.com/doc/30459084/Mazmua-e-Mansur-Hallaj-collected-works-of-Mansur-Hallaz Collected Works of Mansur Hallaj in Persian translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222174706/https://www.scribd.com/doc/30459084/Mazmua-e-Mansur-Hallaj-collected-works-of-Mansur-Hallaz |date=December 22, 2015 }}
* [https://www.scribd.com/doc/26446661/Deewan-e-Mansur-Hallaj-complete Diwan of Mansur Hallaj in Persian translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305073237/https://www.scribd.com/doc/26446661/Deewan-e-Mansur-Hallaj-complete |date=March 5, 2016 }}
* [https://www.scribd.com/doc/136437203/Diwan-e-Hallaj-Urdu-Tarjuma Diwan of Mansur Hallaj in Urdu Translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222182140/https://www.scribd.com/doc/136437203/Diwan-e-Hallaj-Urdu-Tarjuma |date=December 22, 2015 }}

{{Arabic literature}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallaj}}
[[Category:850s births]]
[[Category:922 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:9th-century Arabic-language writers]]
[[Category:10th-century Arabic-language poets]]
[[Category:People executed for blasphemy]]
[[Category:People executed for heresy]]
[[Category:Executed Iranian people]]
[[Category:Iranian Sufi saints]]
[[Category:Sufi poets]]
[[Category:10th-century executions by the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:People from Fars province]]
[[Category:10th-century Iranian writers]]
[[Category:9th-century Iranian writers]]
[[Category:Iranian Muslim mystics]]
[[Category:Executed philosophers]]
[[Category:Hinduism and Islam]]
[[Category:Arabic-language Iranian poets]]
[[Category:Poets of the medieval Islamic world]]