Al Hallaj

Al Halláj was a legendary Iranian Sufi master who lived  between 858 – 922 AD.

I do not cease swimming in the seas of love,
rising with the wave, then descending;
now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it;
love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.

– (Diwan al-Hallaj, M. 34)

As a youngster Al Hallaj memorized the Quran and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.

Later in life Al-Hallaj  married and made a pilgrammige to Mecca. After his trip to the holy city, he traveled extensively. During this period he started to write and teach Sufi ideas to a growing number of followers. After a period of travelling in India and other parts of Central Asia he settled down in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.

Al Hallaj devoted his life to contemplation of the divine and during his spiritual practices would often go into a trance. Absorbed in these high states of spiritual consciousness he felt completely at one with all of creation, and with God.

Because of his direct experiences of contemplating the oneness of creation. He once said “Ana al-haqq” (“I am the Truth”–i.e., God). At the time, this was considered to be highly blasphemous, people could not understand the perspective of this mystic. Unfortunately because of this Al Hallaj was persecuted and found guilty of heresy.

After spending 11 years in prison Al Hallaq was tortured and crucified by the Abbasid rulers. There are many accounts which say that even under torture Al Hallaj was calm, detached and was willing to forgivee those who tortured him.

Before Al Hallaj was put to death he said:

Now stands no more between Truth and me
Or reasoned demonstration,
Or proof of revelation;
Now, brightly blazing full, Truth’s lumination
Each flickering, lesser light.

” For your sake, I hurry over land and water:

For your sake, I cross the desert and split the mountain in two,

And turn my face from all things,

Until the time I reach the place

Where I am alone with You.”

 To Reach God -Al  Hallaj “To Reach God From:Perfume of the Desert:  Edited: Andrew Harvey

Other Al Hallaj Poems:

 

Kill Me, My Faithful Friends

Kill me, my faithful friends,

For in my being killed is my life.

Love is that you remain standing

In front of your Beloved

When you are stripped of all your attributes;

Then His attributes become your qualities.

Between me and You, there is only me.

Take away the me, so only You remain

I am the One Whom I Love

I am the One whom I love, and the One whom I love is myself.
We are two souls incarnated in one body;
if you see me, you see Him,
if you see Him, you see us.

Read Also: The Tawasin of Mansur Al-Hallaj
Translated by Aisha Abd Ar -R ahman At -Tar jumana
T he Ta-Sin of the Prophetic Lamp