al-Ḥallāj

al-Ḥallāj (born c. 858, Ṭūr, Iran—died March 26, 922, Baghdad) was a controversial writer and teacher of Islamic mysticism (Ṣūfism). Because he represented in his person and works the experiences, causes, and aspirations of many Muslims, arousing admiration in some and repression on the part of others, the drama of his life and death has been considered a reference point in Islamic history.

Al-Ḥallāj was born in the southern Iranian community of Ṭūr in the province of Fars. According to tradition, his grandfather was a Zoroastrian and a descendant of Abū Ayyūb, a companion of Muḥammad. At an early age al-Ḥallāj went to live in the city of Wāsiṭ, an important Iraqi centre for textiles, trade, and Arab culture. His father had become a Muslim and may have supported the family by carding wool.

Al-Ḥallāj was attracted to an ascetic way of life at an early age. Not satisfied with merely having learned the Qurʾān (the Islāmic scripture) by heart, he was motivated to understand its deeper and inner meanings. During his adolescence (c. 874–894), at a time when Islāmic mysticism was in its formative period, he began to withdraw from the world and to seek the company of individuals who were able to instruct him in the Ṣūfī way. His teachers, Sahl at-Tustarī, ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān al-Makkī, and Abū al-Qāsim al-Junayd, were highly respected among the masters of Ṣūfism. Studying first under Sahl at-Tustarī, who lived a quiet and solitary life in the city of Tustar in Khuzistan, al-Ḥallāj later became a disciple of al-Markkī of Basra. During this period he married the daughter of the Ṣūfī Abū Yaʿqūb al-Aqṭaʿ. He concluded his instruction in the mystical way under al-Junayd of Baghdad, a brilliant intellect, under whom al-Makkī had likewise studied.

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During the next period of his life (c. 895–910), al-Ḥallāj undertook extensive travels, preaching, teaching, and writing. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he followed a strict discipline for a year. Returning to such regions as Fars, Khuzistan, and Khorāsān, he preached and wrote about the way to an intimate relationship with God. In the course of his journeys he attracted many disciples, some of whom accompanied him on a second pilgrimage to Mecca. Afterward, he returned to his family in Baghdad and then set out by sea for a mission to a territory hitherto not penetrated by Islām—India and Turkistan. Following a third pilgrimage to Mecca, he again returned to Baghdad (c. 908).

The milieu in which al-Ḥallāj preached and wrote was filled with social, economic, political, and religious tensions—all factors that contributed to his later arrest. His thought and activity had been provocative and had been interpreted in various ways, some of which left him highly suspect in the eyes of civil and religious authorities. The Ṣūfī movement, in general, had aroused considerable opposition, and its thought and practice had yet to be coordinated with developments in jurisprudence, theology, and philosophy.

Al-Ḥallāj’s propensity for travel and his willingness to share the profundity of his mystical experiences with all who would listen were considered breaches of discipline by his Ṣūfī masters. His travel for missionary purposes was suggestive of the subversive activity of the Qarmaṭians, a 9th-century movement with Ismāʿīlī affiliations that was founded by Ḥamdān Qarmaṭ in Iraq, whose acts of terrorism and whose missionaries were undermining the authority of the central government. Through his wife’s family, he was suspected of having connections with the destructive Zanj rebellion in southern Mesopotamia that was carried out by oppressed black slaves inspired and led by outside dissidents. The alleged involvement of al-Ḥallāj in an attempt at political and moral reform upon his return to Baghdad was an immediate factor in his arrest, and it did nothing to improve his image in the eyes of the political leaders.

Al-Ḥallāj has been identified as an “intoxicated” Ṣūfī in contradistinction to a “sober” one. The former are those who, in the moment of ecstasy, are so overcome by the presence of the divine that awareness of personal identity is lost and who experience a merging with ultimate reality. In that exalted state, the Ṣūfī is given to using extravagant language. Not long before his arrest al-Ḥallāj is said to have uttered the statement “Anā al-ḥaqq” (“I am the Truth”—i.e., God), which provided cause for the accusation that he had claimed to be divine. Such a statement was highly inappropriate in the view of most Muslims. Furthermore, this was the kind of theosophical (divine wisdom) idea that was associated with the Qarmaṭians and the supporters of the Zanj slaves. There was no consensus about al-Ḥallāj, however. The long, drawn-out trial proceedings were marked by indecision.

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After his arrest in Sūs and a lengthy period of confinement (c. 911–922) in Baghdad, al-Ḥallāj was eventually crucified and brutally tortured to death. A large crowd witnessed his execution. He is remembered to have endured gruesome torture calmly and courageously and to have uttered words of forgiveness for his accusers. In a sense, the Islāmic community (ummah) had put itself on trial, for al-Ḥallāj left behind revered writings and supporters who courageously affirmed his teachings and his experience. In subsequent Islāmic history, therefore, the life and thought of al-Ḥallāj has been a subject seldom ignored.