Mansoor Hallaj - A Controversy unresolved

[kashan123999]

Re: Mansoor Hallaj - A Controversy unresolved

@muqawwee123

Ironically, the reasons for which he was being hanged by a thoroughly corrupt government had nothing to do with his own call; he was being killed for political reasons. During the last few years, his fervent sermons had stirred up a revolution in Baghdad that sought to purify the decaying and corrupt milieu of the Abbasid Empire. In fact, Caliph al-Muqtadir had been deposed by an unprecedented coup in December 908, but the next day the new Caliph was removed by the powerful generals. Thus the young al-Muqtadir regained caliphate though the real control of power remained in the hands of his mother and more so in the hands of military generals who then thrived on corruption and power politics of the worst kind.

**For al-Hallaj, the reasons for his hanging had no importance. He had reached a state in his mystical journey where reasons had no meaning; only his unflinching love for God mattered. Thus when he was hanged that night before an enormous crowd that had gathered to witness hanging, he was smiling, eagerly awaiting the meeting with his Lord. Among those who had gathered around the place of hanging were many celebrated Sufis of Baghdad, including his friend Shibli, who threw a red rose toward al-Hallaj in a highly symbolic act that has drawn attention of countless scholars over the centuries.
**
Over the last 1085 years, Mansur al-Hallaj has become one of the most celebrated legends of Islamic mysticism and poetry. Generations of Sufis, poets, and scholars have written about him, and he continues to draw attention both in the East and the West. He has left behind a Divan, a short treatise of eleven chapters, Kitab al-Tawasin, which contains one of the best eulogies of the Prophet ever composed in any language, and some three hundred and fifty isolated sayings. It is, however, not the corpus of his works that has made this extraordinary man a living legend, it is the scant record of his mystical journey and his public testimony to it that has made him what he is.

He was not a recluse, but a man of action who has left a deep mark on Islamic thought. In addition to the function he serves for those on the mystical journey, he is also a heroic figure for those who wish to bring about a change in the public domain. He has provided guidance and inspiration to such varied men and women as Iqbal, Goethe, Dante, and Louis Massignon. Massignon, in fact, spent his entire life collecting, annotating, and editing his works

Green Sufi: Remembering al-Hallaj by Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal

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