1. Al-Hallaj is best known for his saying, "I am the Truth", which many saw as a claim to divinity, while others interpreted it as an instance of annihilation of the ego, allowing God to speak through him.
17 Facts About Al-Hallaj
1. 2.
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.
3.
Al-Hallaj was born around 858 in Pars Province of the Abbasid Empire to a cotton-carder in an Arabized town called al-Bayda'.
4.
Al-Hallaj's father moved to a town in Wasit famous for its school of Quran reciters.
5.
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.
6.
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 Makki and he set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, against the advice of Junayd, as soon as the Zanj Rebellion was crushed.
7.
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.
8.
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.
9.
Al-Hallaj was denounced at the court, but a Shafi'i jurist refused to condemn him, stating that spiritual inspiration was beyond his jurisdiction.
10.
Al-Hallaj's preaching had by now inspired a movement for moral and political reform in Baghdad.
11.
Al-Hallaj was first punched in the face by his executioner, then lashed until unconscious, and then decapitated or hanged.
12.
Al-Hallaj's body was doused in oil and set alight, and his ashes were then scattered into the river.
13.
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".
14.
Al-Hallaj preached without the traditional Sufi habit and used language familiar to the local Shi'i population.
15.
Al-Hallaj said: Then he prayed for him and then he was not successful.
16.
Al-Hallaj's best known written work is the Book of al-Tawasin, in which he used line diagrams and symbols to help him convey mystical experiences that he could not express in words.
17.
Al-Hallaj's 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.