Mansoor

Mansoor Al-Mansoor 

The most controversial figure in the history of Islamic mysticism, Mansur was born C. 244 (858) near al-Baiza’ in the province of Fars. He travelled very widely, first to Tostar and Baghdad, then to Mecca, and afterwards to Khuzestan, Khorasan, Transoxiana, Sistan, India and Turkestan. Eventually he returned to Baghdad, where his bold preaching of union with God caused him to be arrested on a charge of in-carnationism.

He was condemned to death and cruelly executed on 28 March 913. Author of a number of books and a considerable volume of poetry, he passed into Muslim legend as the prototype of the intoxicated lover of God.

 Mansur, called Mansoor “the Woolcarder” first came to Tostar, where he served Sahl ibn Abd Allah for two years; then he set out for Baghdad. He made his first journey at the age of eighteen.

He took up residence in Mecca for one year, after which he returned to Baghdad. With a group of Sufis Meanwhile Amr ibn Othman wrote letters regarding him to the people of Khuzestan, blackening him in their eyes. He too had grown weary of that place. Casting aside the Sufi garb, he donned tunic and passed his time in the company of worldly folk. That made no difference to him, however, and for five years he vanished. Part of that period he spent in Khorasan and Transoxiana, part in Sistan.

Mansoor then returned to Ahwaz, where his preaching won the approval of the elite and the public alike. He would speak of men’s secrets, so that he was dubbed “Mansoor of the Secrets”. After that he dressed himself in the ragged dervish robes and set out for the Sacred Territory, accompanied by many in like attire. When he reached Mecca, Ya’qub-e Nahrajuri denounced him as a magician. So he returned to Basra, then to Ahwaz.

“Now I am going to the lands of polytheism, to call men to God,” he announced. 

I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart.

He said, "Who are you?" I said, "I am You."

You are He Who fills all place

But place does not know where You are.

In my subsistence is my annihilation;

In my annihilation, I remain You.

Concealment does not veil Him

His pre-existence preceded time,

His being preceded not-being,

His eternity preceded limit.

He acts without contact,

instructs without meeting,

guides without pointing.

Desires do not conflict with Him,

thoughts do not mingle with Him:

His essence is without qualification 

His action without effort

Mansoor was now widely acclaimed and loved by the people. But the religious scholars could not accept him, and they doubted the reports of his miracles and took exception to his utterances, such as when he said: "I wonder at You and me. You annihilated me out of myself into You. You made me near to
Yourself, so that I thought that I was You, and You were me."

They also grew angry when they heard him say: "My spirit mixes with Your Spirit, in nearness and separation, so that I am You, just as You are I."

They could not understand how anyone could utter such sayings. Then, one by one, they began to turn against him and to shun his company.

At other times the religious authorities and scholars accused him of being a heretic (zindiq) when he said such things as: "Your Spirit mixed in my spirit just like wine and clear water, and if something touches You it touches me, for You are I in every state."

Attacks now mounted against him in Baghdad and grew in frequency so that he left the city, and for five years travelled far from his homeland. He also left his Sufi clothes, and put on those of the people amongst whom he went. But this did not mean that he had left the Path of Allah because no matter where he went, or what he did, he remained a beloved of the Path. Nothing could make any difference to his heart, nor quench the flame of his spirit, or he saw that his Beloved God was in every face around him, and he found Him in every place where he happened to be.

"I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God's." This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement. ~ Rumi

He says, "There’s nothing left of me.

I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise.

Is it still a stone, or a world

made of redness? It has no resistance

to sunlight."

Re-interpretation of the tawhid and desire for unification with God

Al-Mansoor believed that it was only God who could pronounce Tawhid, (the oneness)  whereas man's prayer was to be one of kun, surrender to his will: "Love means to stand next to the Beloved, renouncing oneself entirely and transforming oneself in accordance to Him. " He spoke of God as his "Beloved, " "Friend" "You, " and felt that "his only self was (God), " to the point that he could not even remember his own name. "

Poetry By Al Hallaj

” 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.”

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 He whom I love,

and He whom I love is I:

We are two spirits

dwelling in one body.

If thou seest me,

thou seest Him,

And if thou seest Him,

thou seest us both.

( Mulla thinks fast …

Nobody was available

George Phillips, an elderly man, from Walled Lake, Michigan, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he’d left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked “Is someone in your house?”

He said “No,” but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me.

Then the police dispatcher said “All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available”

George said, “Okay.”

He hung up the phone and counted to 30. Then he phoned the police again.

“Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don’t have to worry about them now because I just shot and killed them both, the dogs are eating them right now.” and he hung up.

Within five minutes, six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulance showed up at the Phillips’ residence, and caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to George, “I thought you said that you’d shot them!”

George said, “I thought you said there was nobody available!”

(the message) Don’t mess with old people! )

Mansoor Al Hallaj

Mansur al-Hallaj was born in the southern Iranian community of Tus in the province of Fars around 858. He was a Sufi and one of Islam's most controversial writers and teachers.

Al-Hallaj was fascinated with the ascetic way of life at a very young age. He memorized the Qur'an during his teens, and began to retreat from the world to gather with other like minded individuals to study Islamic mysticism. 

He later married, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and stayed there for a year. He began to travel the world abroad, preaching, teaching and writing along the way about the way to an intimate relationship with God. By the time he went on his second pilgrimage to Mecca, several apprentices accompanied him, and after returning to his family for a short period of time, traveled to India and Turkistan to spread the Islamic teachings. After this, he made a third pilgrimage to Mecca, and returned to Baghdad. 

The situation in which al-Hallaj taught and wrote was shaped by social, economic, political, and religious stress, which eventually led to his arrest. Sufism was new at the time, and it had provoked extensive opposition from the Muslim orthodoxy. Sufi masters considered his sharing the beauty of mystical experience with the masses undisciplined at best, disobedient at worst. He was an outspoken moral-political reformist. Before long political leaders began making a case against him.

He used to become so enraptured in ecstasy by the presence of the Divine that he was prone to a loss of personal identity, During his arrest he experienced one of these breaks and uttered: "Ana al-haqq," or "I am the Truth" (or God). The statement was highly inappropriate in Islam, Those three little words would mark the beginning of the end for al-Hallaj. Still, his trial was lengthy and marked with uncertainty. 

He spent 11 years in confinement in Baghdad, and was finally brutally tortured and crucified. There were many witnesses that stated that al-Hallaj was strangely serene while being tortured, and sincerely forgave his persecutors. He is referred to as "Love's Prophet." 

Today al-Hallaj is one of the most influential Sufi writers and an important character in Islamic history
He died March 26, 922.

“Take care of your ego; if you do not make it busy, it shall make you busy” 

(  Thus spake Mulla ….

The funeral cortege was being set up for the wife of Mulla Nasrudin, who was dressed

somberly in the appropriate black.

The funeral director said to the Mulla in a respectful whisper: "And you will be sitting in

the lead car with your mother-in-law."

Nasrudin frowned. "With my mother-in-law?"

"Yes, of course."

"Is it necessary?"

"It is essential. The bereaved husband and the bereaved mother -- the two closest

survivors together."

Mulla Nasrudin turned to look at the large and sobbing figure of his mother-in-law and

said: "Well, all right then, but I tell you right now that it's going to spoil the pleasure of

the occasion.")

More about Mansur (Musayn ibn Mansur al-Mansoor)

This is the story of Husayn ibn Mansur al-Mansoor who was born in Madina al-Bayda, a little village in the ancient province of Fars, in southern Persia, in the year 224 A.H./857 C.E., two years before his Master al-Junayd, may Allah be pleased with them both.

He grew up in Wasit and in Tustar where the cultivation of cotton was the main occupation of most of the people. His father was a cotton-carder from which he gained his name of al-mansoor-one who cards cotton.

Even when he was a young child al-Mansoor felt drawn towards a spiritual life, and at the age of sixteen he attached himself to the Shaykh Sahl at-Tustari whom he accompanied when he moved from Tustar to Basra in `Iraq. He served this Shaykh for two years and then, when he was eighteen years old, he left him and went to Baghdad.

However, the young Mansoor did not stay long in Baghdad, and soon returned to Basra where he became a student of `Amr al-Makki. This Shaykh, a companion of al-Junayd, was a scholar to whom the great Master wrote some of his well-known Rasa'il.

Al-Junayd's Way, as we know, was that of perfect sobriety, in which the Secret of God's Love had to be deeply contained, and only revealed to whoever could be trusted to guard It. In accepting al-Mansoor as his student, he knew that he was committing himself to a difficult responsibility. But he also knew that Allah, the All-Mighty, the All-Wise, had created al-Mansoor's spirit just as He had created his own spirit, and that whatever He Ordered and Willed must come to pass.

In al-Mansoor's case the Secret of the Love seized and intoxicated his entire being. His longing and yearning for Allah was such that only in his total destruction by Him could he find the Union which was the sole purpose and goal of his life. This was the Beauty (al-jamal) and the Majesty (al-jalal) of his bondsmanship to Allah, and like a great river flowing from its source to the ocean, nothing could hinder or stop its course.

Al-Junayd, his Master and teacher, counselled al-Mansoor to seek solitude and silence for himself, but at the same time he knew that his student's heart was full of yearning to help all the people whom he met, and to whom his spirit was moved to speak to about the One Beloved and His Love.

Al-Junayd also knew that it was for this reason that al-Mansoor could not remain in any one place for long. But he was always urged to go here and there, so that he travelled further and further from his native land, his outward journeys inspired by his inward searching and walking with his Beloved.

In all his travels Junayd's spirit never left his holy student, and he was surrendered to what Allah wanted of him. For he knew that every soul which He has created is in His Hands, and he whom He has chosen for Himself does not choose for himself, but it is Allah, through the heart of His slave, Who chooses for him.

Al-Mansoor, may Allah be pleased with him, while he was still a youth said, "And already love had engraved Him in my heart with its red-hot iron of desire-what a branding!"

Mansoor Speaks …..

Then he said, speaking with the Tongue of the Truth:

"I am He Whom I love, and He Whom I love is I.
We are two spirits dwelling in one body.
If you see me, you see Him;
And if you see Him, you see us both."In his heart al-Mansoor knew that he could see Allah, the Beloved everywhere in His Creation. Although he saw that the people were blind, dumb, animal-like and they could not recognize Him, yet as he said,

"The beloved
does not drink a single drop of water without seeing His Face in the cup. Allah is He Who flows between the pericardium and the heart, just as the tears flow from the eyelids."

He said about this in a poem:
"I saw my Lord with the Eye of my heart,
And I said: Truly there is no doubt that it is You.
It is You that I see in everything;

And I do not see You through anything (but You).
You are the One Who owns all places.
And yet no place is You.

And if there were a place given by You for the place,
That place would know where You are.
And if there were an imagination for the imagining of You.
That imagination would know where You are.
I understand everything, and everything that I see
In my annihilation is You.
My Lord, bless me and forgive me,
For I seek no one but You."

(“Mulla Nasrudin bought a ferocious tiger at an auction sale, 
outbidding several prominent circus proprietors. "What on earth are you going to do with that man-eating beast,

Nasrudin?" he was asked by the head of a wild-animal act. "Going into competition with us?"

"Oh, no," said Nasrudin. "It's not that. But my poor wife died last week and I am lonely.")

( Wedding ..

SO I MARRIED AN ATHEIST

A young lady came home from a date, rather sad. She explained to her mother, “Anthony proposed to me an hour ago.” “Then why are you so sad?” her mother asked. “Because he also told me he is an atheist. Mom, he doesn’t even believe there’s a Hell!”

Her mother replied, “Marry him anyway. Between the two of us, we’ll show him how wrong he is.”)

("But, Mulla, that isn't our baby."

"Shut up," said Mulla Nasrudin. "It's a better carriage.")

Contentary views

Tomb of Al-Mansoor

The writings of al-Mansoor are important to Sufi groups. His example is seen by some as one that should be emulated, especially his calm demeanor in the face of torture and his forgiving of his tormentors. Many honor him as an adept who came to realize the inherent divine nature of all men and women. While many Sufis theorize that Mansoor was a reflection of God's truth, scholars of the other Islamic schools of thought continue to see him as a heretic and a deviant.

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 

Your spirit is mingled with mine

Your spirit is mingled with mine

as wine is mixed with water;

whatever touches you touches me.

In all the stations of the soul you are I.

The Sunrise Ruby

In the early morning hour,

just before dawn, lover and beloved wake

and take a drink of water.

She ask, “Do you love me or yourself more?

Really, tell the absolute truth.”

He says, “Theres nothing left of me.

Im like a ruby held up to the sunrise.

Is it still a stone, or a world

made of redness? It has no resistance

to sunlight.”

This is how Hallaj said, I am God,

and told the truth!

The ruby and the sunrise are one.

Action without effort

He acts without contact,

instructs without meeting,

guides without pointing.

Desires do not conflict with Him,

thoughts do not mingle with Him:

His essence is without qualification (takyeef),

His action without effort (takleef).

I seek no one but You

“I saw my Lord with the Eye of my heart,

And I said: Truly there is no doubt that it is You.

It is You that I see in everything;

And I do not see You through anything (but You).

You are the One Who owns all places.

And yet no place is You.

And if there were a place given by You for the place,

That place would know where You are.

And if there were an imagination for the imagining of You.

That imagination would know where You are.

I understand everything, and everything that I see

In my annihilation is You.

My Lord, bless me and forgive me,

For I seek no one but You.”

Mansoor said …

"Die before you die," and a moth which is attracted to the flame of a candle. It circles the
flame and little by little approaches it until in the end it is burned by it. He compared himself to the moth which does not want either the light or the candle or its heat, but only to throw itself into the flame.

This was exactly the same, he said, as his own case with the Love of his Beloved God-to throw himself into the Fire of the Love, and to be consumed by it.

And  who is saying this ….

"Hey!" cried Satan to the new arrival, Mulla Nasrudin. "you act as if you owned the

place!"

"I do," said the Mulla. "my wife gave it to me before I died!"

More about Al-Hallaj 
(from yet another source)

Al-Hallaj was born in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder. His grandfather was a Zoroastrian. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'an and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study. Al-Hallaj was originally a Hanbali Sufi Muslim and later turned to be a Qarmatian Batiniyya.

Al-Hallaj later married and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he stayed for one year, facing the mosque, in fasting and total silence. After his stay at the city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way. He traveled as far as India, China and Central Asia gaining many followers, many of whom accompanied him on his second and third trips to Mecca. After this period of travel, he settled down in  Baghdad.

Among other Sufis, Al-Hallaj was an 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. He thus began to make enemies. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God.

Mansoor Al-Hallaj

During one of these trances, he would utter 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 Ninety Nine Names of Allah. 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, Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh "There is nothing in my cloak but God." This type of mystical utterance is known as shath.

Statements like these led to a long trial, and his subsequent imprisonment for 11 years in a Baghdad prison. He was publicly executed on March 26, 922.

 Hallaj wrote many works in both prose and poetry. His best known written work is the Kitab al-Tawasin, which includes two brief chapters devoted to a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love.

Al-Hallaj believed that it was only God who could pronounce the Tawhid, whereas man's prayer was to be one of kun, surrender to his will: "Love means to stand next to the Beloved, renouncing oneself entirely and transforming oneself in accordance to Him. " He spoke of God as his "Beloved, " "Friend" "You, " and felt that "his only self was (God), " to the point that he could not even remember his own name. "

Mansur believed in union with the Divine, that God was within him, and that he and God had become one and the same. Mansur was cut into many pieces because in the state of ecstasy he exclaimed Ana Abrar-al Haq "I am the Abrar of truth". He was executed in public in Baghdad. They cut him into pieces and then they burnt his remains. He kept repeating "I am the Truth" as they kept cutting his arms, legs, tongue and finally his head. He was smiling, even as they chopped off his head. Al-Hallaj wanted to testify of this relationship to God to others thus even asking his fellow Muslims to kill him and accepting his execution, saying that "what is important for the ecstatic is for the One to reduce him to oneness. " He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die "in the supreme confession of the cross"

For his desire of oneness with God, many Muslims criticized him as a "'crypto-Christian' for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way. " His death is described by Attar as a heroic act, as when they are taking him to court, a Sufi asks him: "What is love?" He answers: "You will see it today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. " They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that. "This is love, " Attar says. His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, "I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there's only one step to heaven, cut that if you can. " And when his hands were cut off he paints his face with his own blood, when asked why, he says: "I have lost a lot of blood, and I know my face has turned yellow, I don't want to look pale-faced (as of fear)... ."

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.

(Mulla Nasrudin, whose barn burned down, was told by the insurance company that his policy provided that the company build a new barn, rather than paying him the cash value of it. The Mulla was incensed by this.”If that’s the way you fellows operate,” he said, ”then cancel the insurance I have on my wife’s life.”)

Mansur al-Hallaj is one of the more controversial figures of Sufism. Considered by many to be a great poet-saint, he was executed for blasphemy.

The name al-Hallaj means "wool carder," probably a reference to his family's traditional occupation. Al-Hallaj was born in the province of Fars, Persia (Iran). He later moved to what is now Iraq, where he took up religious studies, particularly the Sufi way.

Orthodox religious authorities took offense at his poetry and teachings, particularly the line in

one of his great poems "Ana 'l-Haqq," which translates as "I am the Real," but can also be translated as "I am the Truth" or "I am God" -- acknowledging the mystical realization of unity with the Eternal. He was condemned by a council of theologians, imprisoned for nine years, and eventually put to death. He is revered today as a martyr for truth by many Sufis and mystics.

The great Sufi mystic poet, al-Hallaj, was put to death by orthodox religious authorities for poems like this, in which he seems to be equating himself with God. 

This is the danger faced by most mystics. The sacred experience is one of ecstatic union with the Divine. Where do "you" cease to be, and where does the Divine begin? In mystical union, these questions are artificial since the Divine is everywhere and no tangible sense of you as a separate individual remains. There aren't two in which to have a relationship; there is only the One.

Particularly notice the image of wine mixing with water. This sounds like a passing metaphor, but it actually resonates with layers of esoteric meaning.

"Wine" here is not wine; it is the drink of divine union. It is the "water" of the purified soul, awakened and flavored with the fermenting fire of life. This is the celestial drink of initiates: the amrita of the yogis, the ambrosia of the Greeks, even the tea of the Chaikhana...

When wine is poured into water, water takes on the nature of wine, until no difference can be perceived. This is how he comes to that final line of realization:

In all the stations of the soul you are I.

When the divine wine pours into the clear water of the soul, everything is turned to wine. God and self become indistinguishable. Rather, self is lost and only God remains.

As a result, mystics keep producing ecstatic and dangerous poems like this one, and orthodox authorities keep trying to silence or marginalize them.

A little taste of Mansoor's verses in persian and their english translation ....

“'Man nami goyam Anal-Haq yaar mi goyad bigo

Choon naa goyam bar sare bazaar mi goyad bigo'

It is not I who says ‘I am God’, it is my Friend that makes me say so,

Why then should I not declare it openly in the bazaar!”

“Zarre zarre kee zubaan par hai Anal Haq kee sadaa

Hazrate Mansoor par kab khatam ye aavaaz hai

“Each and every particle cries out: ‘I am God’

The voice did not end with Mansoor”

 "Samundar men katraa fanaa ho gayaa

Fanaa ho ke laa-intahaa ho gayaa"

The drop of water perished in the Ocean

And perishing, it became of Infinite Dimensions.

(“When a drop of water falls into the ocean, for a very brief moment it retains its individuality–the roundness of its shape–but after that it dissolves and mingles into the ocean. The voice that says: ‘I am the Ocean’ is not the voice of the drop, but rather the voice of the Ocean!”

“When man has obliterated his ego and has become absorbed in God-consciousness, the voice that speaks through him and says ‘I am God’ is not his own, but rather the voice of God.”)

Real story of Execution of Mansur al-Hallaj

Mansur al-Hallaj, and he was executed in Baghdad in 922. Hallaj is considered a Sufi, one who identifies with a mystical expression of Islam, and he is well remembered today, in large part due to his execution. Unlike other Sufis, such as al-Ghazzali, Farid ud-Din Attar, and Rumi, Hallaj wrote very little, but he survives in story, myth, and legend. 

Hallaj taught an interior expression of his faith. He was executed, at least in part, for two reasons. First, he claimed that the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca incumbent upon all Muslims who are able, could be performed wherever one lived, even in the privacy of one’s home. For Hallaj, the hajj was a spiritual journey that had nothing to do with an actual physical journey. And second, it is told that Hallaj was known to say “ana al-haq,” or “I am the Truth.” Haq means truth in Arabic, but it is the definitive form of the noun that caused problems. God is said to have ninety-nine names, most of them definite forms of adjectives: the Greatest, the Strongest, the Forgiving. The Truth is one such name, and in saying “I am the Truth,” Hallaj was thought to be committing blasphemy, to be claiming that he himself was God. Taken together, these “crimes” caused the powers that be to fear that an uprising would occur should Hallaj garner too many disciples.

But the real story here is not the details of Hallaj’s life and teaching. What’s really important is the story of his death.

*

“So they decide he’s guilty, which was a foregone conclusion of course, after everything he’d done, and they

sentence him to lashes, hanging, dismemberment, and then death by fire. Sounds like some serious overkill, but you knew they wouldn’t want to make it look like they’d gone soft.

“Right away they want to get on with it. Yesterday, they lead him out of the jail to where they’ve got the gallows set up. And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as Hallaj sees the gallows, he starts to laugh! That’s right, laugh. He can hardly contain himself, he’s crying he’s laughing so hard. This really bothers the guards, so they start right in with the beating-it’s supposed to be a thousand lashes, but around five hundred, he hasn’t even groaned, just mumbles something about Constantinople, like he’s still planning on taking over the city.

“But he’s bleeding pretty badly and they worry he won’t make it to the next round, so they decide to start with the dismemberment. They get him up, sharpen the knives, and what does that old fox do? He tells the guards he forgives them! What cheek! As if he can!

“After they chop off his hands, they start to haul him over to the gibbet, and he looks just as serene as can be. On with the noose, drop the floor, and leave him hanging for a good thirty minutes, although you can’t tell a thing from how he’s just hanging there like it’s a walk in the park. By now, if the governor thought he’d be shutting up the rabble rousers, the opposite is happening, people are starting to murmur that if Hallaj can take all of this, then surely they can endure a little more suffering themselves.”

“At this point, it looks like Hallaj must be dead, so they let him down, and chop of his legs and head. But wouldn’t you know it, the blood keeps pumping out of the stumps as if the heart is still working! It’s a total mess, and the crowd starts to move in closer and closer. The governor is completely beside himself, so he orders to have this huge fire started. Soon as it’s glowing white hot, they throw all the parts on. And sitting there on top is the head, eyes shut with the most calm, peaceful expression you’ve ever seen.”

*

It wasn’t an issue that Hallaj died, but how he had died, his behavior in facing death, and the extraordinary, even supernatural, events that seemed to accompany his death. The account of this death gets retold again and again, the narrator relaying to his friend the power of Hallaj, most profoundly after Hallaj already has been executed, and the retelling of this story begins to take on a life of its own. The idea that in executing Hallaj his blasphemy would fade away is a classic example of unintended consequences: Hallaj matters now more than ever because he was put to death, and because the story of his death compelled others to continuing imagining that death.

……………………………….........................................................................................................