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Hallaj (Poet and Martyr)
Husayn ibn Mansur al-HALLAJ (c.858-922)
(Seven Poems From The Diwan:)
1
I continued to float on the sea of love,
One surging wave lifting me up, another pulling me down;
And so i wept on, now rising, now falling,
Till i found myself in the middle of the deep sea,
Brought by love to a point where there was no shore.
In alarm i called out to Him whose name i could not reveal,
One to whose love i have never been untrue:
'Your rule is indeed just,' i said, 'Your fair dealings i am ready to
Defend with my very life;
But this is not the terms of our covenant.'
2
Painful enough it is that i am calling out to You,
As if i were far from You or You were absent from me,
And that i constantly ask for Your grace, yet unaware of the need.
Never before have i seen an ascetic so full of desire.
3
Your place in my heart is the whole of my heart,
For your place cannot be taken by anyone else.
My soul has lodged You between my skin and my bones,
So what would i do were i ever to lose You?
4
My host, who can never be accused of even the slightest wrong,
Made me share his drink, as a perfect host should do.
But when signs of my drunkenness became clear,
He suddenly called to His headsman to bring the sword and the
Mat.
This is the end of keeping company with the Dragon and drinking
With Him in the summer season.
5
I am He whom I love and He whom I love is I;
We are two souls dwelling in one body.
When you look at me you can see Him,
And you can see us both when you look at Him.
6
You who blame me for the love of Him,
If only you knew Him of whom i sing, you would cease your
Blame.
Other men go away for their pilgrimage, but my only pilgrimage is
Towards the place where i am.
Other men offer sacrifices, but my sacrifice my own heart and
blood.
They physically circumambulate the temple,
But were they to proceed reverently around God Himself,
They would not need to go around a sacred building.
7
I swear to God, the sun has never risen or set without Your love
Being the twin of my breath;
Neither have i confided in anyone except to talk about You.
Never have i mentioned Your name in gladness or sorrow,
Unless You were in my heart, wedged in my obssessive thoughts.
Nor have i touched water to quench my thirst without seeing Your
Image in the glass.
Were it possible for me to reach You i would come to You at once,
Crawling on my face or walking on my head.
i say to our minstrel that if he sing he should choose for his
Theme my grief at the hardness of Your heart.
What cause have foolish people to blame me? They have their own
Faith and i have mine.
I am at Your Service:
I am at Your service, O my secret, my whispered name.
I am Your servant, O meaning of my life, my purpose.
I call You and You call me;
Did I say I am You
Or did you speak through me?
O essence of my being, my search, my limit;
O my speech, my sign, my significance.
O reality of my existence, my perception, my sense,
O my creation, my design, my physical life.
O essence of my existence, essence of all;
You are dressed in my meaning.
You to who my soul was connected and was lost,
Once again the object of my desires.
Wandering from place to place I weep and sigh
And my enemies help me on my way.
When I come near You, fear drives me away
But Love deep in my soul makes me reckless.
Hallaj was notorious for his provocative statements, such as 'Ana al-Haqq', I am the Truth'. Opponents also noted that he appeared to venerate Iblis, the Devil, for he held that Iblis was to be praised for the unflinching monotheism which led him to refuse to bow down with all the other angels before man, since God alone was worthy of veneration. Eventually Hallaj was seized, and after being exposed in a pillory he spent nine years under house arrest in the caliphal palace. He only emerged frpm this incarceration on the day of his execution.
(Words of the eleventh-century historian Abu 'Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad
Miskawayh on the death of Hallaj:)
Hallaj was led out to the area of the Majlis, where an innumerable crowd of the populace assembled. The executioner was ordered to administer a thousand strokes of the scourge; this was done and Hallaj uttered no cry nor did he plead for pardon.
Only (my authority says) when he had got the six hundreth blow Hallaj called out to Muhammad ibn 'Abu al-Samad: Summon
me to your side and i will tell you something which in the eyes of the Caliph will be equal to the storming of Constantinople.
The Chief of police replied: I have been told that you were likely to offer this, or even more, but there is no way whereby you can be relieved of the scourge. Hallaj then maintained silence till the thousandth stroke had been delivered, then his hand was amputated, then his foot, then he was decapitated; his trunk was then burned, and his head erected on the Bridge. Afterwards the head was removed to Khorasan.
Hallajs' adherents asserted that the victim of the blows was an enemy of his on whom his likeness had been cast, some of them pretending to have seen Hallaj and heard from him something of the sort, with follies not worth transcribing. The booksellers were summoned and made to swear that they would neither ssell nor buy any of Hallaj's works.
(Seven Poems From The Diwan:)
1
I continued to float on the sea of love,
One surging wave lifting me up, another pulling me down;
And so i wept on, now rising, now falling,
Till i found myself in the middle of the deep sea,
Brought by love to a point where there was no shore.
In alarm i called out to Him whose name i could not reveal,
One to whose love i have never been untrue:
'Your rule is indeed just,' i said, 'Your fair dealings i am ready to
Defend with my very life;
But this is not the terms of our covenant.'
2
Painful enough it is that i am calling out to You,
As if i were far from You or You were absent from me,
And that i constantly ask for Your grace, yet unaware of the need.
Never before have i seen an ascetic so full of desire.
3
Your place in my heart is the whole of my heart,
For your place cannot be taken by anyone else.
My soul has lodged You between my skin and my bones,
So what would i do were i ever to lose You?
4
My host, who can never be accused of even the slightest wrong,
Made me share his drink, as a perfect host should do.
But when signs of my drunkenness became clear,
He suddenly called to His headsman to bring the sword and the
Mat.
This is the end of keeping company with the Dragon and drinking
With Him in the summer season.
5
I am He whom I love and He whom I love is I;
We are two souls dwelling in one body.
When you look at me you can see Him,
And you can see us both when you look at Him.
6
You who blame me for the love of Him,
If only you knew Him of whom i sing, you would cease your
Blame.
Other men go away for their pilgrimage, but my only pilgrimage is
Towards the place where i am.
Other men offer sacrifices, but my sacrifice my own heart and
blood.
They physically circumambulate the temple,
But were they to proceed reverently around God Himself,
They would not need to go around a sacred building.
7
I swear to God, the sun has never risen or set without Your love
Being the twin of my breath;
Neither have i confided in anyone except to talk about You.
Never have i mentioned Your name in gladness or sorrow,
Unless You were in my heart, wedged in my obssessive thoughts.
Nor have i touched water to quench my thirst without seeing Your
Image in the glass.
Were it possible for me to reach You i would come to You at once,
Crawling on my face or walking on my head.
i say to our minstrel that if he sing he should choose for his
Theme my grief at the hardness of Your heart.
What cause have foolish people to blame me? They have their own
Faith and i have mine.
I am at Your Service:
I am at Your service, O my secret, my whispered name.
I am Your servant, O meaning of my life, my purpose.
I call You and You call me;
Did I say I am You
Or did you speak through me?
O essence of my being, my search, my limit;
O my speech, my sign, my significance.
O reality of my existence, my perception, my sense,
O my creation, my design, my physical life.
O essence of my existence, essence of all;
You are dressed in my meaning.
You to who my soul was connected and was lost,
Once again the object of my desires.
Wandering from place to place I weep and sigh
And my enemies help me on my way.
When I come near You, fear drives me away
But Love deep in my soul makes me reckless.
Hallaj was notorious for his provocative statements, such as 'Ana al-Haqq', I am the Truth'. Opponents also noted that he appeared to venerate Iblis, the Devil, for he held that Iblis was to be praised for the unflinching monotheism which led him to refuse to bow down with all the other angels before man, since God alone was worthy of veneration. Eventually Hallaj was seized, and after being exposed in a pillory he spent nine years under house arrest in the caliphal palace. He only emerged frpm this incarceration on the day of his execution.
(Words of the eleventh-century historian Abu 'Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad
Miskawayh on the death of Hallaj:)
Hallaj was led out to the area of the Majlis, where an innumerable crowd of the populace assembled. The executioner was ordered to administer a thousand strokes of the scourge; this was done and Hallaj uttered no cry nor did he plead for pardon.
Only (my authority says) when he had got the six hundreth blow Hallaj called out to Muhammad ibn 'Abu al-Samad: Summon
me to your side and i will tell you something which in the eyes of the Caliph will be equal to the storming of Constantinople.
The Chief of police replied: I have been told that you were likely to offer this, or even more, but there is no way whereby you can be relieved of the scourge. Hallaj then maintained silence till the thousandth stroke had been delivered, then his hand was amputated, then his foot, then he was decapitated; his trunk was then burned, and his head erected on the Bridge. Afterwards the head was removed to Khorasan.
Hallajs' adherents asserted that the victim of the blows was an enemy of his on whom his likeness had been cast, some of them pretending to have seen Hallaj and heard from him something of the sort, with follies not worth transcribing. The booksellers were summoned and made to swear that they would neither ssell nor buy any of Hallaj's works.