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Ananda
3115 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 09 2008 : 06:48:49 AM
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The reason why i'm posting about this suffi in precise is to show the resemblance between advaita vedanta and suffism.
and there are lot more like him in the history of suffism like al ghazali and eben Aarbai and so on.
but this guy is the breakthrough, he made a revolution in the world of suffism.
showing that the truth when it's realized it's the same everywhere whatever religion, cult, sect, race etc.
From wikipedia:
Mansur al-Hallaj (Arabic: #1605;#1606;#1589;#1608;#1585; #1575;#1604;#1581;#1604;#1575;#1580; - Mans#363;r al-Hall#257;j; Persian: #1605;#1606;#1589;#1608;#1585; #1581;#1604;#1575;#1580; - Mans#363;r-e Hall#257;j; full name Ab#363; al-Mugh#299;th Husayn Mans#363;r al-Hall#257;j) (c. 858 - March 26, 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH-309 AH) was a Persian mystic, writer and teacher of Sufism most famous for his poetry and for his martyrdom for heresy at the hands of the Abbasid rulers.[1]
Al-Hallaj was born in Persia and was of Persian descent, but wrote all of his works in Arabic.
Contents [hide]
1 Life
2 Views on al-Hallaj
3 Works
4 Beliefs and principles
4.1 Mystical universalism
4.2 Spiritual meaning of the pilgrimage to Mecca
4.3 Re-interpretation of the tawhid and desire for unification with God
4.4 Death
4.5 Trivia
5 References
6 Notes
Life
He was born around 858 in Shushtar (Khuzestan province) of Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means "cotton-carder" in Arabic). Al-Hallaj's grandfather may have been a Zoroastrian. His father (Kurdish descent) lived a simple life, and this form of lifestyle greatly interested the young al-Hallaj. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'an and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.
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 travelled as far as India 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 the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.
During his early lifetime he was a disciple of Junayd and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both.
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 began to make enemies, and the rulers saw him as a threat. This was exacerbated by times when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God. During one of these trances, he would utter Ana al-Haqq #1571;#1606;#1575; #1575;#1604;#1581;#1602;, literally meaning "Truth is me" or "I am God", which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, as Al-Haqq 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, again, similarly, he would point to his cloak and say, "Maa Fil Jubbati Illa-Allah" meaning "There is nothing inside/underneath my cloak except God."
These utterances led him to a long trial, and subsequent imprisonment for eleven years in a Baghdad prison. In the end, he was tortured and publicly crucified (in some accounts he was beheaded and his hands and feet were cut off) by the Abbasid rulers for what they deemed "theological error threatening the security of the state." Many accounts tell of al-Hallaj's calm demeanor even while he was being tortured, and indicate that he forgave those who had executed him. According to some sources,[attribution needed] he went to his execution dancing in his chains. He was executed on March 26, 922.
Views on al-Hallaj
His writings are important to Sufi groups. Thelemites also make use of his teachings, especially in terms of his identification as God - a central gnostic principle. 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 some theological universalists theorize that Hallaj was a reflection of God's truth in much the same way Christians view Jesus, others continue to see him as a heretic.
Rumi wrote on the claim "I am God" three centuries later: "People imagine that it is a presumptive claim, whereas it is really a presumptive claim to say "I am the slave of God"; and "I am God" is an expression of great humility. The man who says "I am the slave of God" affirms two existences, his own and God's, but he that says "I am God" has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says "I am God", that is, "I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God's." This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement."
Similarly, other supporters have interpreted his statement as meaning, "God has emptied me of everything but Himself." [2]
His life was studied extensively by the French scholar of Islam, Louis Massignon.
[edit] Works
His best known written work is the Kitab al Tawasin , Arabic (#1603;#1578;#1575;#1576; #1575;#1604;#1591;#1608;#1575;#1587;#1610;#1606;) or Ta Sin al Azal, 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. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3).
[edit] Beliefs and principles
[edit] Mystical universalism
His method was one of "universalist mystical introspection: It was at the bottom of the heart that he looked for God and wanted to make others find Him. He believed one had to go beyond the forms of religious rites to reach divine reality. Thus, he used without hesitation the terminology of his opponents, which he set right and refined, ready to make himself hostage of the denominational logic of others." (Massignon: "Perspective Transhistorique", p. 76) Even beyond the Muslim faith, Hallaj was concerned with the whole of humanity, as he desired to communicate to them "that strange, patient and shameful, desire for God, which was characteristic for him." (Massignon, p. 77) This was the reason for his voyage beyond the Muslim world (shafa'a) to India and China.
[edit] Spiritual meaning of the pilgrimage to Mecca
In the trial that led to his execution, he was accused of preaching against the pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj), which he, however, had performed three times. In reality, his concern was more with the spiritual meaning of Hajj, and he thus "spoke of the spiritual efficacy and legitimacy of symbolic pilgrimage in one's own home." (Mason, 25) For him, the most important part of the pilgrimage to Mecca was the prayer at Mount Arafat, commemorating the sacrifice of Abraham in an offering of oneself.
[edit] Re-interpretation of the tawhid and desire for unification with God
Whereas for most, especially legalistic, Muslims, the unity of God, tawhid, meant that God was inaccessible to man, 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". (Massignon, 74) 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." (Mason, 26)
[edit] Death
He wanted to testify of this relationship to God to others, even at the price of his own life, thus even asking his fellow Muslims to kill him (Massignon, 79) and accepting his martyrdom, saying that "what is important for the ecstatic is for the One to reduce him to oneness." (Massignon, 87) He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die "in the supreme confession of the cross" (Olivier Clément. Dio è carita, p. 41) Like Christ, he gave his martyrdom a redemptive significance, believing as he did that his martyrdom "was uniting his beloved God and His community of Muslims against himself and thereby bore witness in extremis to the tawhid (the oneness) of both." (Mason, 25) For his desire of oneness with God, many Muslims criticized him as a "'crypto-Christian' for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way." (Mason, 25). 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)...".
[edit] Trivia
In his book The Sufis, the Indian scholar Idries Shah suggested that Mansur al-Hallaj, the mystic martyr, might have been the origin of Hiram Abiff character in the Freemasonic Master Mason ritual. The link, he believes, was through the Sufi sect Al-Banna ("The Builders") who built the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This fraternity could have influenced some early masonic guilds which borrowed heavily from the Oriental architecture in the creation of the Gothic style.
[edit] References
E. G. Browne. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998. ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
Herbert Mason. Memoir of a Friend: Louis Massignon. Notre Dame 1983: University of Notre Dame Press.
Louis Massignon. "Perspective Transhistorique sur la vie de Hallaj", in: Parole donnée. Paris 1983: Seuil, p. 73-97.
Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968 OCLC 460598. ISBN 90-277-0143-1
Idries Shah. The Sufis. W.H. Allen: London. 1964
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Namaste
[font reverted by moderator]
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Edited by - AYPforum on Apr 09 2008 12:40:50 PM |
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zinon
Morocco
17 Posts |
Posted - Aug 26 2008 : 09:54:59 AM
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hi Ananda
thank you for this topic .
god bless you .
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Jun 28 2009 : 08:33:51 AM
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Here are two poems where Rumi talks about al Hallaj, from http://www.khamush.com/sufism/hallaj.html.
˜
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, "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."
This is how Hallaj said, I am God,
and told the truth!
The ruby and the sunrise are one.
Be courageous and discipline yourself.
Completely become hearing and ear,
and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.
Work. Keep digging your well.
Don’t think about getting off from work.
Water is there somewhere.
Submit to a daily practice.
Your loyalty to that
is a ring on the door.
Keep knocking, and the joy inside
will eventually open a window
and look out to see who’s there.
The Essential Rumi Coleman Barks
˜
HALLAJ
Hallaj said what he said and went to the origin
through the hoe in the scaffold.
I cut a cap's worth of cloth from his robe,
and it swamped over me from head to foot.
Years ago, I broke a bunch of roses
from the top of his wall. A torn from that
is still in my palm working deeper.
From Hallaj, I learned to hunt ions,
but I became something hungrier than a lion.
I was a frisky colt. He broke me
with a quiet hand on the side of my head.
A person comes to him naked. It's cold.
There's a fur coat floating in the river.
"Jump in and get it," he says.
You dive in. You reach for the coat.
It reaches for you.
It's a live bear that has fallen in upstream,
drifting with the current.
"How long does it take!" Hallaj yells from the bank.
"Don't wait," you answer. "This coat
has decided to wear me home!"
A little part of a story, a hint.
Do you need long sermons on Hallaj!
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Kirtanman
USA
1651 Posts |
Posted - Jun 28 2009 : 9:56:20 PM
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Thanks, Ananda!
And Yes ... it's beautiful, amazing ... and enlightening .... that the enlightened sages of every religion and path .... are/were living examples of the reality of actual advaita ("non duality" in Sanskrit).
That's the true meaning of "Ekam sat, vipraha bahudha vadanti” (Rig Veda 1.164.46) - Truth Is One, Paths Are Many.
Regardless of the symbol-sets ... the language ... the original religion ... or overall approach .... there are a handful of key symbols ... and a handful of key practices.
Sufism clearly has them ... as does Advaita Vedanta .. and Kashmir Shaivism (Tantric Advaita) ... along with Tantric Buddhism .. and the Kabbalah ... and Mystic Christianity ... and Gnostic Christian Kabbalah (aka Sophian Gnosticism) .. Celtic Druidism ... Bengali Shaktism .... Hermetic Alchemy .... and for the less philosophically or religiously inclined ....
Good ol' AYP and everyday reality!!
Which ever path we follow ... the path finally catapults us all the way *Here*, Now ... into the Reality Of:
One Heart, One Home, One Love, One AUM.
AUM *Sweet* AUM!!
Kirtanman |
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Jun 29 2009 : 4:07:01 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Kirtanman
AUM *Sweet* AUM!!
Kirtanman
Love that
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Mansur al-Hallaj, the mystic martyr
