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AL-HALLAJ AND THE DARK SIDE OF RELIGION
By Fa Jun Shakya, (Giovanni Giacalone, A.I.S.)
Since the beginning of human existence men have pondered the meaning of life, the origin of the world, the hereafter. Who or what created the world. What is our purpose in life? What happens when we die? Is there a God?
Despite all our rational and empiric conjectures, these questions defy our ability to find satisfactory answers. Our five senses, or six senses - since we Buddhists regard the mind as a sense as well - connect us to the material world. Through them we try to find a link to a supernatural source. Objects are worshipped in an attempt to establish a channel to the Divine; prayers; rituals; sacrifices; and cosmologies are developed. Ancient traces of this endeavor are found all over the globe: the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas of Central and South America; the Igbos in Nigeria; the Daoists in China; and the Australian aborigines, to cite a few examples. Different beliefs accord to the historical, cultural and social contexts.
A few special individuals were able to go beyond the senses and enter a state of divine ecstasy that connected them to the divine energy, bringing them to a state that cannot be defined in words since the experience transcends the limits of the senses. These individuals went beyond religious forms and preached the use of certain practices that were often looked upon with suspicion by existing religious clerics.
Our understanding of the process of religious institutionalization is helped by considering the concepts form by such authorities as Max Weber. According to Weber, "Charismatic authority is power legitimized on the basis of a leader's exceptional personal qualities or the demonstration of extraordinary insight and accomplishment, which inspire loyalty and obedience from followers." Charismatic leaders are obeyed because people feel a strong emotional bond to them; and the control of others is based on the leader's personal features such as extraordinary ethical, heroic, and religious values.
Every organized religion started with a charismatic figure who brought new ideals, broke the links with the previous tradition, and gathered a great number of followers around them. The Buddha broke the caste system in India and developed a belief which later expanded as Buddhism. Abraham threw away his father's idols and left his homeland in order to plant the roots of Abrahamic faiths. Jesus criticized the extreme formalities and temple trades of the Pharisees. Muhammad confronted the polytheism of the Quraysh in Mecca and brought monotheism to the Arabian peninsula.
What did these special men have in common? They all had extraordinary spiritual experiences and entered into Union with the Divine. The Buddha reached Nirvana under a bodhi tree. Abraham was told by God to leave his homeland, promising him a great blessing. Jesus reached Divine Ecstasy in the Sinai after forty days of fasting. Muhammad in the cave on Mount Hira, near Mecca, communicated directly with the Divine.
The only basis of charismatic authority is the acceptance of the leader's claims by his followers. Charismatic authority can be revolutionary in nature, challenging traditional and legal-rational authority. However, upon the death of the charismatic figure, this type of authority can easily degenerate into traditional authority in which power is often exercised by those who had surrounded the charismatic leader. Traditional authority takes over and bases its power on custom and on the holiness of tradition.
We have seen this in Islam with the Sunna of the Prophet. In the classical manuals of Islamic law, Sunna refers to the authoritative examples which Muhammad set. They are recorded in traditions (hadith; akbar) based on his words, his actions, his acceptance of the words or actions of others, and to his personal characteristics (sifat)."
But this is only a first step since rules and laws are needed in order for tradition to be preserved; and this is where legal-rational authority begins.
Legal-rational authority is the belief in the legality of standard rules and the right of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue commands. Those who are subordinate to the system accept such authority, building the bases for legitimacy. This is the case of religious clergy such as Bishops, Imam, Rabbis, Monks. Every institutionalized religion has its own internal divisions, branches, and clergies who are all committed to maintaining a certain tradition within their respective religions. We can see how Buddhism split into Theravadin and Mahayana; Christianity into Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodox; Judaism into Ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative; Islam into Sunni and Shi'ah. Inside these groups we can even find other sub-groups. These divisions are mostly the consequence of divergent interpretations of scripture and laws - understandable differences since people have cultural and geographical differences and ingrained social opinions. But institutionalization of religion leads to another issue that goes far beyond divisions: the problem of hypertrophy of form to the detriment of the spiritual message.
Every religion has substance and form; the substance refers to the spirit, which is determined by the communication with the divine - by feeling God within. This is also the path of mysticism.
Form is determined by the Law (based on canonical tenets). Form tends to bureaucratize faith, constraining and limiting the believers and, in case of despotism, even reaching the point of sanctioning the killings of those who do not accept the Law. This is a typical example of Extremism. This type of behavior kills the spiritual message that is supposed to be the base of religion, making form more important than content.
This constitutes a paradox since, as we have seen, all the prophets and messengers of God were mystics who had experienced the divine and had created, upon these spiritual experiences, foundational changes to the spiritual, cultural and social milieu.
Many of these founders had been persecuted. Jesus was crucified. Muhammad had to escape from Mecca as the Quraysh pursued him and his followers.
Unfortunately throughout history many mystics have been accused of misdeeds. Accordingly, they were persecuted, tortured and even killed by religious authorities who felt their own power was endangered by the preaching of these mystics. Too late, many of these mystics were recognized as great masters: Abraham Abulafia, Padmasambhava, and Saint Francis of Assisi are a few examples, but the figure who embodies the finest example of such a tumultuous career is the Sufi, al-Hallaj.
Al Hallaj, (858-922), whose full name was Abu al-Mughith al-Husayn ibn Mansur ibn-Mahamma al-Baydawi al-Hallaj (the wool carder), was a Persian theologian, philosopher, and mystic. He was born in Tur, a community near Byada, a city in the southern Iranian province of Fars.
Al Hallaj's grandfather, a Zoroastrian, was a descendant of Abu Ayyub, a companion of Prophet Muhammad. His father, also a wool carder, was a Muslim convert who moved from Tur to Wasit, a Mesopotamian city on the Tigris banks, which had been founded by the Arabs. Wasit was well known for texiles, trade, and Quranic schools. It was there in Wasit that al-Hallaj became a hafiz (Quran reader) and was educated in Arabic grammar and exegesis; but since he had been attracted to asceticism from an early age, he went beyond ordinary religious studies, looking for the deeper inner meanings of the Quranic suwar.
During his youth, he approached the Sufi path of Islamic mysticism and became a student of highly respected Sufi masters such as Sahl al-Tustari, Amir ibn Uthman al-Makki, and al-Junayd Baghdadi, one of the great early Persian mystics and a central figure in many Sufi orders. Al-Hallaj also married Umm al-Husayn, the daughter of the Sufi Abu Yaqub al-Aqta.
Eventually al-Hallaj went to Mecca for his first pilgrimage, and there vowed to stay in the courtyard of the sanctuary under a strict discipline of fasting, silence, prayer and meditation. When finally he returned to the Persian areas of Fars and Khorasan, he spent several years preaching methodologies for gaining an intimate union with God. He then made a second pilgrimage to Mecca with about four hundred of his disciples, where he is said to have met the two well-known sheikhs, Abu Hussein Nuri and Abu Bakr Shibli.
It was after this second pilgrimage that he undertook the long journey to Jerusalem and prayed at the Holy Sepulcher of Jesus. He then travelled through India and Turkestan where he came in contact with Hinduism, Buddhism and Manicheism. On his return he performed his third and last pilgrimage to Mecca, reciting a mysterious prayer on Mount Arafat where he asked God to reduce him to nothing and make him a rejected person.
It was around this time that al-Hallaj claimed that it wasn't necessary physically to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, as it was possible spiritually to perform it inside one's room. Even though his most famous and controversial statement is probably "ana al haqq" (I'm the Truth), which many regarded as blasphemy,. His supporters, though, interpreted the expression as "God has emptied me of everything but Himself." (This is probably the most extreme expression of mystical union in the history of Islamic mysticism).
Religious authorities suspected Al-Hallaj of contacting the Jinn (spirits) and of doing magic and sorcery. His statements obviously didn't help to clarify his views in the eyes of his opponents and local political leaders.
Seen as an "intoxicated Sufi" who recklessly used extravagant language, Al Hallaj also preached against the political and economical corruption of the Caliphate. He was imprisoned; but during this long incarceration, he preached to other prisoners. After his release, he continued to involve himself in political intrigues and was soon arrested by the Abbasid authorities in Baghdad in 913. After much legal maneuvering he was arrested again apparently on heresy charges; and this time he was sentenced to death.
Al-Hallaj was brutally tortured, flogged, maimed, killed and his body, burned. His last words were said to have been "All that matters for the ecstatic is that the Unique should reduce him to Unity," he then recited the 18th verse of sura 42 (Ash Shura).
Al-Hallaj remains a mysterious and controversial figure in the history of Islamic mysticism.
It is clear that he went beyond religious forms and moved into deep ascetic practices and, as his preaching went against the "pillars" of institutionalized canons, he laid himself open to accusations of heresy by religious authorities. His spiritual authority far exceeded the limitations of his accusers who could claim only "religious" authority.
Al-Hallaj's intoxication with Divine Love brought him far away from traditional practices, but his accusers were intoxicated with worldly power and, as such, they were oblivious to the true spiritual message of religion. If religion is defined as "a series of beliefs and practices regarding the Holy which are shared by a community" then in his case, as in so many others, the concept of "Holy" was omitted to leave space for other objectives that were very far away from spirituality and religion.
Here are a few of Al-Hallaj's poems:
I am the One whom I love,
And the One whom I love is myself.
We are two souls incarnated in one body;
When you see me, you see Him,
When you see Him, you see us.
***
For Your sake, I cross lands and sail seas.
For Your sake, I trudge deserts
And split mountains in two.
Turning my face away from all things,
I await the time that I reach that place
Where I am alone with You.
***
You went away, yet you remained in me.
Thus, you became my peace and joy.
Through you I witness the Unknown.
You are my hidden secret no one else can see.
I hold you deep within my mind,
Deeper than any dream.
Always in daylight you are my true friend.
Always in darkness you are my faithful companion.
