Heresy and Orthodoxy in the Case of Mansur Al-Hallaj

I Am the Truth

On 29 Dhu 'l-Qa'da 309 AH (28 March 913 CE (Arberry 357)) Hosain ibn Mansur al-Hallaj was executed in Baghdad. His crime: his ecstatic cry of ana al-Haqq ("I am the Truth" or "I am the Absolute Truth"), decried by the orthodox theologians of his day as heresy. According to the account of Farid al-Din Attar in his Tadhkirah al-Awliyya ("Memorial of the Saints"), Hallaj first had his hands chopped off, then his feet, then his eyes were plucked out, followed by the cutting off of his ears and nose, the cutting out of his tongue, and finally the death blow as he was decapitated. But through all of this, says Attar, Hallaj laughed and smiled, even as the final blow was being delivered. (Arberry 364-6)

Although condemned and executed as a heretic, Mansur al-Hallaj has become to many Sufis a hero, a martyr and a saint, his life seen as the most profound example of one caught in the raptures of Divine Love, proven for the ages as he offered himself in martyrdom. Attar tells this story in his Tadhkirah:

When Hallaj was in prison, he was asked: "What is love?" He answered: "You will see it today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow." And that day they cut off his hands and feet, and the next day they put him on the gallows, and the third day they gave his ashes to the wind...(Schimmel 63-4)

So, was Hallaj a heretic? It is a question that is difficult to answer, as even today Muslims are not united in their opinion. There are many still today who denounce Hallaj as a great heretic, even as many, especially the Sufis continue to idolize him as a martyr and a saint. It speaks somewhat of the tension between orthodox Islam and the more esoteric and mystical Islam practiced among the Sufis. For while Sufism is not necessarily incompatible with orthodox Islam, there are tensions and conflicts between the two that play a large role in the case of Hallaj, who can perhaps best be seen as both a heretic and a saint at the same time.