Mansur al-Hallaj (Persian: منصور حلاج – Mansūr-e Hallāj; Arabic: منصور الحلاج – Mansūr al-Hallāj; full name Abū al-Mughīth Husayn Mansūr al-Hallāj) (c. 858 – March 26, 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH-309 AH) was a Persian[1] mystic, revolutionary writer and pious teacher of Sufism most famous for his poetry, accusation of heresy and for his execution at the orders of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir after a long, drawn-out investigation.[2]
Al-Hallaj was born around 858 in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means "cotton-carder" in Arabic). His grandfather was a Zoroastrian[3]. His father 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 traveled 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 Baghdadi and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both. Sahl al-Tustari was also one of Al-Hallaj's early teachers.
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 ecstacy he exclaimed Ana al Haq "I am the 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 (Massignon, 79) and accepting his execution, 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 execution a redemptive significance, believing as he did that his death "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)... ."
Allah, Muhammad and Ali
Alevis believe in the unity of Allah, Muhammad and Ali, but this is not a trinity comprising of God and the historical figures of Muhammad and Ali. Rather, Muhammad and Ali are representations of divine energies, the first of which is Allah.
In Alevi doctrine, Allah is divine consciousness which first creates and gives shape to the Kull-i Nafs, a latent passive energy existing within Godhead. Kull-i Nafs is actually the apparent power of God to give life form, almost like a womb in that it is a place of manifestation where the concealed potential within Allah can be known and made visible. Thus, the physical universe is a mirror image of Allah. Kull-i Nafs reflects the spirit or divine consciousness of Allah. Nafs is Arabic for breath and it is the breath that binds the spirit with Allah. Kull-i Nafs is also envisioned as the Universal Soul or Soul Body as it is the divine consciousness reflected through the breath of Allah which gives this soul its own life and forms the Universal Human, the prototypal human, made manifest in Muhammad. However, the prototypal human is not male or female, but is a perfect interplay between the two in much the same way as the Taoists envision the Taiji. Within this prototypal human active energies contain passive and passive contain active. The light or Nur which links the two together is represented by Ali.
Horta kuwaan they dont have to go mosque or pray 5 salah
So in Alevi thought there are three creative principles, the latent breath or Allah, the prototypal human which is made up of active and passive principles or Muhammad and the divine light or Ali. In Christianity these three principles are called the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Likewise, in Alevi belief the father is likened to Allah, the Son to Muhammad and the Holy Spirit to Ali. In Judaism, Crown, Queen and King. In Hinduism Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. In ancient Egypt they took the names Osiris, Iris and Horus.[citation needed]
In Alevi writings there are many references to the unity of Muhammad and Ali, such as:
Ali Muhammed'dir, Muhammed Ali
Gördüm bir elmadır, elhamdü-lillâh
Ali is Muhammed, Muhammed is Ali;
I saw they make up a whole apple, all praise is for Allah[9]
The phrase "For the love of God-Muhammed-Ali” (Hak-Muhammed-Ali aşkına), is common to several Alevi prayers.
For some, the linking of the three together seems polytheistic and not in line with monotheistic Islamic teachings, but Alevis counter that such people do not understand the batini meaning of the Alevi equation of Allah-Muhammet-Ali.
[edit] The Twelve Imams
The Twelve Imams is another common Alevi belief. Each Imam represents a different aspect of the Universe and are realised as twelve services or oniki hizmet which are performed by members of the Alevi community. There is not much real affiliation with the actual Twelve Imams of Shi'i Islam, and indeed each Imam is believed to be a reflection of Ali, thus we find references to the "First Ali" (Birinci Ali), Imam Hasan the "Second 'Ali" (İkinci Ali), and so on up to the "Twelfth 'Ali" (Onikinci Ali), Imam Mehdi. The Twelfth Imam is hidden and represents the Messianic Age.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansur_Al-Hallaj
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alevis
