The Passion of Al Hallaj

The omnicosmic and most holy Al-Hallaj was born in Madina al-Bayda, a little village in the ancient province of Fars, in southern Persia, in the year 224 A.H. / 857 C.E., and was the grandson of a devotee of the great Master Zoroaster.

Al-Hallaj was initiated into the great mysteries of Sufism. Arabian traditions tell us that when he was forty years old, he disagreed with the jurists and orthodox traditional, religious scholars; thus, he went to the streets to directly teach the multitudes the sublime principles of spiritual life.

It is written that Al-Hallaj, the great Sufi master, taught with his word and with his example. Indefatigably, he travelled throughout Iran, India, Turkey, etc., reaching even the very borders of ancient China.

The great Master Al-Hallaj was without a doubt a tremendous revolutionary. Jealous and envious politicians accused him of being a dangerous agitator. Religious scholars of the law accused him of being a heretic when he mixed the human with the divine. When divulging the esoteric mysteries amidst the people, the masters of Sufism themselves did not have any difficulty in accusing him of breaking the discipline of that which is arcane. Thus, as is natural in those cases, judges were willing to condemn him for many supposed crimes, for example: being a fraud, impostor, black magician, warlock, sorcerer, profaner of mysteries, people’s agitator, ignorant preacher, enemy of the government, etc.

Al-Hallaj, the mystical Sufi, was imprisoned in an infamous jail for nine years, and afterwards vilely mutilated and executed on March 27, 922, in the year 309 of Hejira.

Sacred Islamic traditions tell us that when the terrible night came, the night in which he was taken from his dungeon in order to be executed at dawn, he stood and uttered the ritualistic prayer and prostrated himself two times.

Those who saw him said that when his prayer was concluded, he persistently repeated, “Deceitfulness, deceitfulness…” through the long and dark night, and after a long and profound silence, he exclaimed, “Truthfulness, truthfulness,” and raised up again. He tied a veil on his head, covered himself with his blessed shroud, extended his sacred Christified hands, turned his divine countenance towards the Kaaba, entered into ecstasy, and spoke with his internal God.

At daylight, when he left the prison, the multitudes saw him happily dancing in a complete, joyful ecstasy under the weight of his irons.

The merciless executioners took him to the public square, where, after flagellating him five hundred times, they cut off his hands and feet.

Ancient traditions from the Arabian world state that after having been flagellated and mutilated, Al-Hallaj was crucified. Many people heard him talking in ecstasy to his Father who is in secret from his own Golgotha: “Oh God of mine! I am going to enter into the abode of my wishes; there I will contemplate thy marvels. Oh God of mine! If you manifest thy love even to him that wounds Thee, how then would Thou not give thy love to the one who is wounded because of Thee?”

After this prayer sprouted from the most holy heart of Al-Hallaj, the people who watched the torture saw Abu Bakr Al-Shibli, while advancing towards the scaffold of tortures, shout very strongly the following verse, “Did we not prohibit thee to receive guests, whether man or angel?”

Then Abu Bakr asked, “What is mysticism?”

Al-Hallaj answered, “Behold, his minor degree before thee.”

Abu Bakr asked again, “And where is his supreme degree?”

Al-Hallaj answered, “Thou cannot have access unto it; nonetheless, tomorrow thou shall see what shall come. I testify it in the Divine Mystery within which it exists, albeit it is hidden for thee.”

At the evening hour, the hour of prayer, came the order of the cruel sanguinary Caliph, authorizing the beheading of the victim; yet, his executioners said, “It is too late; let him be decapitated tomorrow.”

Very early in the morning, the Caliph’s command was fulfilled, and Al-Hallaj, still alive, was brought down from the cross and carried away in order to have his throat slit. Then, a certain witness heard Al-Hallaj uttering in a loud voice, “What the Ecstatic One wants is the Unique, and no-one else but Himself.” Thereafter, filled with ecstasy he recited the following sacred verse, “Those who do not believe in the last hour are dragged with haste towards it; however, the believers wait for it with a reverential fear, since they know it is the Truth.”

Thus, this is how with these solemn words the life of the omnicosmic and most holy Al-Hallaj concluded. Hence, his venerable, bleeding, blessed head fell under the edge of the sword as a sanguinary holocaust on the altar of supreme sacrifice for humanity.

The poisonous hatred of his executioners was so great that they did not even authorize his cadaver to be shrouded or have a burial service.

Ancient traditions of Islam tell us that the sacred ashes of the old Sufi Al-Hallaj were dispersed in the winds from the heights of the Manarah.

Ancient Arabic legends state that instead of a white blanket, this saint’s cadaver was rolled up in a filthy rug formerly damped in petroleum.

When the holy body burned, consumed by the fire of the holocaust, the whole of nature shook filled with infinite terror.

The great hierophant Sufi Al-Hallaj, by means of chisel and hammer, transformed the brute stone and gave a perfect cubic shape onto it.

Before physically dying, the great, immolated Al-Hallaj was already absolutely dead psychologically.

The resplendent diamond soul of Mansur Al-Hallaj is treading upon the heavenly path heading towards the Absolute.

The great Sufi initiate Al-Hallaj was born, died, and sacrificed himself completely for humanity.

Now it is worthwhile to conclude this chapter with that ineffable prayer written with infinite love by the Mohammedan Christ Mansur Al-Hallaj entitled:

Oh Thou, Wholeness of My Wholeness…

Lo and behold, here I am, here I am, oh my secret, oh my confidence!

Lo and behold, here I am, here I am, oh Thou my aspiration, oh Thou my consequence!

I call upon Thee… No, Thou art the one who calls me towards Thee!

How could I have talked to Thee, if Thou would not have talked to me?

Oh Thou, essence of the essence of my existence, oh Thou, end result of my design,

Thou who makest me talk, oh Thou, my enunciations, Thou my blinks!

Oh Thou, wholeness of my wholeness, oh my ear, oh my sight!

Oh my totality, my constitution, and my parts!

Oh Thou, wholeness of my wholeness, wholeness of everything, equivocal enigma,

I darken the wholeness of thy wholeness when wanting to express thy being!

Oh Thou, from whom my spirit was suspended before now when dying of ecstasy,

Ah… thy pledge continues being my misfortune!...

Oh supreme objective that I request and wait, oh my guest,

Oh nourishment of my Spirit! Oh my life in this world and in the other!

Let my heart be thy ransom! Oh my ear, oh my sight!

Why so much delay in my seclusion, so distant?

Ah, albeit, thy presence, before my eyes, is hidden within the invisible,

My heart by now contemplates Thee, from my remoteness, yes, from my exile!

Final Salutations

Beloved Gnostic brothers and sisters,

We have finished this 1967/1968 Christmas Message. Please, I beg you to study it in depth, to practice it, and to live it.

Do not be like intellectual butterflies that flutter around reading about everything and not knowing anything; today they are in a little school, and tomorrow in another, and finally they die after having wasted their time miserably.

Study everything in depth; do not be superficial. Remember that life in abundance, where thousands of fish multiply, and where everything is happiness, is in deep waters where the waters are clear and profound. However, the superficial puddles on the road, the vain puddles without profundity, soon dry up under the heat of the sun, and turn into mud and rottenness.

Be profound, friends of mine; frequent always the rooms of meditation (our beloved gnostic Lumisials).

Love your worst enemies with all of your heart and with all of your soul. Kiss the whip of your executioner; bless those who damn and persecute you; return good for evil.

Beloved brothers and sisters, I have the high honor of inviting you to a constant epistolary interchange, but please I beg you, I beseech you, do not send me any type of praise, adulations, or cheers. It is urgent, it is indispensable, for you to comprehend that I, as a person, am insignificant; I am worth a little bit less than the ashes of a cigarette. Thus, I am somebody who indeed does not have the least bit of importance. Therefore, with much sincerity, I tell you that any letter containing praise, adulation, and cheers will be rejected.

Treat me heart to heart, from good to good, from love to love. Remember that Hermetic maxim that states: I give thee love within which the whole summum of wisdom is contained.

To my worst enemies, those who hate me, damn me, and persecute me too much, those who criticize my books, I send them through this Christmas Message a fraternal hug filled with true love.

I adore my enemies, I adore my critics, and wish for all of them, as is natural, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Beloved gnostic brothers and sisters who study this 1967 Christmas Message, verily, verily, I say onto you that I feel joyful when I answer your letters, but you have to learn how to be patient because sometimes the answer is delayed due to the fact that it is not only your letter that I have to answer; remember that thousands of people write to me and I have to answer all of them.

Beloved, let the star of nativity shine within your hearts. With all of my heart and with all of my soul, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Inverential peace!

Samael Aun Weor