The Diwan of Al-Hallaj

Overview of the Diwan of Al-Hallaj: Al-Hallaj is Husayn ibn Mansur, born in the village of Al-Tur in the northeast of the city of Al-Bayda, one of the cities of Fars Province in Iran, around the year 242 AH / 857 AD. His family left the village of Al-Tur and moved with it to central Iraq, where his father worked in cotton spinning and weaving, and the nickname Al-Hallaj was attributed to him because of his father's craft. Al-Hallaj spent his youth moving between Kuttab of Wasit, receiving whatever knowledge was available to him, then moved to Tustar, where he studied under Sahl ibn Abd Allah, the Sufi who dressed him in a woolen cloak. Abdullah al-Tasniri, then to Basra to establish good relations with Amr ibn Uthman. After that, he left Basra heading to Baghdad to meet Sheikh Al-Junaid, then traveled to Qulā to perform the pilgrimage, and stayed there for a whole year practicing the most difficult Sufi disciplines, exposing his body to the harshest forms of torture, eating only bread and water, and exposing himself to the scorching sun or heavy rain. When Al-Hallaj returned from Qulā, he appeared to people as a confident man, with many followers, and he adopted Sufism as his philosophy. He discovered the divine truth, which appeared to him since its manifestation to Moses, peace be upon him, on Mount Sinai, passing through Jesus, peace be upon him, and his death, and through the Quran, the unified Islamic creed, and everything that contradicts that truth is illusion and misguidance. However, this philosophy, which Al-Hallaj expressed through practice, was not pleasing to the jurist Muhammad ibn Dawud, the judge of Baghdad, who saw it as conflicting with Islamic teachings, which recognize only divine revelation. He raised Al-Hallaj's case to the judiciary, demanding his trial before the people and scholars. But the Shafi’i judge Abu al-Abbas ibn Sariij, who was knowledgeable about Sufi thought, refused to condemn him and said: "His condition is hidden from me, and I say nothing about him," believing that Sufi doctrine does not interfere with the core of Islamic judicial work. Due to the rebellious movements embodied in the Zanj uprising during that period and the Qarmatians, and as Al-Hallaj’s revolutionary tendencies grew with the increasing injustices, the Abbasids feared Al-Hallaj and decided to eliminate him, fearing for their personal interests and political system. A trial was held, and he was sentenced to death by beheading. Nevertheless, Al-Hallaj’s philosophy remains a bright page in human heritage, speaking of the virtue of that Muslim Arab philosopher who transcended sectarian and national struggles. His tragedy remains a sweet resource from which minds draw inspiration in every time and place, and a source of inspiration for all free people of the world. Among the contents of this book is his Diwan, which was the first collection gathered by the French orientalist Louis Massignon in Paris in 1955. Following this Diwan are the stories of Al-Hallaj and his followers.