| 56 - Hallaj and Junayd - Part Two |
The author of Sufism
- A Short Introduction claims that Hazrat Hallaj (may Allah sanctify his soul)
showed a "disregard for the niceties of Shariite propriety." However, other than
the issue of "Ana’l Haq", the author has not indicated any other
transgressions concerning ‘Shariite’ propriety which were committed by the
accused, and since the author has used the plural form of ‘nicety’, he either
should have said what the other kinds of disregard were which allegedly was shown by
Hazrat Hallaj (may Allah sanctify his soul), or he should have specified that the only
problematic facet of the latter’s life arose from the aforementioned issue of the
controversial utterance - an utterance which was controversial not because it was untrue,
but because it was spoken in public.
‘Ana’l
Haq’ is, in fact, entailed by, and an expression of, the central meaning of the first
pillar of Islam in which one is required to bear witness that there is no reality but
Divinity. To say there is no ‘god but God’, does not get to the heart of the
matter, for one must ask what is Divinity, and when one addresses this question in
essential, fundamental terms, the answer to that inquiry is that God is the basis, and
cause, of all manifested possibilities. In short, there is no reality but Divinity, and
any statement to the contrary is in error.
All of Creation is
nothing but a multiplicity of manifested permutations and combinations of Divine Names and
Attributes brought together through Divine Purpose. There is no aspect of Creation whose
nature, qualities, character, form, potential, possibilities, capacity, behavior, and
duration are not a function of the manner in which Divinity arranges Names and Attributes
in order to give expression to manifestation of one kind, rather than another.
Consequently, if the
‘I’ of "Ana’l Haq" - that is, ‘ I am the Truth’, is a
realized reference to the Divine nature of manifestation - human or otherwise, and if
‘Haq’, or Truth, is one of the Names of Divinity - which it is - then, in
reality, the statement in question is actually an alternative way of stating the very same
truth which is contained in the Shahadah - the declaration that there is no reality but
Divinity. Although the public declaration of ‘Ana’l Haq’
constitutes a violation of Shari‘ah, nonetheless, the statement is only heretical or
untruthful when it is said through a human being who is not in a realized spiritual
condition of tawhid.
Hazrat Junayd (may Allah
sanctify his soul) did not say that what Hazrat Hallaj (may Allah sanctify his soul)
uttered was untruthful. He said that according to the requirements of Shari‘ah which
governed communal life, what had been said constituted a transgression of those exoteric
boundaries.
However, the shaykh added
a rider - which was the most he could do and still keep with the adab of sobriety - that
the Secret of Truth was another matter since it fell beyond the framework of the exoteric
aspect of Shari‘ah. Certainly, if the exoteric facets of Shari‘ah were the
final, all encompassing word on such matters, there would have been no need for the shaykh
to make a statement that had two themes - one pointing toward the requirements of the
exoteric aspect of Shari‘ah and one pointing beyond those requirements.
The author of Sufism
- A Short Introduction refers to Hazrat Hallaj (may Allah sanctify his soul) as a
"martyr". Generally speaking, a ‘martyr’ is considered someone who
submits to death rather than renounce certain spiritual commitments.
We all are operating
under a sentence of death, and the time at which this sentence will be executed already
has been set. We are all slain by Allah because God is the One who arranges the effective
causes resulting in our demise - although we bear the responsibility for the nature of the
niyat or intention with which we engage these effective causes.
Normally, we think of
martyrs as individuals who are murdered or executed by other human beings in conjunction
with the religious or spiritual commitments of the former. However, other human beings are
merely the means through which Divinity carries out the execution - although, once again,
those who participate in the execution must bear the responsibility for the condition of
the niyat or intention through which they participate in the means used by God to bring
about the death of another individual.
Everyone dies, but not
everyone who dies is a martyr. A martyr must be someone who is sincerely struggling in the
way of God.
The Qur’an
indicates: "Do not think of those who are slain in the way of Allah as dead. Nay,
they are living. With their Lord, they have provision. Jubilant (are they) because of that
which Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty" (3:169-170)
In a variety of places
within the Muslim world, the idea is fashonable that only those who are engaged in armed,
physical combat can be martyred. Certain individuals use this belief to encourage
impressionable individuals to engage in warfare with the understanding that if they die in
the process, they will achieve martyrdom.
They believe that Quranic
verses like the ones cited above refer only to those who die while fighting a physical
battle with the infidel - and, all too frequently, an infidel is considered to be anyone
who doesn’t look at life and Divinity in precisely the same way as do those who feel
compelled to assume the role of ‘defenders’ of Islam, when, in truth, they often
are nothing more than defenders of this or that theological, philosophical, national,
and/or economic self-interest.
In whatever manner an
individual may meet her or his appointed time with death, if that person dies while
occupied in struggling to pursue Deen and realize the purpose of life, then, that
individual satisfies, God willing, the criterion of being "slain in the way of
Allah" which is mentioned in the foregoing Quranic verse. Moreover, as promised in
the passage following the statement of qualification, such individuals will be spiritually
alive, enjoying a provision from their Lord and jubilant with the Divine bounty which has
been bestowed upon them.
The Qur’an gives the
following counsel: "O you who believe, fight against those infidels close to
you." (9:123) There is no infidel closer to us than our own nafsi-amaara which is the
seat of all our tendencies to rebel against, and resist, the Divine Purpose. Indeed, the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: "Your most hostile
enemy is your carnal soul which is enclosed between your two sides.," and the
Qur’an states: "Truly, the soul commands unto evil." (12:53)
The Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) also is reported to have said: "Die before you die." In
addition, among the collection of Hadith Qudsi one finds the following: "Whoever
seeks Me, finds Me. Whoever finds Me, comes to know Me. Whoever comes to know Me, loves
Me. Whoever loves Me, that person I kill, and whomever I kill, I owe that person
blood-money, and to whomever I owe blood- money, I am the recompense for that
blood-money." Consequently, the form of death to which the Prophet alluded when he
said: "Die before you die" reflects the sort of death to which the
just-mentioned Hadith Qudsi attempts to draw our attention.
The same kind of
individuals who wish to reserve the Quranic title of "those who are slain in the way
of Allah" for only those who fight armed battles with this or that external enemy or
those who are executed by wrongly-guided people, also like to restrict the meaning of
"jihad" entirely to the realm of physical fighting. Nevertheless, the term
‘jihad’ - which refers to struggle - clearly was used by the Prophet in a number
of ways that indicate the meaning and significance of ‘jihad’ must be considered
from a perspective which places this spiritual activity in a very different light than do
those who claim that ‘jihad’ means doing physical battle.
The Prophet is reported
to have said: "The best and most superior form of jihad (spiritual struggle) is the
Hajj (pilgrimage) which finds acceptance with God." On another occasion, the Prophet
is reported to have said: "One performs the best jihad when one stands up and speaks
out against injustice in the face of tyranny and oppression."
Once, when the Prophet
and some Companions were riding together, as they returned from a armed engagement with
the Meccan tribes who were trying to vanquish the Muslim community, the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) is reported to have turned to his Companions and said: "We are
coming from the lesser jihad, and we going to the greater jihad." The "lesser
jihad" is doing battle with an external enemy, while the "greater jihad" is
doing battle with our own, internal enemy.
At, yet, another time,
the Prophet is reported to have said: "Polish takes away the rust of that which is
polished, and for everything, there is a polish. The polish for the heart is zhikr Allah
(remembrance of God)."
One of the Companions
asked: "Is not repelling the infidel like this?"
The Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) said: "No! Even if one fights until one’s sword is
broken."
Although the word
‘jihad’ does not appear in this latter tradition, the spirit of this Hadith is
quite clear. It is both consistent with, as well as supportive of, the three previously
cited Hadiths concerning the nature of ‘jihad’ as being about a form of struggle
which encompasses practices and activities of self-purification that have far higher
priority than does armed conflict with an external enemy - even in those limited
cases where the latter may be justified (such as when the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon
him - was given permission by Allah to defend the fledgling Muslim community against the
attacks of those who were trying to destroy that community as well as the Deen in which it
was rooted).
Hazrat Hallaj did not
wage physical war against the religious clerics of his time. He was, however, sincerely
engaged in ‘jihad’.
He fought the infidel
which was closest to him - his nafsi-amaara. He spoke the truth in the face of the tyranny
and oppression of his own nafsi-amaara. When, by the Grace of God, this foe was subdued,
the banners of fana (the Presence of Divinity and the absence of self-awareness) and baqa
(the presence of Self-awareness subsisting through Divinity) were raised, and the
victorious One proclaimed: "Ana’l Haq".
Hazrat Hallaj (may Allah
sanctify his soul) complied with the counsel of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him),
and he ‘died before he died’. How he died, in a physical sense, is a matter of
historical fact, but the truth about his two deaths is between him and God - and, in both
cases, there is substantial evidence to indicate that he is one of "those who are
slain in the way of Allah" (3:169).
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