The Tawasin of Mansur al-Hallaj

by Mansur al-Hallaj

Tasavvufun öncülerinden sayılan Hallac-ı Mansur, 9. yüzyıldan zamanımıza gelen süre içerisinde fikirleri yaşayan bir düşünce adamıdır. İnsan - Tanrı kavramını ''Enel Hak'' şiarıyla fikir aşamasını ortaya koyması ve bunu kişiliğinde kaynaştırması sonucu, İslam'ın bağnaz kesimince saldırıya uğramış ve hayatıyla ödemiştir. Mansur, ardıllarını yüzyıllar boyu etkilemiştir.
Tavasin onun zindanda yazdığı eserlerinden biri ve aynı zamanda günümüze ulaşan tek eseridir.

Genres: Islam, Religion, Poetry, Iran, Philosophy, Nonfiction

81 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Mansur al-Hallaj (Arabic: ابو المغيث الحسين بن منصور الحلاج‎ Abū 'l-Muġīṭ Al-Ḥusayn bin Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ; Persian: منصور حلاج‎ Mansūr-e Ḥallāj) (c. 858 – March 26, 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH – 309 AH) was a Persian mystic, revolutionary writer and teacher of Sufism, who wrote exclusively in Arabic. He is 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.

Arabic

Reviews

[Tarun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book almost 13-14 years ago, when I was wildly interested in Gnosticism and other types of spiritual/mystical branches of knowledge. This book is a decent exposition by Mansur al-Hallaj of concepts like Divine Will, Bewilderment, Unity as a Divine attribute etc. that are part of the wider belief system of tasawwuf . I remember that it prompted me to read Attar Neshapouri's Manteq At-Taer. If you're interested in classical works of Sufism, do read this.

[Vohouman]

ظن نبردم که فهم کند کلام ما جز آنکس که به قوس ثانی رسید، و قوس ثانی غیر لوح است.

[Beyza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is worth reading if you are interested in subjects like sufism, religion, belief, reincarnation, different cults' concept of God and deity. I've read the Turkish translation of the book by Yaba Publication House and it includes not just the translation of Mansur's philosophical belief texts but also Yazidis' holy texts; Kitêba Cilwe (Book of Revelation) and the Mishefa Reş (Black Book), short descriptions about Cathars, Zoroastrianism and finally, the book ends with the great poem "Tiger" by William Blake owing to its spiritual content related to this subject. You should give a chance to this book, you won't regret it.

[Fadillah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever read something so bewitching that you gaze at it for few minutes try to grasp the hidden meaning of it? Sufism dig deep into the meaning of God and what it felt like to feel so humble in the great presence of HIM. This book is the epitome of us being in awe of the ALLAH divinity. I am so impressed by the translator who managed to capture the essence of the book. If only I could understand this book in the language which Al Hallaj wrote, I am sure it's going to be more captivating and insightful.

[melancholinary · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One can represent the ocean of understanding thus: I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart. ‘Who are You?’ He said: ‘You!’ But for You, ‘where’ cannot have a place And there is no ‘where’ when it concerns You. The mind has no image of your existence in time. Which would permit the mind to know where you are. You are the one who encompasses every ‘where.’ Up to the point of no-where. So where are you?"

So far, this is the best philosophical work of transcendental diabolism and metaphysical Sufism I have ever read.

[Nobody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wild and cryptic book that takes quite a bit of knowledge of Islamic theology and Sufi metaphysics to even begin to penetrate. I barely understand it and will need to spend some time studying the text in depth. Some quotes:

From "The Ta-Sin of Understanding"
"4. He was not satisfied with its light nor with its heat, so he leapt into it completely. Meanwhile, his fellows were awaiting his coming so that he could tell them of his actual vision since he had not been satisfied with hearsay. But at that moment, he was being utterly consumed, reduced and dispersed into fragments, and he remained without form or body or distinguishing mark. Then in what sense can he return to his fellows? And in what state now that his has obtained? He who had arrived at the vision became able to dispense with reports. He who arrives at the object of his vision is no longer concerned with the vision."

From the "The Ta-Sin of the Point"
"8. I am absorbed in the sea of the depths of eternity and he who reaches the circle of Truth is occupied on the shore of the sea of knowledge with his own knowledge. He is absent from my vision.
9. I saw a certain bird from the selves of the Sufis which flew with the two wings of Sufism. He denied my glory as he persisted in his flight.
10. He asked me about purity and I said to him: Cut your wings with the shears of annihilation. If not you cannot follow me.
11. He said to me: I fly with my wings to my Beloved. I said to him: Alas for thee! Because there is naught like Him, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. So then he fell into the sea of understanding and was drowned."

[J.G.P. MacAdam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Passion of Al Hallaj. How is it that a man who memorized the entire Quran front to back, who lived an ascetic life, who preached helping the poor, could end up imprisoned and, eventually, crucified by the very Caliphate which claimed a divine rule of its own?

Al Hallaj was born to a cotton-carder (that's what "hallaj" means in Persian) in what is today Iran. He went to school, not the fields, and learned from several other Sufi masters about the Sufi way. He took to the "brown wool," or the cloak Sufis were known for wearing, with apparent zeal. In Basra, while living a devout, ascetic life, he yet rubbed shoulders with notables and aristocrats at social gatherings. (This reminds me of Saint Jerome who, in Rome, would wear rags and preach charity and be poor himself yet hobnob with the very richest of Roman women, inspiring them, converting them, with his teachings about Christ.) 

Al Hallaj, similarly, preached feeding orphans and giving to the poor, rather than spending all that money on the haj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. For his high society contacts, and his outspoken critique of inequality, as well as saying things like "I am the Truth!" which borderlines on "I am God!" the powers-that-be grew suspicious of Hallaj, and eventually imprisoned him in Baghdad for 11 years for being a heretic. During his imprisonment, he would write The Tawasin, his mystical treatise on knowing God. 

"The moth cavorts about the flame
Until at morning, dawn will come... 

The light of the flame is knowledge
Of reality's wavering edge, 

The heat is the reality
Of reality starting to be... 

The moth, not satisfied with light, 
Even more hungers for heat; 

He leaps into the flame and burns, 
To his fellows never returns." 

The seeker after God is the moth. To "know" God is to obliterate one's self. Over and over again, Sufis preach this sort of knowing-of-God-via-self-annihilation. However, Hallaj's take on this is particularly fascinated with death, the absolute extinguishment of one's self; death being the moment the face of God is revealed to us. 

In another section, he describes a bird who wants to understand, so he is flying over the Sea of Understanding. Hallaj tells the bird, You can't ever get "there" with wings. So the bird shears off its own wings, plummets to the Sea, and upon falling in, in that moment of impact, at last "understands." 

(You ask me the guy was suicidal; in a previous collection of Hallaj's he literally wrote poetry that said "Kill me, my friends..." or, in other words, if you're TRULY my friend you'll kill me so that I can be one with God... yeah...) 

Most interestingly, Hallaj retells the tale of Iblis being punished by God for not bowing to Adam in Eden. In the Quran, Iblis refuses to bow before Adam because he, Iblis, prostrates himself only before God. (Read: Adam, or mankind, is not divine; only God is divine and thus worthy of worship.) 

"What is Adam compared to You? 
And what do I, Iblis, know?" 

But, as Hallaj points out, this is Iblis' utter sense of pride. For, in theme with the Tawasin, Iblis thinks he is most devout among God's creations—"My denial affirms your purity." 

"No one, among all beings," says Iblis, "knows You, Allah, better than I do!" 

And this precipitates Iblis' fall. His pride in his knowledge of God. For Hallaj, he did not say he knew God better than others. He spoke, as he is famously quoted, upon his crucifixion, "I am the Truth!" or "I am God!" and this, taken as proof of his heresy by the powers-that-be, however, by his followers, proof of his utter submission to God (his success, if you will, in finally annihilating his self), is his greatest legacy. His Tawasin, more than any other Sufi text I've read so far, gets to the very root of the nature of the relationship between man and God (and apparently to get there you martyr yourself, so... yeah...)

His tomb, a pilgrimage site of its own, is located in Baghdad not far from the Green Zone.

I think I am now about ready for Rumi. 

[Duaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was describing a person (likely Hallaj or the Prophet mystic) whose life is total burning desire for God, whose wisdom is based on humility, whose path is very hard but full of truth, and whose ultimate goal is to erase his ego completely until only God remains. Even the trials of Satan and the temptations of the world become part of his spiritual training.

And it was basically reminding the reader: don’t confuse reality, truth, or creation with God Himself, He is beyond all definitions and limitations.
Overall, this read is dense, beautiful, and provocative. which demand slow reading and reflection, as it is less about giving information and more about awakening a spiritual response. The language is deliberately paradoxical, pushing readers to let go of rigid definitions and experience something greater just as Hallaj himself sought annihilation of the self to be united with God.

[Utku Cevre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tanrı, özgür irade, vahdet-i vücut ve çift anlamlılık üzerine 9. yüzyıldan günümüze kalan çok zor bir sufi eser. Bölümlerin içinde geçen çizimler bile ayrı ayrı üzerine düşünülesi. Türkçe baskısının sonunda Yezidilerin kitapları ve ilginç bir şekilde William Blake’in Kaplan şiiri de var. Tasavvufa ilgi duyanlara belirli bir altyapıdan sonra önerilir.

[Asil Hindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't help myself around The Ta Sin of the Circle, of the Point and of Before Endless Time and Equivocation... Mind blowing.
I would say, still need to re read couple of times to grasp the meaning behind all the eleven parts :) definitely will re read

[gøkhan kiyici]

aziz yıldırım’ın “ben fenerbahçe’nin kendisiyim” sözünün ilhamı hallac-ı mansur imiş. latife ederek söylersek, benim için aziz yıldırım’dan başlayıp william blake’e uzanan ve zihnimde bir sürü yeni düğüm yaratan bir kitap oldu, din, inanç ve ritüeller açısından.

[Md Mafiquzzaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...#

[Nihan Derya Kilislioglu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kitabin icerigini anlamak icin ya kitap okumasina katilmak ya da belli bir altyapiya sahip olmak gerektigini dusunuyorum. Butunsellik anlam ve tarihsel akisi anlayamadim.

[Joseph Knecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

The light of the flame is the knowledge of reality, its heat is the
reality of reality, and Union with it is the Truth of the reality.

[Komal Zeeshan]

لَّاۤ اَسۡـٔـَلُكُمۡ عَلَيۡهِ اَجۡرًا اِلَّا الۡمَوَدَّةَ فِىۡ الۡقُرۡبٰى‌ؕ.

سورة الشُورٰی

آج کتاب طواسین ختم ہوئی اور مکمل کرنے کے دوران اور بعد میں ایک آیت کا حصہ تھا جو ذہن میں گونجتا تھا۔🌼🍃
یہ سورة الشُوریٰ کی آیت ٢٣ کا کچھ حصہ ہے۔ بہت گہرا اور خوبصورت ۔اس کی مختلف تفاسیر ہیں مگر میرے دل کو جو چھوتی ہے وہ یہ کہ میں تم سے کوئی صلہ نہیں مانگتا مگر اللہ کی قربت کی محبت۔۔۔
یعنی تم اس محبت کو اپنے دلوں میں سینچو۔
مودة کا مطلب وہ حُبِّ، وہ محبت جس میں شدت ہو۔

کومل
30 Nov 2018

[Farhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book.
The use of diagrams to explain the concepts is really amazing. I read the English translation by Aisha Abd Ar-Rahman. It is not possible to translate such work, also keep the original essence, from one language to another, but still she managed to keep the essence of the work. Some things are so deep you have to read it again and again.

[Жанна Пояркова]

Понять написанное мистиком Халладжем в тюрьме человеку западной культуры, мне кажется, невозможно. Но здорово, что такие книги можно найти.

[Mbah Jenglot · Rating 4 out of 5]

nearly to the end of the way