Hallaj Quotes

“Is it you or I? That would be two gods in me; far, far be it from you to assert duality! The “he-ness” that is yours is in my nothingness forever; my “all” added to your “all” would be a double disguise. But where is your essence, from my vantage point when I see you, since my essence has become plain in the place where I am not? And where is your face? It is the object of my gaze, whether in my inmost heart or in the glance of my eye. 5 Between you and me there is an “I am” that battles me, so take away, by your grace, this “I am” from in between.”
― Husayn ibn Mansur Hallaj, Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr

“Love is in primordial eternity eternally, in Him, by Him, from Him; it begins in Him. Love is not temporal, since it was an attribute, an attribute of the One whose martyrs are alive. His attributes are from Him, in Him, but not temporal, for temporality is what begins in things. When the beginning began, his love began as an attribute in that which began—and in him gleamed a shining! 5 For the L was affectionate with the inclined A— and both were one, which means in the beginning. But in separation they are two; when they are together separately, one’s the devotee, and one’s the Lord. These are the realities: the fire of longing, burning for reality, whether they stay or go. They’re humble, worthless, when they are mad with love, for the mighty become humbled in their longing.”
― Husayn ibn Mansur Hallaj, Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr

“Kill me, friends, for in my killing is my life. My death is in my life; my life is in my death. Annihilation of my essence is the noblest of my glories. And my attributes remaining is the foulest of my crimes. 5 My spirit tires of my life amid its lingering traces, So kill me, burn me in these fading bones, And later pass my dust in ruined tombs— You will find my lover’s secret folded into my remains. *** I was a mighty patriarch of lofty rank, 10 Then I became a child in wet nurses’ chambers, Living in a grave’s niche, in marshy grounds. My mother bore her father— that’s one of my marvels— Then my daughters, after they were daughters, were my sisters. This was no deed of time, nor act of adultery. *** 15 So gather all my parts together from burning bodies, From air and fire, and next from water pure, Then plant it all in earth whose soil is fallow, And swear to water it from cups passed round By running waitresses with running waters— 20 When you finish seven, the best of plants will bloom.”
― Husayn ibn Mansur Hallaj, Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr