H U R Q A L Y A S Y N D I C A T E

Hussayn B.Mansūr al-Hāllaj
and the twelver circles

“To those who leaned towards the imâmate, he became an imâmite; and he showed them that he had knowledge of their imam,he preached for the legitimate sovereignty of the Ahl al-Baytع sought, he was taken, and whipped at the Nâhîyat al- Jabal. He displayed Shi'ism among the great landlords (mulak = dahâqin)” (source : Ibn Abî Tâhir). Upon his arrival in Baghdad, where he seduced many people, and great ones he sought out especially the Imâmites, because he had been initiated into their doctrine (lidukhâlihi min tariqihim)” - Abu ‘Ali al Muhassin; nishwar al muhādarat wa ahbār al mudākarat; vol.1 “This is not only a question of an external knowledge. The most archaic Shi'ite tradition asserts that Hallaj was a Shi'ite, and it hates him as a defector” -Louis Massignon(d.1962), the passion of Hāllaj volume. 1 immediately after his marriage, in Basra. Having entered the mystical path of the sûfîs four years ago, drawn towards a discipline of asceticism and meditation on the Qur'ân, he witnessed the social crisis of the revolt of the Zanj; many shî'ites took part in it, so that justice would be done for so many iniquities from which the humble suffered: the mawâlî, above all, these Aramean peasants, these Iranian craftsmen, who were pressured by the administrative cadres and the Arab hegemony in Basra. “Hallâj participated in their desire for justice, and a definitive imprint remained on his lexicon,, in theology as in grammar. After Basra, Hallâj deviates more and more from the Sufis: his three hajj, where he matures in solitude the experiences of his Travels” -Ibidem To properly understand Hallaj's relationship with the Imami Shi'ites, we must go back to their beginnings. During public preaching, Hallaj came to Qumm, then the center of Imamite Shi'ism. How could he hope to convert to his mystical doctrine Waqifiya and Qilli'iya? A fragment of a lost work by Hallaj, “al- ihâta wa'l- furqân”, will teach us. Hallaj, aware of the death of their twelfth Imam, came to announce to them that the times were over, that they would no longer have an Imam, that this one had been the last, and that the General Judgment was coming. “He compared the number of the 12 Imams, which he enumerated, with this verse “the year according to God, is of twelve lunar months” (Qur'ân, 9, 36)”