In Baghdad in the year 922, they executed a mystic for speaking truth. His name was Husayn ibn Mansur, called al-Hallaj — "the wool-carder." His crime was uttering three words that terrified the religious establishment: "Ana al-Haqq" — "I am the Truth." Since Truth is one of the names of God, they called it blasphemy. He called it realization.
For eleven years he languished in prison before they brought him to judgment. During those years, his fame spread. Seekers came from across the Islamic world to sit outside his cell and receive whatever teaching filtered through the bars.
"I am the Truth," he said. "Not that I have become God —
But that the 'I' who could be separate from God
Has dissolved like salt in the ocean.
Only Truth remains. Only Truth speaks.
If this is blasphemy, then let me be the blasphemer."
On the day of his execution, they first cut off his hands. He smiled and said, "You have taken the hands with which I wrote; you cannot take the truth I wrote." Then they cut off his feet. He said, "With these feet I walked the earth; with other feet I walk in paradise." Then they put out his eyes. He said, "These eyes saw the world of forms; I now see only the Formless."
Before they killed him, he prayed: "O Lord, these servants of yours have gathered to kill me out of zeal for your religion. Forgive them. If you had revealed to them what you have revealed to me, they would not do this. If you had hidden from me what you have hidden from them, I would not suffer this. Whatever you do is worthy of praise."
"Kill me, O my trustworthy friends,
For in my death is my life,
And in my life is my death.
The removal of my attributes
Is the most precious gift to me.
The persistence of my human qualities
Is the most odious thing."
They burned his body and scattered the ashes in the Tigris River. But his words could not be scattered. They spread through the Sufi tradition, inspiring generations of seekers who understood that the ego must die for the divine to live.
The authorities thought they were destroying a heretic. They were creating an immortal witness. The blood of the martyr became the seed of the teaching.
Teaching 30
When the "I" dissolves, only Truth remains. This is not blasphemy but realization. The ego must die for the divine to live. Those who cannot understand this teaching will persecute those who embody it. The blood of the martyr becomes the seed.