Yezidi Reformer: Sheikh Adi (V)

Al-Hallaj

Shaikh ‘Adi might have been impressed by al-Hallaj’s refusal to be identified with an elite Sufism, his reliance upon indigent social strata, his strict asceticism and his miracles. Even a hundred years after al-Hallaj’s execution, some people in Baghdad still believed in his divine return. According to Abu l-‘Ala al-Ma’arri, in 1008, there were people in Baghdad who “still waited there on the banks of the Tigris, in the hope that he would arise from it”, and one of them saw him there [46:289].
During his life in Baghdad, ‘Adi b. Musafir had first-hand knowledge about - if not sympathy with - such hopes. Some facts recorded from al-Hallaj’s son, Hamd, have direct parallels with ‘Adi’s life. Presumably, since al-Hallaj was so important for ‘Adi, the latter might have tried to imitate his actions, although this cannot be firmly proven.
A particular element which must have impacted ‘Adi’s views is the image of ‘Isa/Jesus as an ideal prophet: similarly to al-Hasan al-Basri, al-Hallaj was preoccupied with the theme ‘Isa-Mahdi and the prophet’s actions [44:I,659;II,231,397 etc.; 46:285].
According to an expressive story of al-Hallaj’s asceticism, once he was dressed pitifully and was given an old- cast-off robe. Then, al-Hallaj recited his verses denouncing the importance of cloth for Divine Freedom [44:I,46].
In this respect, I shall later present a story written by Shaikh ‘Adi’s nephew and successor as ruler of the Yezidi community, Abu l-Barakat, which demonstrates that being without clothes was a crucial element in ‘Adi’s strict cult of faqr [16:8].
Another legendary feature of ‘Adi’s asceticism is fairly common for the majority of ecstatic Sufis including al-Hallaj: after having resided on Hakkari, ‘Adi himself cultivated his plot of arable land, sowing cotton and manufacturing his own clothes. He never drank anyone else’s water, neither did he eat anyone’s food, nor used anyone’s goods. This gave birth to the legends of ‘Adi’s ability to manage without food. Even the fact that ‘Adi b. Musafir was said to have died in the lone house that he had built himself has a parallel with al-Hallaj: after his third pilgrimage al-Hallaj purchased property in Baghdad and built himself a house for receiving people [16:7; 44:I,52].
‘Adi must have learned of the vicissitudes of al-Hallaj’s life, especially the fact that while ordinary people welcomed him, some Sufis hated him for his popularity. ‘Adi b. Musafir himself experienced similar hatred because of his popularity, or, at any rate, he pretended to compare his fame with that of al-Hallaj by stressing that those who envied him did not succeed to put his religious erudition into a question [15:66-67].

The Shi’ites accused al-Hallaj with da’wa ila ‘l-rububiya’ - ‘public claiming of the supreme power of God’ - implying political aims at replacing Imam. Besides, initial terms of the execution of al-Hallaj have been worsened under a Shi’ite influence who at any cost attempted to punish him: it was the time when after al-Mahdi’s disappearance in 873-74, emotions among the Shi’ites ran high [44:I,197,342-43,445 etc.].

After ‘Adi b. Musafir’s death, the Yezidi Kurds started to believe that he was one of three incarnations of a lower deity ruling the universe. The sources tell us that the doctrine of the deification of the saint was typical of al-Hallaj’s teaching and thus attracted to him the veneration of a whole group of state secretaries, dignitaries of the Court and governors of towns in Iraq, al-Jazira, al-Jibal, and beyond [44:I,68].

Some Kurds believe that al-Hallaj was a native from the Kurdish region of Urmiya [26:135].

As for their settlement in Hakkari, it is known that after al-Hallaj’s execution some of his followers found refuge in the Kurdish mountains. Thus, in the eleventh century a Persian al-Hujwiri saw in the territory of modern Iraq “four thousands people calling themselves adherents of al-Hallaj” [46:287].

These parallels are more than a mere coincidence: both al-Hallaj and ‘Adi belonged to highly ecstatic trend in Sufism and both play substantial roles in the religious culture of the Yezidi Kurds. Then, one will be right to identify ‘Adi b. Musafir as a Hallajian.

Hallaj later married and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he stayed for one year, facing the mosque, in fasting and total silence. After his stay at the city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way. He travelled as far as India and Central Asia gaining many followers, many of which accompanied him on his second and third trips to Mecca. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.

He was born in 857 at al-Tur in the Iranian province of Fars. His inititation into Sufism began early in life, while he was still a teenager. For over twenty years he lived in seclusion and was trained by a number of great Sufi masters of teh period: Sahl al-Tustari, ‘Amr al-Makki, and al-Junavd.

Eventually however, al-Hallaj broke away from his teachers and became an itinerant preacher. His wandering led him through Arabia and Central Asia to teh Indian Subcontinent. He came in contact with sages and mystecs from a number of other religious traditions who expanded the horizons of his own religious experience. As he continued to mature spiritually, al-Hallaj continued to attract a large number of disciples. He became known as hallaj al-asrar “the carder of consciousness”, a play on the family name al-Hallaj, which meant, “cotton carder”.

The core of al-Hallaj’s preaching was a call to moral reform and to the experience of intense union with the Beloved. Among al-Hallaj’s poetic and prose writings, one phrase stands out as a paradigmatic expression of mystical ecstacy - his famous “Ana al-Haq!” (“I am the Divine Truth!”). To the ears of non-Sufis and to more sober elements in Sufism, al-Hallaj’s self divining cry was tantamount to shirk, if not a bald rephrasing of Christian notion of incarnation (hulul).

Among other Sufis, Hallaj was an anomaly. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism with the masses, yet Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He began to make enemies, and the rulers saw him as a threat. This was exacerbated by times when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God. During one of these trances, he would utter Ana al-Haqq أنا الحق, meaning “Truth is me” or “I am God” and also, “In my turban is wrapped nothing but God,” which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, as Al-Haqq is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. In another statement, Hallaj would point to his cloak and say, “Maa Fil Jubbati Illa-Allah” meaning “There is nothing inside/underneath the cloak except God.”

These utterances led him to a long trial, and subsequent imprisonment for eleven years in a Baghdad prison. In the end, he was tortured and publicly crucified (in some accounts he was beheaded and his hands and feet were cut off) by the Abbasid rulers for what they deemed “theological error threatening the security of the state.” Many accounts tell of Al-Hallaj’s calm demeanor even while he was being tortured, and indicate that he forgave those who had executed him. According to some sources, he went to his execution dancing in his chains. He was executed on March 26, 922.

al-Hallaj’s image is very popular amongst the Kurds, both Muslim and Yezidi, and he had adherents in Kurdistan. Moreover, some of al-Hallaj’s followers were said to have escaped in the Kurdish mountains after his execution. Yet, there is a source of caution: we know very little about the religious and cultural views of the Khallaj Kurds which must be expressed in their folklore.