Words from Hallaj al-Mansur That Fall Upon the Heart
The wisdoms of Hallaj al-Mansur are a selection of short sayings that touch the human heart, character, and inner discipline. Each saying may appear as a simple note on its own, but behind it lie fundamental issues such as the discipline of the nafs (the lower self), awareness of mortality, knowledge, adab (spiritual courtesy), and maturity of the qalb (the heart).
01
“O Allah! People love You because of the blessings You grant; but I love You because of the trials You give.”
02
“Man is a universe, but the universe is also man. If you look individually, you see many; if you look as a whole, you see one.”
03
“A speck, a tiny dot within the universe. Within the dot, the dot is within it. Both within the universe, and the universe within it. From Him, but not Him.”
04
“The dot is the foundation of all lines.”
05
“Hell is not the place where we suffer; it is the place where no one hears that we suffer.”
06
“Love that does not perform ablution with its own blood is not from us.”
07
“Ordeal is the ONLY way to reach Sublime Goals and to attain Lofty results.”
08
“If the one who chooses is not the one who creates the options, then this is slavery, a loss of personality and selfhood.”
09
“O Allah! People love You because of the blessings You grant; but I love You because of the trials You give.”
10
“In my life is my death, in my death is my life, and I count death as happiness.”
11
“To understand the other, it is not to absorb the other into oneself, but to go to them.”
12
“It is not the stone thrown by the enemy that wounds us, but the rose thrown by the Friend.”
13
“The speech of tongues is from the destruction of hearts.”
14
“The outward aspect of love is as you see it. Its inward aspect, due to its subtlety, is hidden from the people.”
15
“Here are Your servants, gathered to kill me for Your sake. Forgive them. For if You had shown them what You showed me, they would not have acted thus. And if You had veiled from me what You veiled from them, I would not have been as I am.”
16
“I have become an ocean of generosity, to whom shall I plead? I have perished in infinity, whose name shall I mention?”
17
“Why do people first turn this paradise-world into hell... And then strive to go to paradise?”
18
“O Allah! Forgive these cruel servants of Yours who have separated me from my soul.”
19
“O love, did you notice, as you burned yourself, that hell envied you?”
20
“O human! Among all created things, there is nothing smaller than the atom, and yet you cannot comprehend it. Can a person who cannot even recognize the atom know Him, Who is more imperceptible than this atom?”
21
“Ordeal is the only way to reach sublime goals and to attain lofty results.”
22
“Renouncing the world is the work of the nafs; what matters is to be able to renounce the hereafter, which is the work of the ruh (the spirit).”
23
“High character is, after recognizing the Truth (al-Ḥaqq), to not be affected by the harm and hardship that comes from people.”
24
“The gallows is the miʿrāj (ascension) of the saints.”
25
“The Sufi (Sufism/taṣawwuf) is the one who, from the very beginning, aims to reach God. He does not know what it is to rest until he finds what he seeks.”
26
“Do not seek hell on the Day of Resurrection; you will find it wherever no one understands you.”
27
“In fact, man is an ocean. Just as one dives into the blue waters of the sea, we must dive into the depths of our own selves and find, somewhere there, the hidden treasure, the pearl.”