International Journal of Management and Humanity Sciences. Vol., S (3), 4316-4324, 2014
Available online at http://www.ijmhsjournal.com
ISSN 2322-424X©2014
The Symbol of Al-Hallaj with Abdal-Wahhab Al-Bayati and Sir
Muhammad Iqbal
*
MajidYaghoobi , FirozHarirchi
Department of Arabic Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
*
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
Abstract
Contemporary Arab and Iranian poets were inspired by figures like Al-Hallaj to express their
ideas and experiences. The contemporary poets Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati and Sir
Muhammad Iqbal used Al-Hallaj in Arabic and Persian literature, respectively, as a symbol
in service of the aesthetic structure, imagery and rhetorical aspects in their Qasida. Abd alWahhab Al-Bayati used Al-Hallaj as a symbol to present a transparent picture of the
gruesome social and political conditions afflicted his country. In fact, Al-Bayati’s main
reason for using the symbol of Al-Hallaj was their common characteristics such as the
revolutionary nature and struggle against oppression. However, Sir Muhammad Iqbal used
the symbol of Al-Hallaj to represent the role of intellectuals and their effect on society.
Since Iqbal nurtured effective thoughts on creation, chaotic social conditions and emphasis
on real independence, he used Al-Hallaj as a symbol who had born similar thoughts.
Keywords: Al-Hallaj, symbol, Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati, Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Introduction
Al-Hallaj sustained an important, vague experience over historical periods so that his religious and
sophist character, unlike religious and political characters of his time, opposed the dominant rule due to
oppression, dictatorship and repression of freedom. His rebellious character ended up with execution. This
1
sorrowful experience demonstrates part of what happened in a land of calamity and disaster .
2
Freemasons of Al-Hallaj’s time, the time of a real cause in Islamic thought , are considered as similar those
th
in the 15 century period in the West. Al-Hallaj was born into a poor family with a rich background in
knowledge and intellectualism.
Many Iranian and Arab poets have used Al-Hallaj as a symbol to represent their experiences relevant to
social, political and religious realities. Still, every poet has used the symbol in their own specific style. Thus,
some have only alluded to him in their Qasida while some have written Qasida on him or devoted a topic to
him. This suggests that the symbolic persona of Al-Hallaj has played an important role in contemporary
poetry. This symbolic persona has secured a high-standing niche in the Qasida written by Iranian and Arab
poets such as Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati and Sir Muhammad Iqbal. It is normal for such a great character to
be inspirational due to his religious, scholarly and sophist standing such that he prevailed the poets’
emotions. The poets have thus drunk from the fountain of his concepts and terms and used him as a symbol
in their poems with rhetorical and critical styles.
Definition of symbol
Symbol literally means an indication or sign. The word is also used in Quran where it says, ‘your sign is that
3
you will not [be able to] speak to the people for three days except by gesture .’This means that you can only
4
talk to people with gesture for three days such as hand or head gestures .
1
AbūHārūnAbd al-Nāīr: Diwan al-Hallaj, 5.
See Turk Yaşar: Hossein Mansour Al-Hallaj the martyr of love and truth and his works, translated by Tofigh H. Sobhani, 16; cited from Massignon’s
The Passion of al-Hallaj, Vol. 1, 288-295.
3
Quran, Surat 'Āli `Imrān, Verse 41
4
MakaremShirazi, TafsirNamoneh, Vol. 1, 299
2
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5
In Lesan Al-Arab, symbol is defined as whisper or indication of lips, eyebrow and eyes . Symbol is also
defined as another way of communication, affinity or agreement, particularly what is used to represent a
6
visible object .
In non-literal sense, a symbol is defined as what refers to a virtual entity by implication. This emotion is not
controlled by sense perceptions due to similarities of the two entities; rather, it hinges on the emotion of the
7
symbol users . Hegel contends that a symbol may be discerned as it bears meaning and feeling since
8
meaning is associated with allegory or subject, and feeling is the illustration or existence of a sense .
Ibrahim Zakaria asserts that the concept of symbol goes beyond its level in terms of implication since a
9
certain spiritual emotion is derived from symbols . Vafa Mohammad Ibrahim writes that a symbol has an
origin and illustration of meaning and indication that encompasses various implications where all images
10
correspond to the implication . Moein defines a symbol as bearing the epithets of hidden, secret and
ambiguous language and the conveyance of a message by lips, eyebrows, mouth, eyes, hands and tongue –
11
that a symbol is implication and indication .
Signs of symbolism
As there are rhetorical and inductive indications in a symbol, poets do not talk with sense illustrations to
represent objects to the readers. Rather, they use the terms that inspire and make the entities tangible to the
12
readers. Symbols direct the readers with implication and indication from the tangible to the intangible world .
Emergence of symbolism
4.1 In French literature
The school of symbolism emerged as a literary movement in the early 1870s with the publication of Charles
Baudelaire’s the flowers of evil in 1875. Rimbaud, Farlen and StéphaneMallarmé followed the symbolism
movement that reached its maturity in 1886.
4.2 In Arabic literature
In its early stages, Arabic literature remained distant from symbolism and other artistic and literary genres
with which Arabs were unfamiliar. Poetry was the only art that Arabs could work. The poets did not need to
use symbols in other literary devices such as epigrams, appreciations, elegies, descriptions, sonnets and
eulogies. For example, there is no sign of symbols in the following line:
‘A night closed its curtains like the sea and I have to bear all calamities’
13
The poet is not a symbolist though he uses simile and other literary devices . When Arabic and European
cultures met in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and French language and culture was introduced into
Egypt and Levant, the Arabs came to know and imitate the symbolist poets, hence the emergence of
western-like schools in Arabic poetry. However, contemporary Arab poets of the new school of blank verse
poetry imitated western poetry in both form and content and passed western schools such as symbolism
down to us. The poems written by Salah Abd al-Sabur, Badr Shaker al-Siab, FadaviToghan, AmalDanghal
and Al-Bayati as well as the poems of resistance school in Palestinian lands written by SamihQassim and
Mahmoud Darwish are fraught with symbols that constitute the major part of their writings. Examples are the
use of such symbols as Christ, cross and baptism. Besides, the poets used symbols from eastern and
14
western mythologies as well as sophist figures such as Al-Hallaj .
4.3 In Persian literature
Although symbolism began in Europe, it had its roots in classical Persian literature. Classical Persian poets
enjoyed good wisdom in life, which made symbolism scarce in their lives. However, with the emergence of
15
sophist literature, the symbolism flourished in their poetry .
In contemporary Persian literature, symbolism began with Nima since he studied and was influenced by
French symbolists. Thus, he introduced some of the properties of their symbolism into Persian literature.
16
This is because Nima tried to use poetic ambiguity as a style in Persian poetry . In fact, Nima was
interested in a kind of symbolism known as ‘social symbolism’ that is also evident in the works of his
5
IbnManzour, Vol. 3, 119
American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 1302
Adnan Al-Zahbi: Psychology of Symbols, Journal of Psychology, 1, 246-265
8
Hegel:L'artsymbolique, translated by G. Tarbishi, 11
9
Ibrahim Zakaria: Falsafa al-Fan Fi Fekr al-Moaser, 255
10
Vafa Mohammad Ibrahim: Elm al-Jamal QazayaTarikhia and Moasera, 79
11
Mohammad Moein: Farsi Thesaurus, 511
12
Raja’ Adnan: The Language of Poetry, Study of Contemporary Arab Poems, 16
13
Charles Chadwick: Symbolism, translated by Nasim Ibrahim Yousef, 24-25
14
Ibid, 25-28.
15
See Mahdi Sharifi: Symbols in Spehri’s poetry, cited from Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant: Dictionnaire des symbols, translated by
SodabehFazayeli, 228
16
Ibid, cited from Taghi Pour Namdarian: Symbol and symbolic fiction in Persian literature, 229
6
7
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successors such as Shamloo and Akhavan . There are numerous symbols in Persian literature derived from
Iranian civilization and other cultures with many commonalities among nations. Painting and drawing, drama,
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music and cinema use symbols that are common among most nations with nuances in meaning .
Al-Hallaj symbolism with Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati
The contemporary Arab poet Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati drew upon the voice of Al-Hallaj the sophist and used
him as a symbol in his Qasida. He expressed his previous stances and his current crises by alluding to Al19
Hallaj . Al-Bayati uses Al-Hallaj as a symbol in his poetry due to the commonalities between them. Al-Hallaj
20
can be seen at specific emotional moments of Al-Bayati . “In a moment, as Al-Bayatisays, the
21
correspondence between Al-Hallaj and I was strong. I had no choice but to write the Qasida this way ”.
While he was walking around Al-Azhar, that is reminiscent of Islamic civilization, he was overwhelmed by a
22
specific feeling . Of the commonalities between them is that they are both intellectuals: both have suffered
from alienation and expulsion. As Al-Hallaj was known as a revolutionary and his words on truth, justice and
contemporary oppression circulated among people, Al-Bayati had the same reputation. Al-Bayati was
influenced by sophism since he grew up in a religious family where he found religious books and publications
23
in his grandfather’s library. He went on pilgrimage to the shrines of saints . Thus, he integrates revolutionary
and sophist tendencies in some of his poems. Sophists believed in the virtue of resistance against the
governor. They had no appreciations for the temptations of wealth, position and money so that they were
24
free of mundane attachments . The atmosphere of sophism dominated and internalized in Al-Bayati the
signs of which was evident in his poetry.
25
“Oh! My inebriant with its love and my distressing agent with its closeness”
The above line is similar to the Al-Hallaj’s famous sentence where he says ‘Oh! One who intoxicated me with
26
his love and made me wander around his proximity’ .
With slight changes in his poetry, Al-Bayati writes:
‘Became alone
Embraced
27
And appreciated – you are me’ .
The above is taken from Al-Hallaj:
28
‘Is it you or I who are in two buttercups, be it away be it away from you to prove these two’ .
Al-Bayati also writes:
29
‘He killed me, he led me astray, he forgot me; he signed my death sentence a thousand years ago’ .
The above line is similar to a poem by Al-Hallaj as follows:
‘My companion is alien to injustice
He called and welcomed me as a guest treats a guest
30
And when the things turned, he called on me with execution gears and sword’ .
Here, Al-Bayati refers to two sophist terms in his Qasida: manifestation and revelation that denote common
emotions in sophists. Indications of these two terms are seen in Al-Hallaj’s pray before he was hanged,
‘Allow me to thank the blessing You bestowed upon me. Why did You not demonstrate the light of thy face
and others failed to see thy secrets. These servants of God push to kill me for their bias for thy religion and
closeness to thee. Forgive them since should thou demonstrated to them what thou demonstrated to me,
they would not do that. And should thou concealed to me what thou hast concealed to them, I was not
31
afflicted by this suffering’ . Besides, there are other phrases with sophist allusions such as ‘you knocked on
my door’, ‘you open the curtain at our presence’, ‘thou art at the start of ending’, ‘the needy’, ‘torn gown’, ‘my
lover’, ‘my embracing’, ‘shape of lights’, ‘my loneliness’, ‘phony witnesses and the governor’, ‘Satan’s feast’
32
and ‘it only eulogizes thee’ and so on . Such instances will be shown in the sample sentences in the
following sections.
17
Fadavi al-Lashkari: Contemporary Persian poetry, published in World Association of Arab Translators & Linguists website
Mohsen Goharpur: Literature and symbolism, 18
19
See Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, 260; cited from Mohsen Atmish: Dair al-Malaeek, 159; and from
MohiaddinSobhi: al-Roya Fi She’r Al-Bayati, 140; and from Ali Haddad: Athar Al-Torath Fi She’r Al-Araqi al-Hadith, 159
20
See Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, 260
21
Ibid, 260; cited from A-Bayati: Vardat-ulMostahil, Majalat-ul al-Arabi al-Kuwait, 1998, 472, 90
22
Ibid
23
Ibid; cited from Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati: My poetic experience, 83 and 103
24
Aziz Al-SeyedJasim: EltezamvaTasavof Fi She’r Al-Bayati, 226-227
25
Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati: Kolliat, Vol. 2, 11
26
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, 161; cited from Massignon and Kraus: Akhbâr Al-Hallâj, 17
27
Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati: Kolliat, Vol. 2, 15
28
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, 261; cited from Akhbâr Al-Hallâj, 75
29
Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati: Kolliat, Vol. 2, 15-16
30
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, 262; cited from Akhbâr Al-Hallâj, 34
31
Ibid
32
Ibid, 262-263
18
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5.1 Al-Hallaj torment Qasida
The Qasida consists of six stanzas that hinge on sophist elements in its structure. Two sophist-based
inseparable voices, though not totally integrated, dominate the Qasida. The first voice, that is Al-Hallaj’s, is
clearer and is the main pillar of the Qasida. The second voice, however, is unclear. The reason for this
unclarity is the ‘artistic trick that Al-Bayati has invented to pass into his protagonists. But Al-Bayati’s tone is
34
not clear and he has given this voice a disciple’s characteristic , which is the poet’s voice indeed’. This is
the voice that, as MohiaddinSobhi says, begins the Qasida no matter is the voice represents ‘a unified soul
35
at the time of demonstration’ or ‘a vagrant’s voice’. This voice, however, is not Al-Hallaj’s or Al-Bayati’s.
There is a voice that begins the Qasida by addressing Al-Hallaj and Al-Bayati: the voice ‘entails advice in its
eulogy and sometimes turns to reproach. This is due to the high status of the voice and its spiritual
36
dominance over the addressee’ .
‘It descended in the dark and vanity
Your soul was dyed with paints
You drank from their wells
You felt dizzy
Your hands were stained with ink and dust
And I see you plunging into the ash of this fire
Your silence is a spider’s house and your crown is Tamarind’.
Words and terms used in this stanza represent a mental chaos as a result of contradictions these two poets
dealt with in their time. This chaos makes their lives dark and dismal. Both poets confronted the calamities
and hardships of their time. The Al-Bayani’s hands are stained with ink and dust, and he has started wiping
them with the fire of which only some ash remains. Al-Hallaj has lost one of the main characteristics of a
sophist, i.e. the commitment to remain calm and silent. He failed to remain committed and thus he was
crowned with disaster and difficulty rather than wisdom. Thus, he had to bear reproach.
The evolution and development of the disciple’s persona is evident in the first stanza when it is given a
reproach since ‘it has fallen into darkness and vanity when his hands are stained with paints and has drunk
from their wells’. However, in the second stanza, words have gone away and the character is looking for the
roots and pure wells unstained with paints and mist. Thus, he seeks help. Besides, the character shows his
interest in the voice in the first stanza: ‘oh! One who has butchered his camel for the neighbor’. In the second
stanza, the voice of the same character is heard: ‘I butchered my female camel and the man with the sword
and blood on hand ate it’. In the first stanza, the character supplicates while asking this questions ‘where am
I from and thou appeared to me?’ and ‘where did it end and you are at the beginning of the end?’ However,
the character is directed toward his goal in the second stanza without fear or doubt and makes his demand
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with certainty . Thus, he says:
‘Among the years of death and occupation, reach your hands to me
Silence and search for roots and wells
And torn the light
And for the executioner to accept it
I butchered my camel and the executioner ate it
And they went.’
However, the third stanza represents the mosaic of a mean human façade that is disparaged due to fear and
greed by coercion, wealth and governors. This stanza depicts the governor’s clown who is amusing the
governor and his entourage with his funny tomfoolery. The tomfoolery is not devoid of sarcasm and a
tendency toward vanity and is the reverberation of a hopeless human’s suffering – one that providence has
crushed him under the feet of the oppressors. Al-Bayati considered the clown’s character as a model for
personal ambitions that direct the clown towards destruction and vanity. He depicted the clown’s character
as a stain on the face of humanity and a reflection of injustice, lack of freedom and decadence of human
relations. The clown implies weakness, disappointment, strong frustration, meanness and humiliation that
fills human at the time of oppression. The poet writes this stanza with a narrative tone with an implication on
38
the past though it has many verbs in the present tense .
‘Being or not being
In the past’
33
Ibid, Al-A’mal al-Shari’a, Vol. 2, 9
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, 263-264; cited from Mohsen Atmish: Dair al-Malaeek, 109
4
ibid, 263; cited from MohiaddinSobhi: al-Roya Fi She’r Al-Bayati, 140 and after
5
ibid, 264
34
37
38
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, Ibid, 272
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, Ibid, 273
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In this stanza, Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj presents the characteristics of the actions of a clown that is primarily
characterized by banality and vanity and writes:
‘He plays with arches and walks on the edge of sword and smoke
He dances on the ropes, eats glass and dives in while singing and drunk’.
In the fourth stanza of ‘trial’, Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj appears with great intention, strength and persistence to
resist oppression and despotism of the governor because he cannot withstand oppression. He has
committed himself to resisting the governor after his spiritual integration. Thus, he addresses the governor
with two words:
‘I said two words to the governor
I said: coward
I said two words to the hound’.
Then he selects death with a calm mind not bearing a twinge of conscience because he has a good feeling
having done his duty regardless of what is awaiting him. He answers this voice and says:
‘I slept two nights
I dreamed I had not said these two words
He went lonely
He embraced
He said well done – you are me’.
However, the poor for whom he opposed the governor’s oppression bemoaned his fate with cries and tears
without helping him because they could not do so. He was indulged in the dreams of integration and
embracing. While he felt he was free of misfortune and loneliness, he was waken up by the wrong call of his
time in dread:
‘He yelled among the city ruins
The poor are my brethren
They cry, I woke up with the wrong call of the time in dread
I found nothing except the phony witnesses and the governor
They wriggle and dance around me! This is the Satan’s feast’.
Being surrounded by evil forces such as the governor, phony witnesses, wolves, their kin and entourage, he
has no weapon at hand except words and will. He stood up to oppression and despotism and faced the
looming fate alone:
‘This is I who am naked among the wolves’
Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj begs for help and blames the voice that propelled him toward this fate. This voice
stimulated him toward revolution and rebellion against the governor and his followers, but when he fell into
the hands of the oppressors, the voice left him alone. He has no power and thus blames the voice with a
particular sorrow and believes that not the governor and his executioners but the voice is his murderer:
‘You killed me, you strayed me, you forgot me, you signed my death decree a hundred years ago’.
Despite blaming the stimulating voice, Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj is still committed to the goal and the message
without any regards for the death. The trial stanza is the introduction to this sad ending in the fifth stanza,
‘the cross’, to meet the inevitable doom. This stanza reflects two stages: first is the description of a status
that Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj experienced in prison:
‘In the years of infertility and famine
He congratulated me, he embraced me, he talked to me and reached his hand for me.
And he told me:
The poor crowned you
The lepers, the blind and slaves blocked the way on him
And he told me beware
And he closed the window’.
Despite the loneliness and hardness that dominated the prison, this voice appeared in the first stanza. The
disciple was a source of intimacy and affection. When the voice faded, Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj was longing to see
it passionately. The visit is paid in the prison again and the voice remains with him until the due time:
‘Our time is the doomsday, the wind does not wipe the stamp of words on water’.
The end of this visit was mixed with warning and concern. The voice left Al-Hallaj alone to face his fate.
‘He told me beware
And he closed the window’.
The prisoner is waken from the commotion and delirium of the visit where he is surrounded by the beginning
of the second part of this stanza:
‘Judges and witnesses and executioners came forth
They burned my tongue
And looted my garden
And spitted in the well, oh my inebriant
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And the guests repelled me’.
Thus, the word inspiring the revolution is rebellion and insurrection. The word should be uprooted to crush
the revolution. Thus, burning the tongue is the only way to uproot the word. The followers and entourage of
the governor seized my manuscripts and ‘looted my garden’. They led a propaganda attack to raise doubt in
people about Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj. They spitted in the well to keep people away from the word and mislead
39
40
them during rebellion and insurgence. They displaced and tortured people . ‘They repelled the guests’ .
After killings and destruction, Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj had a certain goal. They could not help but to seek a way to
pass the pain and suffering:
‘Where can I pass by this river?
The fire has become cold ash’
He yelled to relieve from the pain. Maybe a window could open to him to freedom:
‘Oh! You who have closed the doors, where can I from
Infertility and ruins
My table, my last dinner in the life’s feast’.
He had no hope for freedom, but Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj asks for help so that the final divine power in him could
open the doors and windows of freedom to him:
‘Open the window to me, oh! Reach your hands to me’.
This stanza indicates the Al-Hallaj’s haste to escape from death. He is restless to face his fate and relive
from the agony. In describing the scene, Al-Bayati has introduced innovations by particular emphasis on the
phrases that indicate destruction and assertiveness such as the solders’ attack on houses and gatherings.
41
‘Judges came forth… They burned… And looted… And spitted…and displaced… ’. They quickly destroyed
the things and created apprehension in different ways with great precision.
In the sixth stanza called ‘ash in the wind’, Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj presents greater details of the pain and agony
which he overlooked due to connections and unity. The reason is the Presence for which he sacrificed
42
himself in his lifetime . ‘This may somewhat emphasize the continuation of life – even after his crucifix and
43
death’ . This stanza is divided into two stages: the first illustrates the pain, agony, torture and suffering that
Al-Hallaj had to bear during his execution and later:
‘I was filled with fear for ten nights
They tore the strings of my body
They burned it
And scattered its ash in the wind
They looted the pages of my notebook
And destroyed its passion
And soaked its letters in mud
They stained my torn gown with blood
This is I without the threadbare clothes’
During ten nights, the executioners tortured him with the most heinous torments. They burned his body and
cut it to pieces. They even treated the pages, words and letters with cruelty: ‘They looted the pages of my
notebook, and destroyed its passion, and soaked its letters in mud.’ Then they trod on his body that no
44
longer looked like a body . ‘They stained my torn gown with blood. This is I without the threadbare
45
clothes ’.
However, the second stage indicates the burning and amputation of the body:
‘Like this burning fire and wind, I live for ever
Oh! The drops of summer rain, oh! The city from which no one has ever returned
Our time is the doomsday, so do not play with the guitar of the body
The strings of my body became the farm manure
In the forest of ash…’
Al-Hallaj was crucified, his hands and legs were cut off, his body was burned and his ash was scattered in
the wind. Al-Bayati/Al-Hallaj reached the freedom they longed for. Fire and wind released him from the
prison ‘so that his soul could traverse the places freely, all seasons and times could meet at once: the drops
of summer rain, the city from which no one has ever returned’. His particles scattered and mixed with the
39
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, Ibid, 282
Al-A’mal al-Shari’a, Ibid, 17
41
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, Ibid, 283
42
Ibid, 284
43
ibid
44
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, Ibid, 285
45
Al-A’mal al-Shari’a, Ibid, 19
40
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existential elements, which makes him eternal and leads to the ultimate fate : ‘our time is the doomsday, so
47
do not play with the guitar of the body’.
Al-Hallaj symbolism with Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal had strong connections with several cultures and civilizations. He grew up in a
religious, Muslim family. He spent his youth in European universities, which significantly contributed to his
intellectualism. He was one of the intellectuals who had a new approach to religious thought. His intellectual
characteristics entailed mystical aspects as well. He conveyed his mystic thoughts to people in simple
language. He encouraged people to uprise under the guidance of Islamic unity and solidarity. He believed
that art should serve human life to help human live. However, if the art is devoid of such properties, it will
lead to chaos and the decadence of the Islamic Ummah.
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6.1 JavidNamehQasida
Iqbal believes that love is the only motive in life and the best model of love is that represented by the prophet
of Islam (Peace be Upon Him) and the holy Quran. Muslims can solve their problems in the light of Islamic
teachings. He could link these discussions with literature, particularly with poetry to which he gave a specific
varnish. JavidNamehQasida titled ‘eternal mirror’ reflects his thoughts about the creation, adversities of the
time, turbulent situation, his disappointment in the adults and hope in the young to lead so that they would
49
understand the words of the poet and work toward real independence and reform . Thus, he is reminiscent
of a number of effective figures in the history of Islamic Ummah one of whom is Al-Hallaj. In the ‘Jupiter’s
50
firmament’ , Iqbal remembers Al-Hallaj as follows:
‘From one’s dust, the demand for a fire invisible, no other demonstration is befitting to demand
I have indulged so in my own self that the lovers’ flaunt overshadowed the world but I have no time to see
51
it.’
In JavidNameh, the poet asks a few questions including the loss of paradise from Al-Hallaj:
‘Why are you away from the status of the pious?
52
Why have you lost the paradise? ’
Al-Hallaj answers that:
‘A free man who knows good and bad
Cannot be confined to paradise
For the layman, paradise is but wine, servants and fairies
The paradise to the noble is incessant travel
The paradise of the layman is eating, sleep and joy
53
The paradise to the noble is the observation of the existence ’
Al-Hallaj believes that the noble human who knows good and evil cannot be confined to enormous gardens
as his soul is greater than those gardens. The pious practices piety to reach a heaven that accommodates
the fairies and servants. However, the paradise for the noble liberals is asking freedom for themselves and
people. Al-Hallaj considers that the paradise to the pious is sleeping and joy. Nevertheless, to the lover,
paradise is pondering the make of the creation and existence that reflect the power of God. Then the poet
asks about providence, death and life and wants to know about the fate of a human who knows nothing of
fate, death and life:
‘It’s the flow of fate and life and death while no one knows what his fate is’.
Al-Hallaj answers:
‘Whoever has the fate on his side will scare the Satan and death away
A willful man is the gazelle of religion; men’s aggressiveness is the result of enormous strength’.
Then the poet asks about the plot weaved to torture and kill him. What sin did they kill him for?
‘The mean ones weaved plots and hanged the servant of God
54
Obvious to you the hidden being; say what your sin was .’
Al-Hallaj answers:
‘I have the trumpet’s sound in my chest; I saw a nation who were meant for the tomb
55
The pious with the temperament and smell of the heretic said halleluiah and denied it themselves ’.
46
Mohammad Ali Kendi: al-Ramzva al-Qena’ Fi She’r al-Arabi al-Hadith, Ibid, 286
Al-A’mal al-Shari’a, Ibid, 19
48
IqbalLahori: KolliatIqbalLahori, 364
49
Iqbal’s Farsi Di wa n , published in www.roshd.ir
50IqbalLahori: KolliatIqbalLahori, 364
51IqbalLahori: KolliatIqbalLahori,transated by HosseinMojib Al-Mesri, 791
52Ibid, 791
53Ibid, 794
54IqbalLahori: KolliatIqbalLahori, ibid, 797
55IqbalLahori: KolliatIqbalLahori,transated by HosseinMojib Al-Mesri, 791
47
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When the poet asks about the plot that resulted in Al-Hallaj’s death, he answers that the plot was woven
against him because he had the sound of the trumpet in his chest in which he blew with the words of the
divine. He also invites people to distinguish good from evil, defend freedom, human dignity, resist oppression
and despotism. Nevertheless, he sees the devotees who have come to life only to die rather than to think
about life and its events. They behave as the heretic do, they say halleluiah but they deny their lives that
God has created. The poet goes on to ask Al-Hallaj about his claim of having seen God as he said:
56
‘I saw God with the eyes of my heart and asked Him who He was and He was me .’
The poet asks Al-Hallaj:
57
‘What is it to see the God of nine skies whose wisdom rotates the moon and sun’.
Al-Hallaj answers thus:
‘The stamp of divine should be put on your soul first
58
Once the stamp of soul matures in the world, the divine becomes vivid’ .
59
6.2 ‘The status of Nietzsche’ Qasida
The poet illustrates the symbolic character of Al-Hallaj in another Qasida entitled ‘the status of Nietzsche’
and thus creates the idea in the reader that there are commonalities between Nietzsche and him. Iqbal
represents Nietzsche as having an astute vision and wishing a free, noble life for human. The poet considers
that Nietzsche defended human dignity, mind and thought so that he understood the concept of death as a
sacrifice to others. He believes in a war for death and survival. Death is a message to life. A prosperous
human is one who recognizes his position and is prepared for death. The life keeps changing incessantly like
a wind that has no stability and does not continue in a single direction. The poet talks of human, of fighting
extinction and of how to use the message of death in life. Thus he speaks of Nietzsche:
‘Wherever there was or was not a clash, no one knows the mystery of the azure firmament
Wherever the death gives the message of life, happy one who knows what death is
60
Wherever life is as cheap as wind, it is unstable and claims stability’ .
In this Qasida, the poet compares Nietzsche with Al-Hallaj:
‘Again, this Hallaj utters the old words in new ways without gallows
His words are brave and his thought is grave. The aliens are split with the sword of his words.
No companion did notice his attractiveness but he considered me mad enough
61
The wise gained nothing of love and selflessness. They see his pulse in the hands of the doctor’ .
The poet compares the Nietzsche’s effective character and words with Al-Hallj’s. Both speak with brave,
effective and sharp words like sword. Both have bright ideas that attract the companions so smoothly that
they do not feel it. Thus, the attracted individual looks like a lunatic. Even a sane individual is attracted to
them and he is filled with joy and is deprived of the love.
Conclusion
A symbol is a beautiful literary device that poets can use to express the realities in their mind that
are difficult to utter. As an Iranian figure, Al-Hallaj is internationally renowned. Many contemporary Arab and
Iranian poets have used this figure as a symbol based on their literary ability to articulate realities as well as
political, social, religious and emotional events in their lives. Al-Hallaj is the symbol of the embodiment of
emotions, feelings and ideals in Arab and Iranian poets. They communicate the characteristics of their
societies using certain indications relevant to the transformations in their societies. Therefore, Iranian and
Arab poets have used the symbolic character of Al-Hallaj to cause political, social and cultural changes.
Al-Bayati raises the issues of his time using Al-Hallaj’s figure as a symbol – the symbol that can inspire. To
this end, the symbolic character of Al-Hallaj is reproduced and recycled in these issues. Besides, Al-Bayati’s
personality and his special sophism, that was associated with his life and conditions, provided a coherent
picture that is close to the Al-Hallaj’s. This picture represents a revolutionary condition and fighting against
the oppression of the rulers of his time. Al-Hallaj was known for challenging the religious, political and social
concepts of his time. This symbolized him as an icon of revolution and uprising. Since Al-Bayati was a
revolutionary figure fighting against social and political conditions, he found Al-Hallaj’s character as a good
framework through which to utter his revolutionary ideas so that he could picture the crises and suffering he
experienced as a result of political, social and religious backwardness.
However, Iqbal used the symbolic figure of Al-Hallaj to show his role as an effective intellectual in the history
of Islamic Ummah because Al-Hallaj did not intent to seize power through his revolutionary and religious
56AbdaWazen: Diwan Al-Hallaj, 112
57KolliatIqbalLahori, ibid, 803
58KolliatIqbalLahori, ibid, 804
59
KolliatIqbalLahori, ibid, 364
60
KolliatIqbalLahori, ibid, 822
61
Ibid, 822
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thoughts. Rather, he was interested in social justice, remediation of social conditions, distinction of good
from evil and the development of freedom and awareness. Iqbal was one of the intellectuals who had
effective ideas. He tried to improve the unsuitable conditions in his society. Therefore, he chose Al-Hallaj as
an effective figure through which to utter his ideas in his Qasida.
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