Abu Yazid and al-Hallaj

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

The first Tasawuf began from regular practices, are being doing with war againts deviation from the true principles of religion or mujahadah, from beleved of mystcs were doing by society, or from religion teaching about God, it interested tried done meditation by the head of religion. Are being looking for met God or got revelation (wahyu) direct from God or dzat mystics.
After they succeed got ma’rifah and revelation, they tried arranged teaching or their tasawuf falsafi with result of their concepts teaching or changed with other concepts teaching. Such as developing of tasawuf, wich are began from act of zuhud, one of them built by Ibrahim Ibn Adam and Rabiah al-Adawiyah.
Present emerge one of great tasawuf thinking is Mansur al-Hallaj and Abu Yazid al-Bustami. Falsafi thingking emerged after many sufi got ma’rifat grade. And than tried going to aspects of Islamic teaching from their mysticsm. So that concepts such as ittihad, hulul, wahdat al-wujud, wushul are emerged.
So, for the next chapter, the I would like to describe both of sufi above and their concepts of sufism, with the aim all of readers know and understand from this paper.













CHAPTER II
ABU YAZID AL-BUSTAMI AND AL-HALLAJ


A. ABU YAZID AL-BUSTAMI
A. 1. The Biography of Abu Yazid al-Bustami
Bayazid Bastami (Persian بايزيد بسطامى ), also known as Abu Yazid Bistami or Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bustami, (804-874 CE) was a Persian Sufi born in Bastam, Iran.
The name Bastami means "from the city of Bastam". Bayazid's grandfather was a Zoroastrian who converted to Islam. His Grandfather had three sons, Adam, Tayfur and 'Ali. All of them were ascetics. Abayazid was born to Tayfur.
When Bayazid died, he was over seventy years old. Before he died, someone asked him his age. He said: I am four years old. For seventy years I was veiled. I got rid of my veils only four years ago.”
He died in 874CE and is buried either in the city of Bistam in north central Iran, or in Semnan, Iran. Bayazid lived a century before Abul Hassan Kharaqani. Attar Neishapouri has mentioned in his book Tadhkiratul-Awliya that Bayazid had spoken about the personality and state of Shaikh Abul Hassan Kharaqani with his disciples while passing from the village of Kharaqan, almost 100 years before the birth of Shaikh Abul Hassan. Bayazid Bastami had great influence on Sufi mysticism and is considered to be one of the important early teachers of Sufi Islam.
A. 2. The Tasawuf Teaching of Abu Yazid al-Bustami
Bastami's predecessor Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri (d. CE 859) had formulated the doctrine of ma'rifa (gnosis), presenting a system which helped the murid (initiate) and the shaykh (guide) to communicate. Bayazid Bastami took this another step and emphasized the importance of ecstasy, referred to in his words as drunkenness (sukr or wajd), a means of annihilation in the Divine Presence. Before him, Sufism was mainly based on piety and obedience and he played a major role in placing the concept of divine love at the core of Sufism.
Bastami was truly the first to speak openly of "annihilation of the self in God" (fana fi 'Allah') and "subsistence through God" (baqa' bi 'Allah). His paradoxical sayings gained a wide circulation and soon exerted a captivating influence over the minds of students who aspired to understand the meaning of the wahdat al-wujud, Unity of Being.
Fana (Arabic: فناء extinction, annihilation) Through a series of stages (maqamat) and subjective experiences (ahwal), this process of absorbation develops until complete annihilation of the self (fana) takes place and the person becomes al-insanul-kamil, the "perfect man". It is the disintegration of a person's narrow self-concept, social self- and limited intellect (feeling like a drop of water aware of being part of the ocean). The stage is also called Fana fit tawheed ("extinction with the unity"), and Fana fil Haq (Extinction in the reality).
The main of his teaching is Fana’ and baqa’. He defined fana’, As etymology, Fana’ from the word faniya, its mean disappear or annihilate. As termynology of tasawuf, fana’ was meaning as morals condition of the glorious.
R. A. Nicholson said that fana’ is the complement and consummation of death to self (fana’), is everlasting life in God (baqa’). To pass away from self (fana’) is to realize that does not exist and that nothing exist except God (tauhid). The highest stage of fana is reached when even the consciousness of having attained fana disappears. This is what the Sufis call "the passing-away of passing-away" (fana al-fana). The mystic is now wrapped in contemplation of the divine essence.
Since it is a state of complete annihilation of carnal self, absorbation or intoxication in God, the pilgrim is unable to participate in worldly affairs, he is made to pass into another state known as Fana-al-Fana (forgetfulness of annihilation). It is a sort of oblivion of unconsciousness. Since two negatives make one positive, the pilgrim at this stage regains his individuality as he was when he started the journey. The only difference is that in the beginning he was self-conscious, but after having reposed in the Divine Being, he regains that sort of individuality which is God-consciousness or absorbation in God. This state is known as Baqa-bi-Allah — living or subsisting with God. (Alhaj W.B.S. Rabbani, Gems of Sufi Gnosticism)
Last of many sufi defined about fana’ as fana’ from the activity of soul morals or the condition lost from bad morals.
Al-Tusi defined fana’ is human lost from their views of act, because Allah wish it from him.
Al-Qusyairi defined fana’ is human who showing the great of their competences in abnormal condition, so he was fana’ from all creation (makhluk) activity.
DR. Ibrahim Basyuni defined fana’ is spiritual condition wich felt losting from nature, therefore with him self without losting from human being morals self.
Abu Yazid achived to fana’ after he leaved from his desires except to God. He said that fana’ as losting his realized (al-fana’ ‘an al-nafs) till he unrealized his organism as human, his realize met with wishing of God (irodah), does not meet with his organism as reality. Abu Yazid described his experience when he was dream, about the way to get fana’, one a night he being dream and saying:

يا خدا كيف الطريق اليك؟ فقال دع نفسك و تعالى
And he ever said word fana’ from one of his saying:
اعرفه حتى فنيت ثم عرفت به فحييت
The process of annihilation from him self (fana’) can not be seperated from baqa’. It’s mean, if the process of annihilation human morals from the result of annihilation, so the next will be emerged the true of human morals. Many sufistics teaching established that fana’ and baqa’ are must be combined.
Baqa’ (البقاء) (Arabic: بقاء بالله eternal life in union with God), the word baqiya, it is mean to remain, to persevere. Terminologically, it is mean to remain good morals toward God. This is the state where man comes back to his existence and God appoints him to guide the humans. This is a state in which the individual is part of the world, but unconcerned about his or her rewards or position in it. This doctrine is further explained in an authentic tradition of the prophet which states that God said:
And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have enjoined upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing Nawafil (praying or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with which he walks
There is another verse from Qur'an , that is used to explain this concept.
We (Allah) are nearer to him (man) than his jugular vein.(50:6)
When Sufis have come out of the Fana fillah state and enter Baqa billah, many of them have produced works of unsurpassed glory, especially in the fields of philosophy, literature, and music.
Al-Qusyairi said that fana’ and baqa’ are can not be seperated, are must be combined, as he said:” human who leave bad morals, so he was being fana’ from his desires. With that condition, human being in baqa’…human who really zuhud from the world, so he was being in his desires and lso being in baqa’ with sincere in his inabah.
There are sufistics teaching wich established combination between fana’ and baqa’:
من فني عن جهله فى الموافقات
من فني عن المخالفات بقي فى الموافقات
من فني عن الأوصاف المذمومة بالأوصاف المحمودة
من فني عن اوصافه بقي باوصاف الحق

When processing of fana’, many sufi are tried looking for al-dana ‘an al-nafs, it’s mean that passing from al-fana’ ‘an al-nafs, so the all condition of realized are annihilated except the real of organism.
Abu Yazid is one of sufi’s who was passing “ma’rifah”, after he got fana’ and baqa’ than he felt unity of being or Ittihad.
Harun Nasution explained ittihad is one part of gradation when sufi felt one in God or unity of being , gradation that who lovers can be felt with God.
As etymology, ittihad mean unitive stave. In sufism dictionary, it’s mean the unity between God and human meing. Ibrahim Madkur defined that ittihad is the higher class wich able be got on the way of human soul.
A. R. al-Badlawi defined that ittihad is the changable of lead role between God and sufi.
Abu Yazid defined that ittihad is “tafrid fana’ fi al-tauhid” the combination between God and sufi without going anything. When he felt fana’, so he should be going to leave his organism and going toward God, depend on his syatahahat:
لست أتعجب من حبى لك فأنا عبد فقير, و لكنى أتعجب من حبك لى وانت ملك قدير.
When he was being ittihad, he said:
قال : يا أبا يزيد انهم كلهم خلقى غيرك فقلت: فأنت أنا و أنا أنت.
He continued in his saying:
فانقطع المناجة فصار الكلمة واحدة و صار الكل بالكل واحد. فقال لى: ياأنت, فقلت به: ياأنا, فقال لى: أنت الفرد. قلت: أنالفرد. قال لى: أنت أنت, قلت: أناأنا.
He ever said when after prayer shubuh:
انى أناالله لااله الا أنا فاعبدنى.
When someone passed Abu Yazid house and he knocked the door, Abu Yazid was asking “who did you looking for? That person answered: “Abu Yazid”, so Abu Yazid said: “go a head from thim house, only Allah The Lord God”.
All above Abu Yazid saying were giving impresson that he was syirk toward God, because of that, on sufi’s history there was caught and jailed by council because of their saying, that made awam person confussed.

B. AL-HALLAJ
B. 1. Biography of Al-Hallaj
Mansur al-Hallaj (Arabic: منصور الحلاج‎ - Mansūr al-Hallāj; Persian: منصور حلاج - Mansūr-e Hallāj; full name Abū al-Mughīth Husayn Mansūr al-Hallāj) (c. 858 - March 26, 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH-309 AH) was a Persian mystic, writer and teacher of Sufism most famous for his apparent, but disputed, self-proclaimed divinity, his poetry and for his execution for heresy at the orders of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir after a long, drawn-out investigation.
He was born around 858 in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means "cotton-carder" in Arabic). Al-Hallaj's grandfather may have been a Zoroastrian. His father lived a simple life, and this form of lifestyle greatly interested the young al-Hallaj. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'an and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.
Al-Hallaj later married and made a pilgrimage to Makkah, 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 traveled as far as India and Central Asia gaining many followers, many of whom accompanied him on his second and third trips to Makkah. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.
During his early lifetime he was a disciple of Junayd Baghdadi and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both.
His best known written work is the Kitab al Tawasin , Arabic (كتاب الطواسين) or Ta Sin al Azal, which includes two brief chapters devoted to a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3).
B. 2. The Teaching Tasawuf of al-Hallaj
Among other Sufis, al-Hallaj was an anomaly. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism with the masses, yet al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He began to make enemies. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God. During one of these trances, he would utter Arabic: أنا الحق‎ Anā l-Ḥaqq "I am The Truth", which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, since al-Ḥaqq "the Truth" is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. In another controversial statement, al-Hallaj claimed "There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God," and similarly he would point to his cloak and say, ما في جبتي إلا الله Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh "There is nothing in my cloak but God."
It's possible that there was a confussion due to translation in the controversy over "I am the Truth". The word for God in Persian is khoda, and the word for self is khod. Hallaj might have meant a play on "I am God" and "I am self" to suggest "God is the self" or the idea that God is from within the self or God is within us.
The famous of part one of al-Hallaj tasawuf teaching are al-Hulul, wahdat as-Syuhud those were being developed by Ibn ‘Araby is wihdat al-wujud. He admited, that he ever felt in unity with God. Hulul teaching is teaching was tought by al-Hallaj. According to tasawuf teaching, he ever said:
أريد ان لا أريد
أنا لا أريد من الله الا الله.
When he was being got ittihad, from his queer saying is:
سبحانى سبحانى ما اعظم شأنى
Hulul from the word hall-yahull-hulûl, it is mean stop or silent. According to al-Hallaj philosophy sufism that hulûl is the experience spiritual of a sufi till he felt near with God, and thah he choosed for taking place and assume a form it. Hulul concepts based on theory of lahut and nasut. Lâhût from the word ilah, it’s mean God. Lahut is the characteristics of devinity. Nasut from the word nas, it’s mean human being, nasut it’s mean the characteristics of humanity. He said that in organism human being there is the character of God, that he used nuqil on verses:
و اذ قلنا للملائكة اسجدوا للآدم فسجدوا الا ابليس أبى و استكبر و كان من الكافرين (البقرة : ۳۵).
Al-Hallaj comprehend that in human there is oneness of God, because before He create the creation, God show him self and also He loves with his character (dzat) self, that love can not be characteristic, it the reason that wujud and from reasons present.
Al-Hallaj took hulul theory from christiany that Allah choosed the body of Isa prophet, occupied, and assume a form toward Isa child of Maryam. Isa prophet became God, because moral value had lost. As in his syathahat:
أنا سر الحق مالحق أنا # بل أنا حق ففرق بيننا
After unity doctrin developed, emerge doctrin of wahdat al-wujud. This philosophy was brought by Muhy al-Din Ibn al-Arabi. In this philosophy, nasut of al-Hallaj changed by al-Khalaq (human being) and lahut (God). Because of his syathahat he death, with his story “He wanted to testify of this relationship to God to others thus even asking his fellow Muslims to kill him (Massignon, 79) and accepting his execution, saying that "what is important for the ecstatic is for the One to reduce him to oneness." (Massignon, 87) He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die "in the supreme confession of the cross" (Olivier Clément. Dio è carita, p. 41) Like Christ, he gave his execution a redemptive significance, believing as he did that his death "was uniting his beloved God and His community of Muslims against himself and thereby bore witness in extremis to the tawhid (the oneness) of both." (Mason, 25) For his desire of oneness with God, many Muslims criticized him as a "'crypto-Christian' for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way." (Mason, 25). His death is described by Attar as a heroic act, as when they are taking him to court, a Sufi asks him:"What is love?". He answers: "You will see it today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow." They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that. "This is love," Attar says. His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, "I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there's only one step to heaven, cut that if you can." And when his hands were cut off he paints his face with his own blood, when asked why, he says: "I have lost a lot of blood, and I know my face has turned yellow, I don't want to look pale-faced (as of fear)...".







CHAPTER IV
ANALYSES

Bastami was truly the first to speak openly of "annihilation of the self in God" (fana fi 'Allah') and "subsistence through God" (baqa' bi 'Allah). His paradoxical sayings gained a wide circulation and soon exerted a captivating influence over the minds of students who aspired to understand the meaning of the wahdat al-wujud, Unity of Being.
Al-Hallaj took hulul theory from christiany that Allah choosed the body of Isa prophet, occupied, and assume a form toward Isa child of Maryam. Isa prophet became God, because moral value had lost.
The character hulul Allah on Isa is fundamental and permanent. And than the character of hulul Allah on al-Hallaj is non-permanent; spiritual and emotional were compelled; non-fundamental. Al-Hallaj doesn’t became and declared that he was God , except his shathahat on the condition unrealized. Al-Hallaj doesn’t lost his moarl a value. Other than tazkiyat al-nafs is the way to purify soul on the process of maqâmât till he felt near toward God and being in al-fanâ’ 'an al-nafs. Out put from tazkiyat al-nafs is lahut human being became purified, till he could received hulul from nâsût of God.













CHAPTER V
SUMMARY


After sufi passing ma’rifah process, they tried up to higher level, it mean that they felt unity toward God, it was mean by ittihad, hulul, wahdat al-wujud and Isyraq. So those are would going to tasawuf philosophy.
On the process of unity between human being and God, there are two concepts; human being and God. Those teaching are fana’ and baqa’, both are were bought by Abu Yazid and continued with ittihad doctrin. He defined ittihad “tafrid fana fi al-tawheed”.
Al-Hallaj is the famous sufi, that he brought tasawuf philosophy about “al-Hulul” Hulul concepts based on theory of lahut and nasut. Lâhût from the word ilah, it’s mean God. Lahut is the characteristics of devinity. Nasut from the word nas, it’s mean human being, nasut it’s mean the characteristics of humanity.