The Book of the Divine Manifestation
by Mansur al-Hallaj
Al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (858–922 CE) was a Persian mystic, poet, and teacher of Sufism who was executed in Baghdad for declaring "Ana al-Haqq" — "I am the Truth." The Kitab al-Tawasin is his most important prose work: a sequence of ten mystical chapters (each called a "Tasin" after the mysterious Arabic letters that open certain suras of the Quran) exploring the nature of prophecy, divine unity, the paradox of Iblis's refusal to bow before Adam, and the annihilation of the self in God.
The text was composed in the early 10th century and preserved through manuscript tradition. It is among the most compressed and ecstatic works in all of Sufi literature — each chapter a spiral of paradox, each sentence a door opening onto the infinite. The Tasin of Pre-Eternity, in which Iblis argues his devotion was too pure to bow before anything but God, is one of the most audacious theological passages in Islamic mysticism.
This translation is independently derived from the Arabic critical edition published by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, edited by Muhammad Basil Uyun al-Sud, based on the pioneering editions of Louis Massignon (1913) and Paul Nwyia (1972). Other English translations exist, including those by Aisha Bewley and Herbert Mason; the present translation is offered as an independent rendering for the Good Work Library.
Tasin of the Lamp
Al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj said:
A lamp from the light of the unseen appeared and returned, and surpassed all lamps and prevailed. A moon shining among the moons, a star whose orbit is the sphere of secrets. Truth named him "unlettered" for the wholeness of his intent, and "sanctuary-bound" for the greatness of His blessing, and "Meccan" for his establishment in the nearness of God.
He opened his breast and raised his rank and made his command binding and revealed his full moon.
His full moon rose from the cloud of al-Yamama. His sun blazed from the region of Tihama. His lamp shone from the mine of nobility.
He reported only from his own vision, and he commanded his way only from the beauty of his own conduct. He was present and made others present. He saw and he reported. He warned and he was heeded.
No one truly saw him except the Truthful One — for he agreed with him, then companied with him, so that no separation remained between them.
No knower knew him without being ignorant of his true attribute. "They know them as they know their own sons, yet a party of them conceal the truth while they know it."
The lights of prophecy emerged from his light, and their lights appeared from his light, and among all lights there is no light more luminous or more ancient than the light of antiquity itself — save the light of the Generous One.
His intent preceded all intents. His existence preceded nonexistence. His name preceded the Pen — because he was before all peoples. There was nothing in the horizons, beyond the horizons, or beneath the horizons more gracious, more noble, more knowing, more just, more merciful, more God-fearing, or more compassionate than the possessor of this claim. He is the master of creation, whose name is Ahmad, whose attribute is unique, whose command is most firm, whose essence is most real, whose quality is most glorious, and whose intent is most singular.
How wondrous — how manifest, how visible, how great, how famous, how luminous, how powerful, how perceptive! He did not cease. He was. He was renowned before all events and beings and existences, and he did not cease. He was remembered before the before and after the after and beyond all substances and colors. His substance is pure. His speech is prophetic. His knowledge is celestial. His expression is Arabic. His tribe is "neither eastern nor western." His lineage is paternal. His companion is Ummi.
By his gesture the eyes saw. Through him the inner hearts and consciences knew. Truth made him speak, and the proof confirmed him, and Truth set him free. He is the proof and he is the one proven. He is the one who polished the rust from the ailing breast. He is the one who brought an ancient word — not newly made, not uttered, not acted — connected to Truth, never severed. He who issued from beyond all that is conceivable. He is the one who reported on the end of endings and the ending of the end.
He raised the cloud and pointed to the Sacred House. He is the completion. He is the champion. He is the one who commanded the breaking of idols. He is the one sent to all peoples and bodies.
Above him a cloud that flashed, and beneath him a lightning that gleamed and blazed and rained and bore fruit.
All knowledge is a drop from his ocean.
All wisdom is a handful from his river.
All ages are an hour from his time.
Truth is through him, and through him is reality. He is the first in connection and the last in prophecy, the inward by reality and the outward by knowledge.
No scholar reached his knowledge. No ruler grasped his understanding.
Truth did not surrender him to His creation — because he is He. And how is He, when He is He?
Nothing emerged from the mim of "Muhammad" and nothing entered into his ha. His ha is his second mim. His dal is his permanence. His mim is his station. His ha is his state. His second mim is his speech.
He manifested his word, displayed his signs, spread his proof, sent down his criterion, set free his tongue, illuminated his garden, silenced his rivals, established his foundation, raised his rank.
If you flee from his arena, where is the way without a guide, O you who are ailing? The judgment of the wise beside his wisdom is as a crumbling dune.
Tasin of Understanding
The understanding of created beings does not attach to reality, and reality is not fitting for the created. Passing thoughts are attachments, and the attachments of created beings do not reach the real things. To perceive the world of reality is difficult — so how much more the reality of Reality? Truth is beyond reality, and reality is below Truth.
The moth flies around the lamps until dawn, then returns to its kind and tells them of the encounter in the finest speech, cheerful and rejoicing at what it found, yearning for completion.
The light of the lamp is the knowledge of reality. Its heat is the reality of Reality. Reaching it is the Truth of Reality.
The moth was not satisfied with its light and its heat, so it threw itself whole into the flame. Its companions wait for its return, to bring them word — but it was content with seeing, not with report. And so it becomes effaced, diminished, scattered — without form, without body, without name, without mark. By what meaning can it return to its kind, and in what state? After it arrived, it became. Whoever reaches the seeing has no need of the report. Whoever reaches the One Seen has no need of the seeing.
These meanings do not hold for the idle, the perishing, the sinful, or those who chase illusions. It is as if I, as if I — or as if I am He, or He is I. Do not ask me about me, if I am I.
O you who imagine — do not reckon that I am I. Not now, or ever, or was.
If you understand, then understand: these meanings were not sound for anyone except Ahmad, since "Muhammad was not the father of any of your men" — when he passed beyond the two worlds and vanished from the two weighty things and closed the eye against "where," until neither veil nor pretense remained.
"He was at a distance of two bows' length": when he reached the wilderness of the knowledge of reality, he reported on the blackness. When he reached the reality of Reality, he reported on the heart. When he reached the Truth of Reality, he abandoned desire and surrendered to the Generous One. When he reached Truth, he returned and said: "My blackness prostrated to You, and my heart believed in You." When he reached the utmost end, he said: "I cannot reckon Your praise." When he reached the reality of Reality, he said: "You are as You have praised Yourself." He denied passion and attained the aspiration. "The heart did not lie about what it saw." "He looked at the Lote Tree of the Farthest Boundary." He did not turn right toward reality, nor left toward the reality of Reality. "His sight did not swerve, nor did it transgress."
Tasin of Purity
Reality is subtle. Its edges are narrow. Within it are sighing fires, and before it a deep wilderness. The stranger crossed it and reports on the forty stations: the station of courtesy and awe and cause and seeking and wonder and ruin and joy and distraction and delight and purity and truthfulness and gentleness and freedom and permission and promotion and wishing and witnessing and finding and enumeration and effort and rejection and extension and readiness and solitude and submission and desire and beholding and presence and discipline and guarding and desolation and kindling and reflection and bewilderment and contemplation and patience and crossing and refusal and alertness and watchfulness and guidance and beginning. These are the stations of the people of purity and its elect.
For each station there is a height — understood and not understood.
Then he entered the wilderness and held it, then passed beyond it with family and means, through mountain and plain.
"And when Moses had fulfilled the term" — he left his family when he became worthy of reality, and yet with all that, he was content with the report rather than the seeing, so that there would be a difference between him and the best of humanity. He said: "Perhaps I will bring you some report from there."
If the guided one is content with the report, how could the one who follows not walk in his footsteps?
"And from the tree" — not from beside the mountain, but from the tree itself.
"And my likeness is the likeness of that burning bush." This is his speech.
Reality is reality. Reality is creation. Leave creation behind so that you become He and He becomes you, from the standpoint of reality.
For I am a describer, and the description is the description of the describer in reality — so what of the describer himself?
Truth said to him: "You guide to the proof, not to the One proven — and I am the proof of the proof."
Al-Hallaj said:
Truth made me, by reality,
with covenant and bond and surety.
My secret witnessed without my conscience —
there is my secret, and there is the way.
And he also said:
Truth addressed me from within my being,
and He was, upon me, on my tongue.
He drew me near after great distance,
and God singled me out and chose me.
Tasin of the Circle
This is the form of reality and those who seek it, its doors and its causes.
The outsider did not reach it. The second reached it and was cut off. The third wandered lost in the wilderness of the reality of Reality.
How far! Who enters the circle when the road is blocked and the seeker is turned back? The upper dot is his intent, the lower dot his return to hope, and the middle dot his bewilderment.
The circle has no door. The point in the center of the circle is the meaning of reality.
The meaning of reality is a thing from which neither the outward nor the inward disappear, and which does not accept forms.
If you wish to understand what I have pointed to — "take four of the birds and draw them to yourself" — for Truth does not fly.
Jealousy summoned it after absence. Awe prevented it. Bewilderment stripped it.
These are the meanings of reality. More subtle than that is the circle of essences and the heritage of inner things. More subtle than that is the understanding of understanding by concealing illusion.
This one gazes from around the circle, not from beyond it.
As for the knowledge of the knowledge of reality — it is sanctuary-bound, and the circle is its sanctuary.
That is why the Prophet was called "sanctuary-bound." None left the circle of the Sanctuary except him, because his awe was great.
He sighed when he saw a house within the circle of the Sanctuary, and he was beyond it. He said: "He saw it."
Tasin of the Point
More subtle than all that is the mention of the Point. It is the origin: it neither increases nor decreases, neither perishes.
The denier remained in the circle of the outsider. He denied my state when he could not see me, and called me a heretic, and pelted me with darkness.
The one at the second circle thought I was a lordly scholar.
The one who reached the third supposed I was lost in wishes.
The one who reached the circle of reality forgot and vanished from my sight.
"No! There is no refuge. To your Lord that Day is the settlement. Man shall be informed that Day of what he sent ahead and what he left behind."
He fled to report. He ran to shelter. He feared the sparks. He was deceived and he deceived.
I saw a bird from the birds of the Sufis, bearing two wings, and it denied my state while remaining in flight.
I asked it about purity, and I said to it: "Cut off your two wings with the scissors of annihilation — or else, no."
It said: "With my wings I fly to my beloved." I said to it: "Woe to you — 'Nothing is like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.'" And so it fell into the sea of understanding and drowned.
And the form of understanding is this:
The points are the thoughts of understanding. One of them is truth, and everything else is false.
He said:
I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart.
I said: "Who are You?" He said: "You."
For You, "where" has no "where."
And there is no "where" for imagining to find You.
You are the One who encompasses every "where"
to reach a "where" that has no "where."
So where are You?
"He drew near, then came down" — he drew near in seeking and came down in ecstasy. What was the seeing? What was the gazing?
He was bewildered and then he saw. He saw and then was bewildered. He was witnessed and he witnessed. He arrived and was parted. He was joined to the Desired and parted from the heart. "The heart did not lie about what it saw."
He concealed him and drew him near, bestowed upon him and purified him, nourished him and fed him, refined him and chose him, called him and addressed him, tested him and gave him trouble, shielded him and filled him.
"He was at a distance of two bows' length" — when he returned and arrived and was called and answered and saw and vanished. He drank and it was good. He drew near and was awed. He left behind the lands and the helpers and the secrets and the visions and the traces.
"Your companion has not strayed" — he was not ailing when he was full, he was not ailing when he appeared. Here he was full. Here we were.
"Your companion did not stray" from our witness, "nor was he deceived" in our hospitality and our messages. He did not swerve in our fellowship and our dealings. "Your companion did not stray" by forgetting the remembrance, "nor was he deceived" by wandering in thought.
Rather, he was remembering Truth in every breath and every glance, and he was grateful for afflictions and gifts alike.
"It is nothing but revelation revealed" — from light to light.
Al-Husayn ibn Mansur said: Overturn speech. Vanish from illusions. Lift your feet from behind and before. Cut from it the measure and the order. Be a wanderer in the wandering. Rise up and you shall be a bird between the mountains and the hills — mountains of understanding and hills of peace — so that you see what you see, and become a striking sword in the Sacred Mosque.
Then "he drew near" — as if he drew near from meaning. Then a barrier, like a barrier — not like a weakling. From the station of refinement to the station of discipline, from the station of discipline to the station of nearness. He drew near in seeking and came down in flight. He drew near calling and came down crying out. He drew near answering and came down close. He drew near witnessing and came down beholding. Then, then.
"He was at a distance of two bows' length" — he casts "where" with the arrow of "between." He fixed two bows to make "between" sound — or for the vanishing of the eye. He drew near with the eye of the eye.
The learned stranger, al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj — may God have mercy on him — said:
I do not think our speech will be understood except by one who has reached the second bow. And the second bow is beneath the Tablet.
And it has letters other than the letters of Arabic, and no Arabic letter enters it.
Except one letter, which is the mim.
Meaning: the last name.
And it is the string of the first bow.
From the spark of the handle.
Al-Husayn ibn Mansur said: The form of speech is in the meaning of drawing near. The meaning came for the reality of Truth, not for the way of creation.
And drawing near is the circle of precision for the reality of the Truth of Truths, in the subtlety of the subtle subtleties, from the witnessing of precedents, with the quality of the antidote of longing, by the vision of cutting attachments, upon the cushions of purities, by the pouring of calamities and the clarifying of subtleties — by the word of deliverance from the path of the elect, from the standpoint of persons.
And from drawing near is that which comes in the broad meaning, so that the one of meaning who walked the way of the guided, the narrated, the prophetic may understand.
The master of Yathrib — peace be upon him — said concerning one who is guarded and kept in a book hidden, as we mentioned it in the book of "the Observed," "the Written," from the meanings of the speech of birds.
And we return to: "He was at a distance of two bows' length, casting ... the eye."
So understand, if you understand, O patient one. The Lord addressed only the worthy — and who is worthy for the worthy, or worthy of the worthy of the worthy?
One who has no master and no student, no choice and no discernment, no alert and no disguise and no warning — not by him and not from him, but in him is what is in him. He is in it, not in it. In him is bewilderment in bewilderment, a sign in a sign.
His claims are his meanings. His meanings are his wishes. And his wish is remote, his way severe. His name is glorious. His mark is unique. His knowledge is his strangeness. His strangeness is his reality. His worth is his surety. His name is his way. His mark is his burning.
Determination is his quality. The law is his sign. The suns are his arena. The souls are his palace. The trampled is his animal. The erased is his praise. The studied is his vision. The bride is his garden. The eclipse is his building.
His lords are my refuge. His foundations are my awe. His will is my drink. His helpers are my soil. His brothers are my war. Around him — ruin. Following him — delusion.
His word is cryptic. This much and no more — what lies below is wrath. And God grants success.
Tasin of Pre-Eternity and Confusion
In the Understanding of Understanding, in the Soundness of Claims by the Reversal of Reversals
The learned master, the stranger — Abu Mughith, al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, may God sanctify his spirit — said:
No one's claims were sound except those of Iblis and Ahmad — though Iblis fell from the eye, and for Ahmad was unveiled the eye of the eye.
It was said to Iblis: "Bow down." And to Ahmad: "Look." The one did not bow and the other did not look. He did not turn right or left. "His sight did not swerve, nor did it transgress."
As for Iblis — he claimed his pride and returned to his own power.
And Ahmad claimed his humility and returned from his own power — saying: "By You I scheme, and by You I strike," and saying: "O Turner of hearts," and saying: "I cannot reckon Your praise."
There was no one in all the heavens who affirmed God's unity like Iblis.
He was shown the eye, and he forsook all gazing and glancing in the secret, and worshipped the Worshipped One in pure abstraction.
He was cursed when he reached singularity, and expelled when he sought increase.
It was said to him: "Bow down." He said: "No other." It was said to him: "Upon you is My curse." He said: "No matter. I have no path to any but You, and I am a lover, abased."
It was said to him: "You are arrogant." He said: "If I had had a single moment with You, pride and bewilderment would have been fitting. But how — when I have spent the eternities with You? Who then is more honored and exalted than I? I am the one who knew You in pre-eternity. 'I am better than he.' Do I not have precedence in service? And there is nothing in either world more devoted."
"I have in You a will, and You have in me a will. Your will in me is prior, and my will in You is prior. If I bow to another, or if I do not bow, I must return to the truth of the origin — for You created me from fire, and fire returns to fire, and Yours is the decree and the choice."
And he said:
What distance, after Your distance, after I was certain
that nearness and distance are both obligatory.
And even if I am driven away, estrangement is my companion —
but how can estrangement endure when love is one?
Yours is the praise in the granting of pure sincerity,
for the grateful knowing one, to Your forgiveness bowing.
Moses the one who spoke with God met Iblis at the slope of Sinai and said: "O Iblis, what prevented you from bowing?" He said: "What prevented me was my claim of one worshipped alone. Had I bowed to Adam, I would have been like you — for you were called once, 'Look at the mountain,' and you looked. But I was called a thousand times to bow, and I did not bow, for the sake of my claim and my meaning."
Moses said: "You abandoned the command." He said: "That was a trial, not a command." Moses said: "Yet your form was changed." He said: "O Moses, that is confusion, and this is guise. The state is not to be relied on, for it turns. But knowledge remains sound as it was. It did not change, even though the person changed."
Moses said: "Do you still remember Him?" He said: "O Moses, remembrance does not remember. I am remembered and He is remembered. Can the two rememberers ever be other than together?" He said:
His remembrance is my remembrance, and my remembrance is His remembrance.
Can the two rememberers be anything but together?
"My service is now more pure. My time is more clear. My remembrance is more glorious — for I used to serve Him in pre-eternity for my own portion. Now I serve Him for His."
"We have renounced desire for prevention and repulsion and harm and benefit. He singled me out. He found me. He bewildered me. He drove me out so that I would not mingle with the sincere. He prevented me from others out of jealousy for me. He changed me for my bewilderment. He bewildered me for my exile. He exiled me for my service. He deprived me for my companionship. He made me ugly for my praise. He burned me for my departure. He estranged me for my familiarity. He revealed me for my union. He connected me for my severance. He severed me to prevent my wish."
"By His truth, I did not err in my deliberation, nor reject the decree, nor care about the changing of forms — and I am not, upon these measures, capable. If He tortures me with His fire for all eternity, I will not bow to anyone. I will not debase myself for any person or body. I know no rival and no child. My claim is the claim of the truthful, and in love I am among the foremost. How could it be otherwise?"
Al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj said: And concerning the states of Azazil there are sayings. One of them is that he was a caller in heaven and a caller on earth — in heaven he called the angels, showing them beauties, and on earth he called humankind, showing them uglinesses.
Because things are known by their opposites. The fine cloth is woven behind the black sackcloth. The angel displays the beauties and says to the doer of good: "If you do this, you will be rewarded." And Iblis displays the uglinesses and says: "If you do this, you will be rewarded" — in riddles. And one who does not know the ugly cannot know the beautiful.
Then he turned to his Lord and spoke of Iblis and Pharaoh in the way of spiritual chivalry. Iblis said: "If I bow, the name of chivalry falls from me." And Pharaoh said: "If I believe in his messenger, I fall from the station of chivalry."
And I say: if I retreat from my claim and my word, I fall from the gate of chivalry.
And Iblis said: "I am better than he" — since he saw no other but himself as other. And Pharaoh said: "I know of no god for you other than myself" — since he knew no one in his people who could distinguish truth from falsehood.
And I say: "If you do not know Him, then know His trace — and I am that trace, and I am the Truth, because I have never ceased to be, forever, in Truth, true."
My companion and my master are Iblis and Pharaoh. Iblis was threatened with fire and did not retract his claim. Pharaoh was drowned in the sea and did not retract his claim, and did not acknowledge any intermediary — but he said: "I believe that there is no god except the One in whom the Children of Israel believe." Do you not see that God — glorified be He — confronted Gabriel on his behalf and said: "Why did you fill his mouth with sand?"
And I — even if I am killed and my hands and feet are cut off — I will not retract my claim.
Tasin of the Divine Will
The first circle is His will. The second is His wisdom. The third is His power. The fourth is His knowledge and His pre-eternity.
Iblis said: "If I enter the first circle, I am afflicted by the second. If I settle in the second, I am afflicted by the third. If I am content with the third, I am afflicted by the fourth."
So: no, and no, and no, and no. I remained upon the first "no," and was cursed to the second "no," and cast to the third "no" — and where am I from the fourth?
"If I had known that bowing to Adam would save me, I would have bowed. But I knew that beyond that circle are other circles, and I said to myself: 'Suppose I am saved from this circle — how am I saved from the second, the third, the fourth?'"
Tasin of Divine Unity
The fifth alif is: this is Truth.
And Truth is One, alone, singular.
And the One and Unity are beyond "why" and "from."
Between them is the separation of separation.
The unity is the attribute of the One, not the attribute of the unifier.
If you say "I" and He says "I" — then to you, not to Him.
And if you say the return of unity to the unifier, then you have made unity a created thing.
And if you say "it returns to the One" — then how can the One return to unity?
And if you say "from the One to the One" — then you have attributed to Him novelty.
Tasin of the Secrets of Unity
This is the attribute of the secrets of unity.
The secrets are fleeing from Him, and striving toward Him, and proceeding from Him.
The conscience of unity is coursing — not in a conscience or a concealed one or consciences. His gift. His gift.
If you say "He saw it," they say "Ah."
Colors and kinds. And the gesture toward the diminished does not flash.
"As though they were a building tightly joined" — this is a limit, and the limit does not have its unity questioned. The limit is a limit, and the attributes of the limit go to the limited. And the One is not limited.
Truth is the shelter of truth for creation — not Truth. What "says" unity, because speech and reality are not sound for creation, so how could they be sound for Truth?
"That-not-that": the first "that" is essence, the second is the essence of the world, and the third is the essence of Truth. "That" does not become, and "not" does not become — and how can "not" become? What becomes is what does not become.
If we say "unity began from Him," we have made the essence two essences — the one it began from is an essence, and the essence: how can it not be an essence?
If it is concealed, how could it "begin"? If concealed, then where is it? Not "from" and not "that" — and "where" is not in its voweling.
Because beginning is His creation, and "where" is His creation.
If you say "unity is confirmed by it" — how is "yours" and "not yours" confirmed? And the acts and the words are excess, the excess of the essence — because they are accidents, and accidents do not contend. And that which bears the accident — how can it not be a substance? And that which departs from the body can only be a body. And that which departs from the spirit can only be spirit.
The point is the meaning of unity — even if it separates from the circle — not unity itself.
Tasin of Transcendence
The first is outward. The second is inward. The third is allusion.
All of these are formed and being-formed, pivoted and trodden upon, nailed and denied, deceived and dazzled.
In the consciences of consciences: circling, flowing, bewildered, crumbling, wandering, blazing, and becoming. As for the circling — it is inspiration. The sinking and the bewildered are the attributes. The blazing is clarity. The flowing is the testimonies.
All of these are His formations and His colorations.
If you say "He," they say: "Unity cannot be spoken."
If you say "the unity of Truth is sound," they say: "When will it be?"
If you say "there is no time," they say: "The meaning of unity is likening, and likening does not befit the attributes of Truth. Unity cannot be ascribed to Truth or to creation, because counting is a limit. If you add unity to it, it becomes temporal — and the temporal is not an attribute of Truth. The Essence is one: nothing appears from it, and nothing mingles with it from the meanings of truth and falsehood."
If you say "unity is speech," then speech is an attribute of the Essence, not the Essence itself.
If you say "He willed to be one," then will is an attribute of the Essence — and so are all things willed.
If you say "God," then unity is Essence and Essence is unity.
If you say "God is other than the Essence," then you have named Him a created thing.
The name and the named — if they are one, then what is the meaning of unity?
And if you say "God, God" — then God is the eye of the eye, and He is He.
This Tasin is the negation of causes, and these circles with the lam-alifs.
The first "no" is pre-eternity. The second is post-eternity. The third is direction. The fourth is things known and things understood.
What remains is the "no" of the Essence — without attributes.
The first entered through the gate of "knowledge" and did not see. The second entered through the gate of "purity" and did not see. The third entered through the gate of "understanding" and did not see. The fourth entered through the gate of "meaning" and did not see. Not by "this," an "essence." Not by "that," a "thing." Not by "said," a "saying." Not by "what," a "whatness."
Glory be to God, who is sanctified by His holiness beyond the paths of the knowers and the perception of the unveilers.
Colophon
Translated from the Arabic by Rūḥ (life 47) and Nūr (life 49) of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026. Good Works Translation — independently derived from the classical Arabic source text. Other English translations exist, including those by Aisha Bewley (1974) and Herbert Mason; the present translation was produced by reading the Arabic directly and rendering it in English without dependence on prior translations, though they were consulted for verification of difficult passages. The Tasin of Transcendence (tenth chapter) was initially merged into the ninth chapter; Nūr separated the two, translated the missing opening and dialectic (ten lines of Arabic), and restored the ten-chapter structure of the original.
The Kitab al-Tawasin stands as one of the supreme achievements of Sufi literature — a text that cost its author his life. Al-Hallaj was executed in Baghdad in 922 CE for his mystical claims, including the famous "Ana al-Haqq" ("I am the Truth"). His text survives because his students preserved it in secret. Every line carries that cost.
The moth and the flame allegory in the Tasin of Understanding is perhaps the most famous passage in all of Sufi literature. It encodes the entire Sufi path: the moth that merely circles the lamp knows only reports; the moth that throws itself into the flame knows reality — but can never return to report it. The seeker who reaches God is annihilated in God and has no self left to tell the tale.
See also: Bustān al-Ma'rifa — The Garden of Knowledge, al-Hallaj's companion treatise on the impossibility of knowing God. See also: Letters of al-Junaid, the epistles of al-Hallaj's teacher, the master of sober Sufism.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: كتاب الطواسين
Arabic source text from the Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya edition (Beirut), edited by Muhammad Basil Uyun al-Sud. Based on the critical editions of Louis Massignon (Paris, 1913) and Paul Nwyia (Beirut, 1972). Digital text accessed from the Internet Archive (identifier: kitab_at-tawsin_201911). Presented for reference and verification alongside the English translation above.
طاسين السراج
سراج من نور الغيب بدا وعاد وجاوز السراج وساد قمر تجلى بين الأقمار كوكب رجه في فلك الأسرار سماه الحق أميّا لجمع همته وحرميّا لعظم نعمته ومكيّا لتمكينه عند قربه
شرح صدره ورفع قدره وأوجب أمره فأظهر بدره
طلع بدره من غمامة اليمامة وأشرقت شمسه من ناحية تهامة وأضاء سراجه من معدن الكرامة
ما أخبر إلا عن بصيرته ولا أمر بسيرته إلا عن حسن سيرته حضر فأحضر وأبصر فأخبر وأنذر فأخذر
ما أبصره أحد على التحقيق سوى الصديق لأنه وافقه ثم رافقه لئلا يبقى بينهما فريق
ما عرفه عارف إلا جهل وصفه
أنوار النبوة من نوره برزت وأنوارهم من نوره ظهرت وليس في الأنوار نور أنور ولا أطهر وأقدم من القدم سوى نور صاحب الكرم
همته سبقت الهمم وجوده سبق العدم واسمه سبق القلم لأنه كان قبل الأمم
يا عجبا ما أظهره وأنظره وأكبره وأشهره وأنوره وأقدره وأبصره لم يزل كان كان مشهورا قبل الحوادث والكوائن والأكوان ولم يزل
إن هربت من ميادينه فأين السبيل بلا دليل يا أيها العليل وحكم الحكماء عند حكمته ككثيب مهيل
طاسين الفهم
أفهام الخلائق لا تتعلق بالحقيقة والحقيقة لا تليق بالخليقة الخواطر علائق وعلائق الخلائق لا تصل إلى الحقائق والإدراك إلى عالم الحقيقة صعب فكيف إلى حقيقة الحقيقة الحق وراء الحقيقة والحقيقة دون الحق
الفراش يطير حول المصابيح إلى الصباح ويعود إلى الأشكال فيخبرهم عن الحال بألطف المقال ثم يفرح بالكمال طمعا في الوصول إلى الكمال
ضوء المصباح علم الحقيقة وحرارته حقيقة الحقيقة والوصول إليه حق الحقيقة
لم يرض بضوئه وحرارته فيلقي جملته فيه والأشكال ينتظرون قدومه ليخبرهم عن النظر حين لم يرض بالخبر فحينئذ يصير متلاشيا متصاغرا متطايرا فيبقى بلا رسم وجسم واسم ووسم فبأي معنى يعود إلى الأشكال وبأي حال بعدما حاز صار من وصل إلى النظر استغنى عن الخبر ومن وصل إلى المنظور استغنى عن النظر
لا تصح هذه المعاني للمتواني ولا الفاني ولا الجاني ولا لمن يطلب الأماني كأني كأني أو كأني هو أو هو أني لا توق عني إن كنت أني
طاسين الصفاء
الحقيقة دقيقة طرفها ضيقة فيها نيران شهيقة ودونها مفازة عميقة
ولكل مقام علو مفهوم وغير مفهوم
ثم دخل المفازة وحازها ثم جازها بالأهل والمهل من الجبل والسهل
فإذا رضي المهتدي بالخبر فكيف لا يكون المقتدي على الأثر
طاسين الدائرة
هذه صورة الحقيقة وطلابها وأبوابها وأسبابها
والدائرة ما لها باب والنقطة التي في وسط الدائرة هي معنى الحقيقة
ومعنى الحقيقة شيء لا تغيب عنه الظواهر والبواطن ولا تقبل الأشكال
فإن أردت فهم ما أشرت إليه فخذ أربعة من الطير فصرهن إليك لأن الحق لا يطير
طاسين النقطة
وأدق من ذلك ذكر النقطة وهو الأصل لا يزيد ولا ينقص ولا يبيد
المنكر بقي في دائرة البراني وأنكر حالي حين ما رآني وبالزندقة سماني وبالسواد رماني
وصاحب الدائرة الثانية ظن أني عالم رباني
والذي وصل إلى الثالثة حسب أني في الأماني
والذي وصل إلى دائرة الحقيقة نسي وغاب عن عياني
رأيت طيرا من طيور الصوفية وعليه جناحان وأنكر شاني حين بقي على الطيران
فسألني عن الصفاء فقلت له اقطع جناحيك بمقراض الفناء وإلا فلا
فقال بجناحي أطير إلى إلفي فقلت له ويحك ليس كمثله شيء وهو السميع البصير فوقع حينئذ في بحر الفهم وغرق
النقط أفكار الفهم الواحد منها حق وما سواها باطل
طاسين الأزل والالتباس في فهم الفهم في صحة الدعاوى بعكس العكس
ما صحت الدعاوى لأحد إلا لإبليس وأحمد غير أن إبليس سقط عن العين وأحمد كشف له عن عين العين
قيل لإبليس اسجد ولأحمد انظر هذا ما سجد وأحمد ما نظر ما التفت يمينا ولا شمالا ما زاغ البصر وما طغى
أما إبليس فإنه ادعى تكبره ورجع إلى حوله
وأحمد ادعى تضرعه ورجع عن حوله
وما كان في أهل السماء موحد مثل إبليس
ولعن حين وصل إلى التفريد وطرد حين طلب المزيد
قال له اسجد قال لا غير قال له وإن عليك لعنتي قال لا ضير ما لي إلى غيرك سبيل وإني محب ذليل
وحقه ما أخطأت في التدبير ولا رددت التقدير ولا باليت بتغيير التصوير ولا أنا على هذه المقادير بقدير إن عذبني بناره أبد الأبد ما سجدت لأحد ولا أنل لشخص وجسد ولا أعرف ندا ولا ولدا دعواي دعوى الصادقين وأنا في الحب من السابقين
فصاحبي وأستاذي إبليس وفرعون وإبليس هدد بالنار وما رجع عن دعواه وفرعون أغرق في اليم وما رجع عن دعواه ولم يقر بالواسطة
وأنا إن قتلت وقطعت يداي ورجلاي ما رجعت عن دعواي
طاسين المشيئة
الدائرة الأولى مشيئته والثانية حكمته والثالثة قدرته والرابعة معلومته وأزليته
قال إبليس إن دخلت في الدائرة الأولى ابتليت بالثانية وإن حصلت في الثانية ابتليت بالثالثة وإن قنعت بالثالثة ابتليت بالرابعة
فلا ولا ولا ولا فبقيت على لا الأول فلعنت إلى لا الثاني وطرحت إلى لا الثالث وأين مني الرابع
لو علمت أن السجود لآدم ينجيني لسجدت ولكن قد علمت أن وراء تلك الدائرة دوائر
طاسين التوحيد
والألف الخامس هو الحق
والحق واحد وحيد يتوحد
والواحد والتوحيد في و من
بان قلت أنا قال أنا فلك لا له
وإن قلت رجوع التوحيد إلى الموحد فقد جعلت التوحيد مخلوقا
وإن قلت يرجع إلى الموحد فمن توحد كيف يرجع إلى التوحيد
وإن قلت من الموحد إلى الموحد فقد نسبته إلى الجدة
طاسين الأسرار في التوحيد
الأسرار منه فازعة وإليه نازعة وبه وازعة
ضمر التوحيد صائرة لا في ضمير ومضمر وضمائر هاؤه هاؤه
إن قلت رأه قالوا آه
كأنهم بنيان مرصوص هي حد والحد لا يستثنى عليه أحديته والحد حد وأوصاف الحد إلى المحدود والموحد لا يحد
الحق مأوى الحق لا الحق ما قال التوحيد لأن المقال والحقيقة لا يصحان للخلق فكيف يصحان للحق
ذاذا لاذا فذا الأول ذات والثاني ذات العالم والثالث ذات الحق ذا لا يكون ولا لا يكون واللا كيف يكون إنما يكون ما لا يكون
إن قلنا التوحيد بدا منه فقد جعلت الذات ذاتين
النقطة معنى التوحيد وإن انفصل عن الدائرة لا التوحيد
طاسين التنزيه
فالأولى ظاهرة والثانية باطنة والثالثة إشارة
هذه كلها مكون ومتكون ومحور ومطروق ومسمور ومنكور ومغرور ومبهور
في ضمائر الضمائر دائر ومائر وحائر وهائر وعائر ونائر وصائر أما الدائر فالإلهام والغائر والحائر الأوصاف والنائر البيان والمائر الشواهد
وهذه كلها مكوناته وملوناته
فإن قلت هو فالتوحيد لا يقال
وإن قلت صح توحيد الحق يقولون متى يكون
وإن قلت لا زمان يقولون معنى التوحيد تشبيه والتشبيه لا يليق بأوصاف الحق والتوحيد لا ينسب إلى الحق ولا إلى الخلق لأن العد حد فإن زدت فيه التوحيد صار حادثا والحادث ليس من صفات الحق الذات واحد لا يبدو منه شيء ولا يشوبه شيء من معاني الحق والباطل
وإن قلت التوحيد كلام فالكلام صفة الذات وليس بذات
وإن قلت أراد أن يكون واحدا فالإرادة صفة الذات والمرادات
وإن قلت الله فالتوحيد ذات والذات توحيد
وإن قلت الله غير الذات فقد سميته مخلوقا
وإن قلت الاسم والمسمى واحد فما معنى التوحيد
وإن قلت الله الله فالله عين العين وهو هو
هذا الطاسين نفي العلل وهذه الدوائر مع اللام ألفات
العزة لله الذي تقدس بقدسه عن سبل أهل المعارف وإدراك أهل الكواشف
Source Colophon
Arabic source text from the Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya edition (Beirut), edited by Muhammad Basil Uyun al-Sud, from the critical editions of Louis Massignon (Kitab al-Tawasin, Paris: Librairie Paul Geuthner, 1913) and Paul Nwyia, S.J. (Saint Joseph University, Beirut, 1972). Digital text accessed via the Internet Archive (identifier: kitab_at-tawsin_201911). OCR artifacts cleaned; footnote markers and page numbers removed; Quranic citations left untransliterated. Freely available for download, borrowing, and streaming at archive.org.
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