Mansur Al-Hallaj

Mansur al-Hallaj (Arabic:ابو المغيث الحسين بن منصور الحلاج‎ Abū 'l-Muġīṭ Al-Ḥusayn bin Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ; Persian:منصور حلاج‎‎ Mansūr-e Ḥallāj) (c. 858 – March 26, 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH – 309 AH) was a Persian mystic, revolutionary writer and teacher of Sufism. He is most famous for his saying: "I am the Truth" (Ana 'l-Ḥaqq), which many saw as a claim to divinity, while others interpreted it as an instance of mystical annihilation of the ego which allows God to speak through the individual. Al-Hallaj gained a wide following as a preacher before he became implicated in power struggles of the Abbasid court and was executed after a long period of confinement on religious and political charges. Although most of his Sufi contemporaries disapproved of his actions, al-Hallaj later became a major figure in the Sufi tradition.