Betrayal

There are two kinds of lunatics, insane and crazy people existing in this world. People, whose thought processes drops down below the common understanding of normal, regular people are one such kind. Another kind are those whose thought processes far exceeds the logic and morality of common people. Since in both the cases, an average person with an average intellect cease to understand both the kinds, he easily labels them as lunatics. Somewhere around 900 AD, lived a man called Mansoor Al-Hallaj who was a Mystic and a Sufi poet/writer from a region of Persia which is now modern day Iraq. He belonged to the latter category of the two kinds who was sentenced to death by the then existing king for blasphemy.

He had a better and higher understanding of the almighty but his ways of expressing himself were not in line with the understanding of common people of his time including his king. His thoughts were above the standards existing then. He was a devout Muslim and knew the Quran by heart. His simple life and words of virtues influenced many people, thus creating many followers for him. In moments of ecstasy, trance and meditation he used to chant, Anal Haq meaning 'I am the truth'. He started making enemies among people who translated this as him saying, 'I am God'. He used to say there is no difference between me and God. We are one and the same thing. For this he was charged with blasphemy and sentenced to death. What no one understood was that by saying 'I am God' he actually was too humble to acknowledge his own existence in front of God. By saying that 'I am a follower and servant of God' creates two existence, 'I' and 'God' but he was so humble that he completely denied his own existence, that he is nothing, null, zero for 'Him'. What exists is only God and nothing else. Decades later, Rumi presented a beautiful understanding of this concept in one of his works.

I dont know if I was clear above but let me explain taking an example. Most of us know the famous Pythagoras Theorem, i.e. In a right angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. If a,b,c are sides of a triangle and c is the hypotenuse, then

a² + b² = c²

Now, if Mr. Pythagoras would have simply given the above equation without actually deriving it or proving it, everyone would have called him a lunatic. Therefore, for the understanding and realization of common man, he had to give a derivation proving the left side of the equation is equal to the right side of equation. Mansoor's case was similar but the problem was that he directly gave the end result to the people in a state of trance without actually proving it. He did not considered important to explain his experience with each and everyone.

There exist many different versions of his ending. Some say he was hanged, some say he was cut into pieces and some say he was stoned to death. It is not important what happened but there was an interesting incident that happened then which I once read about.

He had a good friend named Shivli (not sure about the name). They were good friends and Shivli understood him completely, about what he meant through his experiences and was very close to him. They shared a common understanding on spiritual matters which was a base of their friendship. Now the king ordered the punishment of stoning to death for Mansoor. The day was decided and everyone gathered with stones in their hands to throw at Mansoor. Now, Shivli was in a huge dilemma. If he did not threw a stone at him, he would be considered his accomplice in crime and might have to face the same punishment. On the other hand, if he threw a stone at him it would be against the ethics of friendship and denying what he meant was correct. Finally, the stoning started and to everyone's surprise Mansoor started laughing with each stone he received. Even with blood spurting out of his body he kept laughing and was happy in his trance that the people are making it easier for him to meet his God. Now Shivli, in this moment of half denial, took a rose flower half heartdley and threw at Mansoor just in order to fit in the crowd. But with the soft hit of the flower, Mansoor screamed with excruciating pain. Shivli was flabbergasted seeing his reaction. He politely asked Mansoor that why did you screamed when I hit you with a soft, delicate flower ? You were laughing with joy when stones were hurled at you by others. Why such a different attitude towards me ? Mansoor, in throes of utter pain replied to Shivli that I considered 'you' a friend. I thought that at least 'you' would understand me. At least 'you' were also of the same school of thought like me. At least 'you' understood the meaning of God and his existence. I was laughing at people hurling stones at me because I considered them ignorant. But you betrayed me by throwing that flower. That flower has caused thousand times more pain to me than those stones.

Last weekend, a friend of mine left me with a similar pain. When the trust you have build up in someone is betrayed you feel that pain.