those of his words that accord with the leading masters—that is, what the Quran and Sunnah indicate.

Worse still is to base an account of the beliefs of Allah’s friends concerning the foundations of religion on words whose like have been reported only from al-Hallāj, who was executed for heresy. The best his defender can say is that he was a righteous man whose spiritual conduct was sound, but that spiritual ecstasy and his inward state overwhelmed him until he stumbled in his speech and no longer knew what he was saying.

The words of an intoxicated man are to be put aside, not passed on. Thus, the man executed is a martyr, and his executioner is one striving in Allah’s cause. Leave aside what is said by those who accuse him of trickery and mingling truth with falsehood.

None of the masters of the path, whether early or late, considers al-Hallāj correct in everything he said. Rather, the Muslim community has agreed that he was either mistaken, disobedient, flagrantly sinful, or an unbeliever. Whoever says that he was correct in all these