What do the esteemed scholars—may Allah be pleased with them—say concerning “al-Hallāj, al-Husayn ibn Mansūr”? Was he a man of consummate truthfulness or a heretic? Was he a pious friend of Allah who feared Him? Or did he possess a spiritual state bestowed by the Most Merciful? Or was he among those who practised sorcery and charlatanry? Was he executed for heresy in the presence of Muslim scholars, or was he killed unjustly? Give us your ruling; may you be rewarded.

Shaykh al-Islām Abū al-Abbās Taqī al-Dīn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halīm ibn Abd al-Salām Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah sanctify his soul—replied:

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds. Al-Hallāj was executed for heresy established against him both by his own admission and by other evidence. What was established against him warranted execution by the consensus of the Muslims. Whoever says that he was killed unjustly is either a hypocrite and heretic or an ignorant, misguided person. He was executed for the various forms of disbelief widely reported from him; even some of these warranted his execution, let alone all of them together.

He was not among Allah’s pious friends. Rather, he engaged in acts of worship, ascetic disciplines, and spiritual striving: some were satanic, some arose from his own soul, and some conformed to the revealed law in one respect but not another. Thus he mingled truth with falsehood. He had travelled to India, learned various forms of sorcery, and authored a well-known book on sorcery that remains in existence to this day. He also uttered satanic sayings and performed fraudulent feats of trickery.