sistence for the morrow. The
second was never to be in honour among men. And the third was to see
God's face in mercy at his death-hour. Near the end of his life, one of
his more intimate disciples ventured to question him on this triple
prayer, and what had been its result. "As for the first and second
petitions," answered Zu'n Nun, "God has liberally granted them, and I
trust in His goodness that He will not refuse me the third."

During his last moments he was asked what he wished. "I wish," he
replied, "that if I have only one more breath left, it may be spent in
blessing the Most High." As he said this, he breathed his last.

He died 860 A.D., and his tomb is still an object of popular veneration
at Cairo.

[20] Vide Palgrave: Asceticism among Muhammadan Nations.

CHAPTER VIII

MANSUR HALLAJ
(D 922 AD)

Mansur Hallaj ("the cotton-comber"), a Persian, of Zoroastrian lineage,
was a pupil of Junaid of Bagdad, a more sober-minded Sufi than his
contemporary Bayazid Bastami. Mansur himself however was of an
enthusiastic temperament, and took no pains to guard his language. One
of his extraordinary utterances, "I am the truth," led at last to his
execution, "the Truth" being one of the recognised names of God in
Muhammadan nomenclature. Notwithstanding this, even at the present day
he passes among the Sufis for one of their greatest saints, while the
more orthodox regard him as a daring blasphemer who received his
deserts. "His contemporaries," says a Muhammadan writer, "entertained as
many different views concerning him as the Jews and Christians with
respect to the Messiah." Certainly when we read the various accounts of
him by authors of different tendencies, if we did not know to the
contrary, we might suppose ourselves reading about different persons
bearing the same name. The orthodox regard him chiefly as a sorcerer in
league with supernatural powers, whether celestial or infernal, for he
caused, it is said, summer fruits to appear in winter and _vice versa_.
He could reveal in open day what had been done in secret, knew
everyone's most private thoughts, and when he extended his empty hand in
the air he drew it back full of coins bearing the inscription, "Say: God
is One." Among the moderate Shiites, who had more than one point of
contact with the Sufis, it is not a question of sorcery at all. For them
the doctrine of Hallaj, which he had also practised himself, meant that
by using abstinence, by