KARACHI, March 17: Scholar Dr Syed Nomanul Haq, who is also convener of the Urdu subcommittee at the Lahore University of Management Sciences gave a thought provoking lecture on the life and times of the great mystic Hussain bin Mansoor al-Hallaj at the Arts Council of Pakistan here on Friday.

In his lecture he said he had read extensively read about the life and times of Hallaj and the creative works that he produced through Louis Massignon, the French scholar who had to his credit extensive research on the mystic poet.

“No one has gone beyond Massignon’s research. He is the ultimate reference source for anyone who wants to read and research on Al-Hallaj,” said Dr Haq.

According to him the killing of Hallaj had far reaching impact on Eastern poetry and literature and this is clearly from the works in Persian, Urdu and other languages. “We see it clearly in the Urdu poetry of Mir, Mir Dard, Iqbal and Faiz and even Ghalib who at one point had many of his verses heavily inspired by Hallaj’s life and martyrdom,” he said.

He said Hallaj was killed on the pretext of his anti-Islam ideas but the Hamd he created in the Holy Prophet (PBUH) honour is matchless. “How can a person who created such a great Hamd be killed on the charges of anti-Islam ideas,” he wondered.

Dr Haq also read a translation of Hallaj’s most well known written work “Kitab al Tawasin, a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticises the staleness of his adoration.

Chairman literary committee of the arts council Professor Sehar Ansari and writer Saeed Hasan Khan also spoke on the occasion. Aizazuddin Shah conducted the proceedings.