e results of his love to God. On
his son asking of him a last piece of advice, "While the people of the
world," he said, "spend their energies on earthly objects, do thou apply
thyself to a study, the least portion of which is worth all that men and
Jinn can produce--the study of truth."

As he walked along lightly and alertly, though loaded with many chains,
they asked him the reason of his confident bearing. "It is," he said,
"because I am going to the presence of the King." Then he added, "My
Host, in whom there is no injustice, has presented me with the drink
which is usually given to a guest; but when the cups have began to
circulate he has sent for the executioner with his sword and leathern
carpet. Thus fares it with him who drinks with the Dragon[28] in July."

When he reached the scaffold, he turned his face towards the western
gate of Bagdad, and set his foot on the first rung of the ladder, "the
first step heavenward," as he said. Then he girded himself with a
girdle, and, lifting up his hands towards heaven, turned towards Mecca,
and said exultantly, "Let it be as He has willed." When he reached the
platform of the scaffold, a group of his disciples called out to him,
"What do you say regarding us, thy disciples, and regarding those who
deny thy claims and are about to stone thee?" "They will have a two-fold
reward, and you only a single one," he answered, "for you limit
yourselves to having a good opinion of me, while they are carried on by
their zeal for the unity of God and for the written law. Now in the law
the doctrine of God's unity is fundamental, while a good opinion is
merely accessory."

Shibli the Sufi stood in front of him and cried, "Did we not tell thee
not to gather men together?"[29] Then he added, "O Hallaj, what is
Sufism?" "Thou seest," replied Hallaj, "the least part of it." "What is
then the highest?" asked Shibli. "Thou canst not attain to it," he
answered.

Then they all began to stone him. Shibli making common cause with the
others threw mud at him. Hallaj uttered a cry. "What," said one, "you
have not flinched under this hail of stones, and now you cry out because
of a little mud! Why is that?" "Ah!" he replied, "they do not know what
they are doing, and are excusable; but he grieves me because he knows I
ought not to be stoned at all."

When they cut off his hands, he laughed and said, "To cut off the hands
of a fettered man is easy, but to sever the links which bind me to the