allahu.cipher

Al-Hallaj scaled Mount Qaf, the highest of mountains, even until his head peeked through the clouds, and then he gained a caught the tail of a passing comet that carried him into the heavens. Then he leapt onto the lowest of the stars, and climbed his way up through the seven heavens, until he arrived at the concentric ranks of angels on high, singing the praises of the Most Merciful, and circling about the Throne.

There were two angels, a black angel and a white one, standing guard before the approach, and he asked them if they would grant him safe passage. They looked at one another, then looked at Hallaj.

“Have you renounced all desires?” the black angel asked him.

“Yes, indeed I have.”

“Have you renounced all expectations?” the white angel asked him.

“Yes, I have renounced all expectations.”

They looked at one another again, and nodded, then they parted way, and allowed Hallaj to float up and up through the ranks of the angels.

The Throne loomed bigger and bigger as he approached, until he was floating in space before it. The Throne was empty. Hallaj was puzzled.

He asked the nearest angel, “Is there anyone seated here?”

The angel scowled at having to interrupt his song. “Not recently,” he replied, then began singing once again.

Hallaj was not satisfied with the answer. “Well, when was the last time anyone sat there?”

The angel let out a great sigh. “I don’t know. Not during my tenure.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Since the beginning. Now please stop with the interruptions,” the angel said with a huff.

So Hallaj decided to wait, and wait some more. A thousand years passed, and then ten-thousand years. The millennia and the epochs now flashed by, and in all that time, Hallaj saw no one seated in the Throne, nor any sign of anyone.

There was no pause in the relentless litanies of the angels. It was the same thing over and over again, with only the subtlest of variations, for millions of years. He couldn’t take it any more. He broke down in tears.

“You are all mad! Do you know that? You are all completely insane. Singing this dreadful song, and there’s no one even here. There’s never anyone here. God has left you. He’s abandoned you, if He was ever here at all, don’t you get it?”

One of the angels stopped singing, broke from the ranks, and flew to Hallaj’s side.

“You don’t see it, do you?” the angel said.

“See what? There’s nothing to see. Millions and millions of years of nothing to see!”

The angel smiled a knowing smile. Then he leaned over to Hallaj, took him by the shoulder, and whispered in his ear: “You are right. There is nothing to see. The Throne is empty. Stop waiting.”

Hallaj turned to the Throne. His eyes widened. And then he started laughing, and laughing some more. He laughed so hard that his sides hurt, and split open, and then the pain became pure bliss.

Then his laughter turned into a song, and he joined the angels in their ranks, singing the song along with the multitudes.