When al-Hallâj was in prison, he was asked:

“What is love?”

He answered:

“You will see it today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.”


And that day they cut off his hands and feet, and the next day they put him on the gallows, and the third day they gave his ashes to the wind….

What al-Hallâj experienced publicly on the gallows of Baghdad, each lover comes to experience silently within her own heart and psyche, for

“Nothing is possible in love without death.”