Hasan al-Basri

Ebu Sa'id el-Hasan bin Yesar el-Basri, generally referred to as Hasan al-Basri, was an early medieval Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete (mufassir), scholar, and qadi.

Born in Medina in 642, Hasan belonged to the second generation of Muslims, all the members of which would later be referred to in Sunni Islamic piety as the Tabiʿin. He became one of the most famous members of the Tabiʿun, with an admired scholarly career and an even more remarkable legacy in the Islamic sciences.

Respected for his simple life and his understanding of "asceticism" (renunciation), Hasan preached against worldliness and materialism in the early period of the Umayyads, and his passionate sermons left "a profound effect on his contemporaries." His close relationship with many of Muhammad's foremost companions further strengthened his position as a teacher and scholar in the Islamic sciences. Among the disciplines in which he is said to have particularly excelled were Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir) and theology; for this reason, his name always appears in the classical and medieval commentaries on the scripture. From the 9th century onward, Hasan became an important figure whose name is mentioned in the writings of Sunni mystics in "many mystical chains (a chain of teachers and their students) extending back to Muhammad."

Scholars note that very few of Hasan's original writings have survived to the present day, and that his proverbs and aphorisms on various subjects were mostly transmitted through oral tradition by his countless disciples. Although fragments of his famous sermons appear in the works of later writers, the only complete texts bearing his name are apocryphal works such as the Risālat al-qadar ilā ʿAbd al-Malik (Letter to Abd al-Malik against the Qadarites). This work is a spurious text belonging to the 9th or early 10th century. Another work is a letter, "ascetic and admonitory in nature," addressed to Ömer bin Abdülazîz (d. 720), which is likewise considered spurious.

Traditionally, Hasan has been remembered as an extraordinary personage by all the Sunni schools of jurisprudence, and in later periods he was frequently presented as one of the most respected figures of early Islam in the later writings of important Sunni thinkers such as Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 996), Ebu Nuaym el-İsfahanî (d. 1038), Ali Hujwiri (d. 1077), İbnü'l-Cevzî (d. 1201), and Ferîdüddin Attâr (d. 1221). In the famous Ḳūt al-ḳulūb, the most important work of Basran mysticism, Abu Talib al-Makki says of Hasan: "Ḥasan is our imam in this doctrine that we represent. We walk in his footsteps, we follow his path, and we take our light from his lamp."

Life

Hasan was born in Medina in 642. His mother, Hayra, is said to have been a servant of Umm Salama (d. 683), one of Muhammad's wives, while his father, Peroz, is said to have been a Persian slave originally from southern Iraq. According to tradition, Hasan spent much of his early life in Medina before his family moved to Basra after the Battle of Siffin. According to some scholars, "this connection with Medina and his acquaintance there with many of Muhammad's important companions and wives increased [Hasan's] importance as an authoritative figure in the Muslim religious and historical genealogy."

Various extant biographies relate that Hasan was once nursed by Umm Salama, and that his mother took him to the caliph Umar (d. 644) after his birth, and that the caliph blessed him with this prayer: "O God! Please make him wise in faith and beloved by all people." As Hasan grew up, he began to arouse wide admiration for his uncompromising devotion to Muhammad's sunna. Various early sources on Hasan's life relate that during this period he often worked at the feet of Ali (d. 661), the fourth caliph of Islam, and that Ali educated Hasan in his adolescence. Since there is evidence that the metaphysical idea of the abdal—forty great saints whose number was believed to remain fixed until the Day of Judgment, each group of forty being replaced by another group after their deaths in the world—was widespread at that time, according to traditional mystical belief there are traditions relating that some of Hasan's contemporaries regarded him as one of the abdal of that period.

As a young man, Hasan took part in the conquest campaigns carried out in the east of Iran (around 663) and worked as a jewel merchant, but later, abandoning business and military life, he began to lead an entirely ascetic and scholarly life. In this latter period he began to criticize the policies of the governors in Iraq, and he angered the authorities so much that in 705, having drawn the wrath of Ḥajjāj for openly condemning Ḥajjāj's founding of Wāsiṭ, Hasan had to flee for the safety of his life. Farkad Sabahi (d. 729) was a Christian of Armenian origin who had converted to Islam. Together with figures such as as-Sabakhi and Rabia el-Adeviyye (d. 801), Hasan began to openly condemn the accumulation of wealth by the rich; indeed, he so despised wealth that it is said he "refused a marriage proposal for his daughter simply because the suitor was rich." Hasan died in Basra in 728 at the age of 86. According to an account related by the medieval traditionist Kuşeyrî (d. 1074), "on the night Hasan al-Basri died... [a local man] saw in his dream that the Gates of Heaven were opened and a muezzin announced, 'Verily, Hasan al-Basri is coming to the Most High God, who is pleased with him.'"

Views

As one scholar explains, the essence of Hasan's message was "withdrawal from the world, abstinence, poverty, and reverence and fear of God, but he also spoke of the knowledge and love of God and compared this with the knowledge and love of the world."

Hagiographic traditions

Islamic hagiography contains numerous widespread traditions and anecdotes concerning Hasan. The most famous of these is the story of his conversion. In this story it is related that "the great ascetic began his adult life as a successful jewel merchant." The hagiography expert John Renard summarizes this story as follows: "Hasan one day visited the palace of the Byzantine Emperor, and the vizier invited him to travel together into the desert. There Hasan saw a luxurious tent to which a great army, four hundred scholars, elders, and four hundred beautiful servant girls came one after another. The vizier explained that every year this crowd of Byzantine subjects came to pay their respects to the deceased prince, ever since the emperor's handsome young son had died of an illness. After all these royal subjects had entered and left, the emperor and the prime minister would enter the tent and tell the deceased child, one after another, how sorry they were that neither their power, nor their knowledge, nor their wisdom, nor their wealth and beauty, nor their authority had sufficed to prolong his hopeful life. This striking sight convinced Hasan of the necessity of being aware of his own mortality, and he was transformed from a wealthy businessman into an ascetic who had renounced the world.

Hasan's relationship with Muhammad

Some hagiographic sources even state that Hasan actually met Muhammad while still an infant. Tradition relates that Muhammad, who "visited Umm Salama's house while the infant was there," "prayed for little Hasan and again gave blessing." In another incident, the child Hasan is said to have drunk some water from Muhammad's water jug. When Muhammad learned that Hasan had drunk the water, he is said to have declared that "he would receive knowledge from it in proportion to the amount of water the child drank."

Sources

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