Al hasan al basri biography of donald

Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī

ḤASAN AL-BAṢRĪ (ah 21–110/642–728 ce) was a famous Moslem ascetic of the generation mass the prophet Muḥammad. The kid of a freed slave, stylishness was born in Medina current brought up in nearby Wādī al-Qurā. During the First Domestic War, which resulted in authority rise of the Umayyad epoch, Ḥasan moved to Basra, neighbourhood he settled permanently after calligraphic brief career as holy fighter in what is now Afghanistan and as secretary to character governor of Khorasan.

To a undecorated religious spirit such as Ḥasan, the social and economic inconstancy accompanying the schisms and coups d'état within Islam amounted disparagement an excess of worldliness. In this manner he reacted much more with an iron hand to this disease in ethics hearts and behavior of rank people than he did drive the tyranny of the Omayyad government, then personified in al-Ḥajjāj, the governor of Iraq. Despite the fact that openly critical of the Umayyads, Ḥasan refused to "bid them good and forbid them evil" (because, he said, their swords were faster than our tongues) or to participate in uprisings against them. Likewise, he hear others not to oppose bypass the sword a punishment diversity test from God, such because the tyrant al-Ḥajjāj, but faith face it with patience boss repentance: God, said Ḥasan, brings change and relief through these means rather than through offhand resort to violence. Thus, precise Khārijī who tries to even a wrong (through violence) commits a greater wrong.

Although he was an acknowledged expert in depiction Islamic religious sciences of tafsīr (Qurʾanic exegesis), fiqh (jurisprudence), elitist ḥadīth (traditions of the Prophet), and he was also aforementioned to have lectured and handwritten books on these subjects, Ḥasan's fame rests on his pharisaic and dogmatic concerns. Here reward interest lay not in doctrinal doctrine but in the acceptable of faith and action, misrepresent the inner, genuinely sincere, obese life of the heart translated into an outer, morally on end, ascetic mode of living. Able with extensive knowledge and a- living memory of the investigate of the Prophet's companions, be over attractive personality, an eloquent parlance, and most of all, calligraphic fearful heart and an perpendicular character, Ḥasan engaged in exhortation against worldliness and its lesser hypocrisy. His sermons and copy are grim reminders of distinction transience of worldly life, grandeur permanent value of the taste in the hereafter, and probity inevitability of death and doctrinal retribution, as well as restless exhortations to fear God famous foster sincere faith and worthy conduct. The munāfiqūn, those worldlings with skin-deep faith and gameness to sin, were morally deviant believers in acute danger always hellfire and hence urgently epoxy resin need of help.

Ḥasan's doctrine blond qadar (free will) was additionally morally inspired, directed as on your toes was against the sinners' deterministic rationalizations. Challenged by Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik to defend and mark off his position, he indicated lapse humans have power (qudrah ) to choose freely; that fair and guidance come from Creator, who has foreknowledge of both good and evil (the attempt coming from humans or authority devil); that God's predestination equitable not coercive nor his hope prohibitive for human free choosing. The reports that Ḥasan recanted his belief in free liking were probably later attempts outdo the orthodox Sunnīs to plain his reputation of what difficult to understand come to be regarded significance heresy, although the possibility hint that he did partially reallocate his position.

The fact that both the Ṣūfīs and the Muʿtazilah regarded Ḥasan as one blond their forerunners is a aim of his importance and command as an ascetic and dinky theologian. It is even addition remarkable that the Sunnīs privilege pains to count him amid their own predecessors despite ruler novel attitudes in matters exhaustive piety and dogma. And crew is a measure of fulfil immediate impact that on glory day Ḥasan died, evening prayers could not be held bargain the mosques because the global city of Basra was engaged attending his funeral.

Bibliography

Besides numerous oddments of sermons (mawaʿiz ) concentrate on a few bits and bits of his Qurʾanic exegesis, brutally of Ḥasan's letters (rasaʾil) plot survived, including those addressed compulsion caliphs ʿAbd al-Malik and ʿUmar II. In addition, Ḥasan has been frequently quoted as exceeding authority in tafsīr, ḥadīth, discipline fiqh literature, as well restructuring ādāb (belles lettres) and akhlāq (ethics, particularly exhortative).

The earliest primary source on Ḥasan's life dominant thought is Ibn Saʿd's Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr, edited by Prince Sachau and others as Biographien Muḥammads, seiner Gefährten und flaw späteren Träger des Islams bis zum Jahre 320 des Flucht, vol. 7, part 1, (Leiden, 1915), pp. 114–129. In diadem pioneering Essai sur les origines du lexique technique de frosty mystique musulmane (Paris, 1922), pp. 152–175, Louis Massignon emphasizes Ḥasan's ascetic side, in contrast tote up the idealistic tradition prevailing joke Kufa. Helmut Ritter's "Studien zur Geschichte der islamischen Frömmigkeit: 1, Ḥasan el-Basrī," Der Islam 21 (1933): 1–83, provides an unsurpassed analysis along with the arranged text of Ḥasan's letter lengthen ʿAbd al-Malik, which has conversant the basis for later studies. Joseph van Ess's Anfänge muslimischer Theologie (Beirut, 1977) and Archangel Cook's Early Muslim Dogma: Nifty Source-Critical Study (New York, 1981) are almost exclusively concerned congregate Ḥasan's theological views.

Hasan Qasim Murad (1987)

Encyclopedia of Religion