Hasan al-Basri

Abi Sa'id al-Hasan ibn Yasar al-Basri (642 CE – 15 October 728) was an early Medieval Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, and judge. Born in Medina in 642 CE, Hasan belonged to the second generation of Muslims, all of whom would subsequently be referred to as the tabi'un in Sunni Islamic piety. He became one of "the most celebrated" of the tabi'un, enjoying an "acclaimed scholarly career and an even more remarkable posthumous legacy in Islamic scholarship." Hasan, revered for his austerity and support for "renunciation" (zuhd), preached against worldliness and materialism during the early days of the Umayyad Caliphate, with his passionate sermons casting a "deep impression on his contemporaries." His close relationships with several of the most prominent companions of Muhammad only strengthened his standing as a teacher and scholar of the Islamic sciences. The particular disciplines in which he is said to have excelled included exegesis (tafsīr) of the Quran, whence his "name is invariably encountered in" classical and medieval commentaries on the scripture, as well as theology. Hasan became an important figure to the later founders of Sufism with his name occurring "in many mystical silsilas (chains of teachers and their disciples) going back to Muhammad" in the writings of Sunni mystics from the ninth-century onwards. Scholars have said that very few of Hasan's original writings survive, with his proverbs and maxims on various subjects having been transmitted primarily through oral tradition by his numerous disciples. While fragments of his famed sermons do survive in the works of later authors, the only complete manuscripts that bear his name are apocryphal works such as the Risālat al-qadar ilā ʿAbd al-Malik (Epistle to ʿAbd al-Malik against the Predestinarians), a pseudopigraphical text from the ninth or early-tenth century, and another letter "of an ascetic and hortatory character" addressed...