Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Andre Clot, Harun al-Rashid and the 

World of the Thousand and One Nights. Translated by 

J. Howe (London: Saqi Books, 1989); Tayeb El-Hibri, 

Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography: Harun al-Rashid 

and the Narrative of the Abbasid Caliphate (Cambridge: 

Cambridge University Press, 1999); Hugh Kennedy, 

When  Baghdad Ruled the World: The Rise and Fall of 

Harun al-Rashid

  

293  J

---

Islam’s Greatest Dynasty (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo 

Press, 2005); al-Tabari, The Early Abbasid Empire. Vol. 

2. Translated by John A. Williams (London: Cambridge 

University Press, 1989).

al-Hasan al-Basri

 

(642–728)  ascetic and 

theologian of Basra who defended belief in free will 

and human responsibility for good and evil acts

Al-Hasan al-Basri was born in m

edina

, the son of 

a free Persian war captive. Little is known about 

his life, but some accounts say that he moved to 

Basra (in southern i

raq

) from Medina when he 

was about 15 years old. He participated in the 

Muslim conquest of i

ran

 but spent most of his 

life in Basra, where he became a famous preacher 

known for his 

asceticism

 and profound piety. His 

sermons called on people to renounce the world 

and fear God’s wrath in the 

aFterliFe

. One of his 

most famous teachings was, “Be with this world 

as if you had never been there, and with the oth-

erworld as if you would never leave it.” Indeed, 

al-Hasan was reputed to be the most knowledge-

able man of his time in matters of religion. When 

the Umayyad 

caliph

 Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) 

asked him to explain his views about 

Free

 

Will

(qadar) 

and

 

determinism

 (qada), he composed a 

brilliant defense of the free will position. Draw-

ing on the q

Uran

, he argued that God had given 

people the ability to perform an act or not do so. If 

God had already predetermined people’s acts, the 

mission of the prophets and their warnings about 

J

Udgment

 d

ay

 would make no sense. This was a 

controversial position to take, for it held people 

responsible for what they did or did not do. Some 

men of religion argued that this diminished God’s 

transcendent power over 

creation

. Rulers did not 

like such views, either, because belief in free will 

meant that they, too, could be held accountable 

for their sins.

Al-Hasan was honored in later generations as 

a founder of the m

Utazili

 s

chool

 and the a

shari

s

chool

 of theology. His teachings and stories were 

mentioned in many works of medieval Islamic 

literature. He was also embraced by the Sufi tradi-

tion. His name was listed in the spiritual genealo-

gies of most Sufi brotherhoods after that of a

li

 

ibn

a

bi

 t

alib

 (d. 661), Muhammad’s cousin. The Per-

sian poet Farid al-Din Attar (d. ca. 1230) included 

several legends about him in his collection of 

stories about Sufi 

saint

s, Memorial of the Friends 

of God (Tadhkirat al-awliya). These depicted him 

as a contemporary of r

abia

 

al

-a

daWiyya

 (d. 801), 

the famous female mystic of Basra, even though 

the two probably never really met. In one account, 

she rejected al-Hasan’s offer of marriage by declar-

ing that she was already tied to God. Another 

story tells of his throwing a rug onto the waters 

of the Euphrates River and inviting her to join 

him on it for prayer. Rabia countered by throwing 

her rug into the air and inviting him to join her 

up there instead, hidden from the sight of others. 

A shrine dedicated to al-Hasan stands on the out-

skirts of Basra today.

See also 

Fate

; s

UFism

; 

tariqa

; 

theology

.