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