Hasan of Basra

Abū Saʿīd b. Abi ’l-Ḥasan Yasār al-Baṣrī, often referred to as Ḥasan of Basra (Arabic: حسن البصري, Ḥasan al-Baṣrī; 642 – 15 October 728) for short, or reverentially as Imam Ḥasan al-Baṣrī in Sunni Islam, was an early Muslimpreacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, judge, and mystic.  Born in Medina in 642, Hasan belonged to the third generation of Muslims,

all of whom would subsequently be referred to as the tābiʿūn in Sunni Islamic piety. In fact, Hasan rose to become one of “the most celebrated” of the tābiʿūn, 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 the prophet 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 and mysticism. Regarding the last of these, it is important to note that Hasan became a tremendously important figure in the development of Sufism,

with his name occurring “in many mystical silsilas (chains of teachers and their disciples) going back to Muḥammad” in the writings of Sunni mystics from the ninth-century onwards. In the words of one scholar, Hasan stands as the “great patriarch” of early Sufism.