Early Islam between Myth and History: Al-Hasan al-Basr (d.

110 H/728 CE) and the

Formation of His Legacy in Classical Islamic Scholarship, Suleiman Ali Mourad
(Leiden: Brill, 2006), 338 pps. ISBN 90 04 14829 9

Rebecca Masterton

Hasan al-Basri is an important figure in the history of Sunni Sufism, appearing
immediately after Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) at the top of the Chishti, Shadhili and Qadiri
chains of initiation (silsilas), among others. There has already been much debate and
many publications in the Muslim world demonstrating that the link between Hasan al-
Basri and Imam Ali is at best tenuous, which implies that the silsilas are actually
fabricated.
Suleiman Ali Mourads fascinating study, which focuses on medieval scholarship,
shows how different, contradictory pictures of al-Basris life and character were
constructed through fabricated narratives and ahadith and through transferral of
authorship, where something which someone else said has been attributed to al-Basri.
One of the key points that Mourad raises, is that nobody can be sure to which aqda, or
which maddhab Hasan al-Basri actually belonged. Over the centuries, each group
proto-Sunnis, Sunnis, Mutazilas and Shiashas claimed that he was one of their early
pioneers.
Early Islam consists of an Introduction, six chapters, an epilogue and three
appendices. Chapter One is entitled Al-Hasan al-Basr: His Life and Career. Part I is
entitled Piety, Asceticism, and Mysticism and consists of Chapter Two: The Ascetic and
Mystical Legacy of al-Hasan al-Basr; Chapter Three: The Correspondence between al-
Hasan and Umar II b. Abd al-Azz and Chapter Four: Letters on Piety and Mysticism
Falsely Attributed to al-Hasan. Part II is entitled Theology and consists of Chapter Five:
Al-Hasan and the Qadar Controversy; Chapter Six: The Authenticity of the Epistle to
Abd al-Malik, the Epilogue and Appendices.
It is not possible here to provide a detailed account of all the discrepencies in the
reports on Hasan al-Basri, so only a few examples will be offered. In Chaper One,
Mourad discusses one of the most famous reports about al-Basri, which is that Umm
Salama nursed him, and from this he absorbed the knowledge and wisdom of the Prophet
(s). Mourad traces how this may have come to be:

we have reports that al-Hasans parents were slaves of the wife of Anas b. Mlik (d. ca.
91/709); variant reports identify her as Anass aunt. As we have seen, this presumed wife
of Anas is named once as Umm Jaml bt. Qutba and another time as Jamla. Eventually she
becomes a man called Jaml b. Qutba. [...] The woman named Umm Jaml bt. Qutba was a
descendent of a man called Salama. Then she becomes a woman named Jamla from the
Salama clan. Eventually she ends up as Umm Salama (25).

As Mourad says, in promoting al-Basris status, the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt are even
said to have praised him:

Whenever al-Hasan was mentioned in the presence of Ab Jafar Muhammad b. Al b. al-
Husayn, he would say: Oh, that one whose words are like the words of prophets! (28)

(It is known from other sources, however, that Muhammad al-Baqir (as) denounced al-
Basri as a fabricator).
In Chapter Two, Mourad goes on to list the many cases where depictions of al-
Basris character are at odds with each other. In terms of his career he was claimed to
have supported both free will and predestination (since they have the same root letters q-
d-r). He was said to have taken part in revolts against the Umayyads, but also to have
avoided any revolts and counselled people not to get involved in conflict. He was said to
have been an ascetic who was always weeping from fear of God and ate little, but also to
have been wealthy and enjoyed his food: Humayd [al-Tawil] said: [...] I never smelled a
sauce more appetizing than al-Hasans [meat-] sauce. (71).
Of interest here is the number of al-Basris wise teachings which Mourad traces
back to Imam Ali:

One such example comes from a sermon by Al reported by Ibn Ab al-Duny (d.
281/894), which shows up in al-Hasans presumed Treatise on Asceticism to Umar b. Abd
al-Azz, first quoted by Ab Nuaym al-Isfahn (d. 429/1038). This sermon compares the
world to the snake and stresses its deceitful nature:

Al ibn Ab Tlib once wrote to Salman al-Fars: Know that this world is like a snake. It
feels soft when touched but its venom kills [...].

[Al-Hasan wrote:] ...Be always on your guard from this world because it is like a snake. It
feels soft when touched but its venom kills. (85).

Mourad quotes five other excerpts from the teachings of Imam Ali that find themselves
in the teachings of al-Basri. He also quotes numerous identical excerpts that are
attributed both to al-Basri and other Companions, and also to al-Basri and the Imams of
the Ahl al-Bayt, such as Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (88), Imam Musa al-Kadhim (89), and
Imam Ali Zayn al-Abidin (90).
There is a common argument that the concept of copyright did not exist at that
time and that it was normal for scholars to quote each other verbatim. Al-Basri could
simply have been quoting Imam Ali, but the point is that either he, or the person who has
attributed these words to him, has not mentioned anything about Imam Ali, and the
words are reported on the assumption that it was he (al-Basri) who uttered them from his
own knowledge. As Mourad points out, these attributions also affect modern scholarship.
Massignon, Watt, Schimmel and Knysh all echo the idea that Hasan al-Basri is one of the
most influential figures on later developments in Sunni Sufism.
The issue of whether al-Basri had met Imam Ali and received knowledge from
him became ever more important with the development of the Sufi tariqas. Although Ibn
Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 /1448) denied that al-Basri could ever have met Imam Ali,
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911 /1505) went out of his way to prove otherwise, saying that,
as al-Basri grew up with Umm Salama, it was normal that he should have met Imam Ali,
although, as Mourad has demonstrated, accounts of which household al-Basri grew up in
are both mixed and doubtful. Certain Shia scholars were not immune either to al-Basris
legendry reputation:

By the time of the Twelver-Shite theologian al-Khwnsr (d. 1895), al-Hasan had
become a mystic of tremendous stature, so great that al-Khwnsr was not willing to
accept that such a pillar of Islamic thought was not also one of the Shites founding
fathers (119).

In Chapter Three, Mourad makes a close examination of al-Basris alleged
correspondence to the Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, in which he is meant to have given
words of wise advice to the caliph. Just one example of how sources can be manipulated
serves to suggest that at least some of al-Basris correspondence was fabricated. Here,
Mourad quotes one account, given by the Mutazilite scholar al-Hakim al-Jushami (d.
494/1101), in which al-Basri touches upon the subject of qadar:

Sulayman b. Arqam said: I was present when al-Hasan received the letter of Umar. [It
said]: I was told that you have an opinion about Qadar. Write to me about your opinion.
Al-Hasan said to his son Abd Allah: Write! From al-Hasan b. Ab al-Hasan to Umar b.
Abd al-Azz. He who denies Qadar has reneged his faith, and he who finds God
responsible for his sins has reneged his faith. (125).

Mourad then compares this with another, which is meant to be between al-Hasan ibn Ali
and Hasan al-Basri, in a work by a tenth century Shia scholar, Ibn Shuba al-Harrani:

Al-Hasan b. Ab al-Hasan al-Basr wrote to Ab Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Al, Gods
peace on both of them: ... I am writing to you, O son of the Messenger of God, because we
are in disagreement about the issue of Qadar and are confused. Write us your opinion and
your predecessors opinion about it. Al-Hasan replied to him: In the name of God the
compassionate the merciful... He who does not believe that God has foreknowledge of
Qadarbe it good or evilhas reneged his faith, and he who attributes sins to God has
sinned. (126).

Mourad further points out that it is unlikely that even this exchange of letters took place,
since when al-Hasan ibn Ali was martyred in 50H/670 CE, Hasan al-Basri was still
engaged in conquering and administrating Sistan.
Mourads detective work continues in Chapter Four with an analysis of a number
al-Basris letters, one of which, the Wasiyat al-Nabi li-Abi Hurayra, was written to
support the Sunni position and dates back to the end of the eighteenth century, although it
is meant to have been transmitted through a number of muhaddith going back to Abu
Hurayra. It lists a number of supposed teachings of the Prophet (s) to Abu Hurayra, such
as:

O Abu Hurayra, as God led astray the Christians because of Jesus son of Mary, similarly,
God will lead astray my community because of Al ibn Ab Tlib (151)

This is an obvious denunciation of the Shias and hints at the Sunni belief that Shias
worship Ali. Mourad says that there are only three actual copies of this: two in Istanbul
and one in Syria (both of which were under orthodox Sunni Ottoman rule for a long
period). In one of the Istanbul documents, there is another Wasiya, where the Prophet (s)
addresses Ali ibn Abi Talib. It would be interesting to know the contents of this and to
explore whether the one supposedly addressed to Abu Hurayra was written in the same
form.
In Chapter Five, Mourad explores in more detail the complicated issue of where
al-Basri stood on the issue of qadar (free will and pre-destination). Again, there are a
number of sayings attributed to him that support both positions. Neither was this just a
Sunni debate:

[A Shia theologian] Al-Sharf al-Murtad (d. 436/1044), for instance, includes in his Aml
a section praising al-Hasan al-Basr, presenting him as one of the earliest Muslims to
believe in the doctrine of al-Adl (Gods Justice), meaning free-will. (171).

Tehran University Library contains a collection of letters allegedly between al-Hasan ibn
Ali and al-Basri, originally belonging to Haydar al-Amuli (d. 787/1385), which was
meant to assert that al-Basris position on qadar came directly from the Ahl al-Bayt
(183), as did those mentioned in al-Harranis work.
Chapter Six examines the similarities between an epistle purportedly sent by al-
Basri to the Ummayad caliph Abd al-Malik, and another work written by the Zaydi
theologian al-Qasim b. Ibrahim al-Rassi (d. 246/860) (218). Al-Rassi, unlike other
Zaydis, supported the doctrine of free will: God is just and does not cause what He has
prohibited, such as human evil acts. In al-Rassis Refutation, he does not quote ahadith,
but refers to verses from the Quran. Mourad notes that the author of the Epistle [meant
to be al-Basri] follows the same approach as al-Rass (219).
Mourad concludes in his Epilogue, by re-stating that different religious groups all
took an interest in the life and personality of Hasan al-Basri:

They were all fascinated by and focused on particular aspects, rather than the entirety, of
his perceived life and thought. When they did not find enough material to support their
views, they made it up. (243).

Perhaps to some this may sound disrespectful and a little harsh, but it must be
acknowledged that Mourads work makes an important contribution to Islamic historical
scholarship in that his priority is to uncover the truth of the figure of Hasan al-Basri, who
has held such sway over the developing streams of thought and practices in Islam. Only
by being dispassionate enough, and willing to face the fallibility of early scholars and
interested parties, can anyone be able begin to discern how certain received truths have
been constructed over time and how they conceal the real truth, which, nevertheless, may
never really be known.