Al-Hasan al-Basri: Difference between revisions

Al-Hasan spent 70 years of his life in the Umayyad era. Since the Caliph 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz was a well-mannered politician, al-Hasan had benevolent and compassionate relationships with him. He wrote 12 letters to 'Umar in which he delineated the characteristics of a just leader, warned him against unreliability of this world, called him to asceticism and piety, preached him, and consoled him on the death of his child. He was even appointed by the caliph as a judge. Before that in 43, he served as a scribe and secretary in the office of Rabi' b. Ziyad al-Harithi (a companion of Imam 'Ali who was a Mu'awiya-appointed ruler in Khurasan in 43). Moreover, he was allegedly a scribe of Anas b. Malik for three years in Shapur.

Al-Hassan strongly opposed some of his contemporaneous caliphs and their unjust agents, particularly al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf al-Thaqafi, although he never endorsed armed riots against them. He sometimes acted upon taqiyya (or dissimulation) in his encounters with unjust rulers. During the years of al-Hajjaj’s reign in Iraq, al-Hasan repeatedly cursed him, and he treated al-Hajjaj in a way that he decided many times to murder him. According to al-Ya'qubi and ibn al-Nadim, al-Hasan accompanied 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. al-Ash'ath in his uprising against al-Hajjaj, but this does not seem true, because Ibn Sa'd makes it explicit that al-Hasan prohibited people from joining ibn al-Ash'ath’s army. He also prohibited his companions from joining Yazid b. Muhallab’s riot, because he believed that the leaders of both of these riots were incompetent.

Al-Hasan believed that it was permissible to receive pensions or allowances from Bayt al-Mal (Treasury) and accept gifts from rulers under certain conditions. He donated most of his pensions to others. Sometimes his pensions were cut off because of his oppositions to rulers.

There is a report that in the period of Mu'awiya, he attended some battles between Muslims and non-Muslims.