Al-Hasan al-Basri: Difference between revisions

Many Sufi orders (or chains), including Suhrawardiyya, Tayfuriyya, and Mawlawiyya, as well as some Indian Sufi orders such as Chishtis, are attributed to al-Hasan al-Basri. His name also appears in pedigrees of Ahmad al-Ghazali, Abu Bakr al-Nassaj, Abu Najib al-Suhrawardi, Majd al-Din al-Baghdadi, and Najm al-Din al-Kubra. These orders trace their Sufist pedigrees to al-Hasan and through him to Imam 'Ali. Allegedly, when al-Hasan was born, he was taken to Imam 'Ali, and the Imam gave him the name “Hasan.” Moreover, al-Hasan grew under the training of the Imam, received a khirqa (a particular type of cloak) from him, and the Imam suggested the word of Tawhid to him.

However, some people, such as Ibn Khaldun and Shah Ni'mat Allah Dihlawi, deny such a relationship between Imam 'Ali and al-Hasan. Given these two conflicting views, it is undeniable that both views—the belief in and the denial of al-Hasan’s companionship with Imam 'Ali—are exaggerated, and although there is no decisive evidence for such a relationship, some sort of relationship cannot be denied.