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Hasan Al-Basri

Hasan Al-Basri was an ancient Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, and judge. 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."

As he grew, Hasan began to be widely admired for his uncompromising faithfulness to the example of Prophet Muhammad (S).

As a young man, Hasan took part in the campaigns of conquest in eastern Iran (ca. 663) and worked as a jewel-merchant, prior to forsaking the business and military life for that of a pure ascetic and scholar. It was during this latter period that he began to criticize the policies of the governors in Iraq, even stirring up the authorities to such a degree that he actually had to flee for the safety of his life under the reign of Hajjaj, whose anger Hasan had roused due to his forthright condemnation of Hajjaj's founding of Wāsiṭ in 705.

The various early sources on Hasan's life relate that he frequently studied at the feet of the Imam Ali (AS), (d. 661), during this period, who is said to have taught Hasan while the latter was still "an adolescent."

During the year 801, Hasan began to publicly denounce the accumulation of riches by the wealthy; and it is said that he personally despised wealth to such a degree that he even "rejected a suitor for his daughter's hand who was famous for his wealth simply because of his riches."

Hasan died in Basra in 728, being eighty-six years old.