Hasan al-Basri

Born in Medina in 642, Hasan al-Basri belonged to the tabi'un, the second generation of Muslims who never met Muhammad but knew his companions. Those close relationships with the Prophet's circle gave him standing as a scholar of Quran exegesis and theology, and his austere sermons on renunciation made a deep impression during the early Umayyad era. His disciples transmitted his maxims orally; the few complete manuscripts bearing his name are later forgeries, including a ninth-century epistle on predestination and a spurious letter to Umar II. From the ninth century onward, Sunni mystics placed him in their silsilas - the chains linking master to student back to the source - with Abu Talib al-Makki writing in his landmark work on Basran mysticism, "Ḥasan is our Imām in this doctrine which we represent." He became one of the most celebrated of the tabi'un, his posthumous legacy in Islamic scholarship outlasting the fragments of sermon that survived him.