ḤASAN AL-BAṢRĪ (AH 21–110/642–728 CE) was a famous Muslim ascetic of the generation following the prophet Muḥammad. The son of a freed slave, he was born in Medina and brought up in nearby Wādī al-Qurā. During the First Civil War, which resulted in the rise of the Umayyad caliphate, Ḥasan moved to Basra, where he settled permanently after a brief career as holy warrior in what is now Afghanistan and as secretary to the governor of Khorasan.

To a simple religious spirit such as Ḥasan, the social and economic changes accompanying the schisms and coups d'état within Islam amounted to an excess of worldliness. Thus he reacted much more sharply to this disease in the hearts and behavior of the people than he did to the tyranny of the...