Hasan al-Basri

You may think, "Oh, it's like for really bad people, not for us masjid-goers." He used to say it from the masjid, from the minbar.

In fact, Al-Hasan Al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on his soul, they asked him once, "Can a mu'min, like a believer, be an envier, be a hater?" That's what an envier is.

He hates the blessings that people have, right? And so he said to them, "How fast can you forget the brothers of Yusuf?" The brothers of Yusuf were not believers.

They were Muslim.

It is related in histories that a race of jinn in ancient times before the creation of Adam inhabited the earth and covered it, the land and the sea and the plains and the mountains, and the favours of God were multiplied upon them, and they had government and prophecy and religion and law, but they transgressed and offended.

and opposed their prophets and made wickedness to abound in the earth whereupon god whose name be exalted sent against them an army of angels who took possession of the earth and drove away the jinn to the regions of the islands and made many of them prisoners and of those who were made prisoners was azazel afterwards called iblis from his despair and a slaughter was made among them at that time azazel was young he grew up among the angels and probably for that reason was called one of them and became learned in their knowledge and assumed the government of them and his days were prolonged until he became their chief and thus it continued for a long time until the affair between him and adam happened as god whose name be exalted hath said when we said unto the angels worship ye adam and all worshipped except iblis who was one of the jinn iblis we are told by another author was sent as a governor upon the earth and judged among the jinn a thousand years after which he ascended into heaven and remained employed in worship until the creation of adam the name of iblis was originally according to some azazil as before mentioned and according to others el harith his patronymic is abu murrah or abu it is disputed whether he was of the angels or of the jinn there are three opinions on this point one that he was of the angels from a tradition in ibn ibas two that he was of the sheytans or evil jinn as it is said in the koran except iblis who was one of the jinn this was the opinion of al-hasan al basri and is that commonly held three that he was neither of the angels nor of the jinn but created alone of fire ibn ibas founds his opinion on the same text from which al-hasan al basri derives his when we said unto the angels worship ye adam and all worshipped except iblis who was one of the jinn before quoted which he explains by saying that the most noble and honourable among the angels are called the jinn because they are veiled from the other angels on account of their superiority and that iblis was one of these jinn he adds that he had the government of the lowest heaven and of the earth and was called the taos literally peacock of the angels and that there was not a spot in the lowest heaven but he had prostrated himself upon it but when the jinn rebelled upon the earth god sent a troop of angels who drove them to the islands and mountains and iblis being elated with pride and refusing to prostrate himself before adam god transformed him into a shaitan but this reasoning is opposed by other verses in which iblis is represented as saying thou hast created me of fire and hast created him adam of earth it is therefore argued if he were created originally of fire how was he created of light for the angels were all created of light the former verse may be explained by the tradition that iblis having been taken captive was exalted among the angels or perhaps there is an ellipsis after the word angels for it might be inferred that the command given to the angels was also and a fortiori to be obeyed by the jinn according to a tradition iblis and all the sheytans are distinguished from the other jinn by a longer existence the sheytans it is added are the children of iblis and die not but with him whereas the other jinn die before him though they may live many centuries but this is not altogether accordant with a popular belief iblis and many other evil jinn ought to survive mankind but they ought to die before the general resurrection as also even the angels the last of whom will be the angel of death yet not all the evil jinn are to live thus long many of them are killed by shooting stars hurled at them from heaven wherefore the erbs when they see a shooting star shehab often exclaim may god transfix the enemy of the faith many also are killed by other jinn and some even by men the fire of which the jinni is created circulates in his veins in place of blood therefore when he receives a mortal wound this fire issuing from his veins generally consumes him to ashes the jinn it has been already shown are peccable they eat and drink and propagate their species sometimes in conjunction with human beings in which latter case the offspring partakes of the nature of both parents in all these respects they differ from the angels among the evil jinn are distinguished the five sons of their chief iblees namely tir who brings about calamities losses and injuries alawar who encourages debauchery sot who suggests lies darsim who causes hatred between man and wife and zelembur who presides over places of traffic the most common forms and habitations or places of result of the jinn must now be described the following traditions from the prophet are the most to the purpose that i have seen the jinn are of various shapes having the forms of serpents scorpions lions wolves jackals c the jinn are of three kinds one on the land one in the sea and one in the air the jinn consist of forty troops each troop consisting of six hundred thousand the jinn are of three kinds one have wings and fly another are snakes and dogs and the third move about from place to place like men domestic snakes are asserted to be jinn on the same authority The prophet ordered his followers to kill serpents and scorpions if they intruded at prayers, but on other occasions he seems to have required first to admonish them to depart, and then, if they remain, to kill them.

The doctors, however, differ in opinion whether all kinds of snakes or serpents should be admonished first, or whether any should.

for the prophet they say took a covenant of the jinn probably after the above-mentioned command that they should not enter the houses of the faithful therefore it is argued if they enter they break their covenant and it becomes lawful to kill them without previous warning yet it is related that ayesha the prophet's wife having killed a serpent in her chamber was alarmed by a dream and fearing that it might have been a moslem jinni as it did not enter her chamber when she was undressed gave in alms as an expiation twelve thousand dirhams about three hundred pounds the price of the blood of a moslem the jinn were said to appear to mankind most commonly in the shapes of serpents dogs cats or human beings in the last case they are sometimes of the stature of men and sometimes of a size enormously gigantic if good they are generally resplendently handsome if evil horribly hideous they become invisible at pleasure by a rapid extension or rarefaction of the particles which compose them or suddenly disappear in the earth or air or through a solid wall many moslems in the present day profess to have seen and held intercourse with them witness the following anecdote which was related to me by a persian with whom i was acquainted in cairo named abu qasim a native of jilan then superintendent of mohammed ali's printing office at bulak one of this person's countrymen whom he asserted to be a man of indubitable veracity was sitting on the roof of a house which he had hired overlooking the genjis and was passing the closing hour of the day according to his usual custom in smoking his persian pipe and feasting his eyes by gazing at the beautiful forms of indian maidens bathing in the river when he beheld among them one so lovely that his heart was overpowered with desire to have her for his wife at nightfall she came to him and told him that she had observed his emotion and would consent to become his wife but on the condition that he should never admit another female to take or share her place and that she should only be with him in the night-time they took the marriage vow to each other with none for their witness but god and great was his happiness till one evening he saw again among a group of girls in the river another who excited in him still more powerful emotions to his surprise this very form stood before him at the approach of night he withstood the temptation mindful of his marriage vow she used every allurement but he was resolute his fair visitor then told him that she was his wife that she was a jinniah and that she would always thenceforward visit him in the form of any females whom he might chance to desire

And once again, you open up your heart and you beg and you plead Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and you go on and on.

And that is why, my dear brothers and sisters, as Imam al-Hasan al-Basri, rahimallah, the famous scholar of that, of the past, the greatest scholar of the tabi'un, he said, "There are three places you will find halawat al-iman, the sweetness of iman.

And if you don't find the sweetness of iman in these three places, then the door to iman has been shut.

You're not gonna find it anywhere else." What are these three things? He said, "Number one, as-Salah.

Our reality is that platform number 14.

So if we want, if we believe what Allah has told us, alhamdulillah we do believe that, then what is the preparation for it? Sometimes I remind myself, am I smart or was Hasan al-Basri rahmatullahi wajih smart? Am I smart or was Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani smart? Am I smart? Or was Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal smart? Am I smart or was Imam Abu Hanifa smart? We have to decide, no? Because my life is going in one direction, their life is going in the opposite direction.

So, somebody is a fool, somebody is smart.

Because if you have two opposite things, they won't… obviously both are not equal.

He brought together all the scholars and all of the heads of the army, and he told them, I'm going to revolt against al-Hajjaj.

Many of them agreed, all right, including Uzair bin Hubaysh and Amir al-Shaabi, Hassan al-Basri, Saeed bin Jubayr, heavyweights.

They say almost 90 of them, all right.

And they ended up losing, it didn't work out, a lot of blood was shed, and Zir ibn Hubaysh was one of the casualties.

There's no reason for you to walk around like, you know.

There's a famous story of Al-Hasan Al-Basri.

One time, he bumped into this guy, and the guy was like, "Do you know who I am?" He said, "Yeah, I know who you are." Al-Hasan Al-Basri, a great scholar.

He said, "I know who you are." And the guy said, "What do you..." 'Cause the guy was arrogant.

He's like, "What do you mean you know who I am?" And he said, "You came out of the, the genitals of your father, you were born out of the womb of your mother, and you're gonna live your life, and all you do is carry feces and urine, and when you die, we're gonna put you in the earth, and worms are gonna eat you.

There's no reason for you to walk around like...

You know? There's a famous story of Al-Hasan Al-Basri.

One time he bumped into this guy, and the guy was like, "Do you know who I am?" He said, "Yeah, I know who you are." Al-Hasan Al-Basri, a great scholar.

He said, "I know who you are." And the guy said, "What do you..." 'Cause the guy was arrogant.

He's like, "What do you mean, you know who I am?" And he said, "You came out of the, the genitals of your father, you were born out of the womb of your mother, and you're gonna live your life, and all you do is carry feces and urine, and when you die, we're gonna put you in the earth and worms are gonna eat you.