Sufyan al-Thawri

Sufyan ath-Thawri was born in Khorosan. His nisba al-Thawri is derived from his ancestor Thawr b. 'Abd Manat.^[4] He moved to Kufa, Iraq, for his education and in his youth supported the Family of Ali ibn Abi Talib against the dying Umayyad caliphate. By 748 he had moved to Basra, "where he met ['Abdallah] ibn 'Awn and Ayyub [al-Sakhtiyani]. He then abandoned his Shi'i view."^[5] Afterwards, he stopped narrating the merits of Ali because he hated them in relation to the Shiites and advised other people to stop narrating the virtues of Ali so the people do not become "corrupted".^[6][7] It is said that the Umayyads offered him high office positions, but that he consistently declined.^[8] He even refused to give to the Caliphs moral and religious advice and when asked why, he responded "When the sea overflows, who can dam it up?".^[9] He was also quoted to have said to a friend of his "Beware of the rulers, of drawing close to and associating with them. Do not be deceived by being told that you can drive inequity away. All this is the deceit of the devil, which the wicked qurra' have taken as a ladder [to self promotion]."^[10]

Ath-Thawri's jurisprudential thought (usul al-fiqh), after his move to Basra, became more closely aligned to that of the Umayyads and of al-Awza'i.^[1] He is reported to have regarded the jihad as an obligation only as a defensive war.^[11]

Ath-Thawri was one of the 'Eight Ascetics,' who included (usual list) Amir ibn Abd al-Qays, Abu Muslim al-Khawlani, Uways al-Qarani, al-Rabi ibn Khuthaym, al-Aswad ibn Yazid, Masruq ibn al-Ajda', and Hasan al-Basri.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya relates in Madarij al-salikin, and Ibn al-Jawzi in the chapter entitled "Abu Hashim al-Zahid" in his Sifat al-safwa after the early hadith master Abu Nu`aym in his Hilyat al-awliya, that Sufyan al-Thawri said:

If it were not for Abu Hashim al-Sufi (d. 115) I would have never perceived the presence of the subtlest forms of hypocrisy in the self... Among the best of people is the Sufi learned in jurisprudence.^[12]

Ibn al-Jawzi also narrates the following:

Abu Hashim al-Zahid said: "Allah has stamped alienation upon the world in order that the friendly company of the murideen (seekers) consist solely in being with Him and not with the world, and in order that those who obey Him come to Him by means of avoiding the world. The People of Knowledge of Allah (ahl al-ma`rifa billah) are strangers in the world and long for the hereafter."^[13]

He spent the last year of his life hiding after a dispute between him and the caliph al-Mahdi. On his death the Thawri madhhab was taken up by his students, including Yahya al-Qattan.^[1] His school did not survive, but his juridical thought and especially hadith transmission are highly regarded in Islam, and have influenced all the major schools.

Stories of Sufyan ath-Thawri were also collected in Fariduddin Attar's Tadhkirat al-Awliya, a collection of Sufi hagiographies compiled in the twelfth/thirteenth century.^[14]

Discover more about Biography related topics

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorāsān, or Khorāsān, is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau between Western and Central Asia. The name Khorāsān is Persian meaning "where the sun arrives from" or "the Eastern Province". The name was first given to the eastern province of Persia during the Sasanian Empire and was used from the late Middle Ages in distinction to neighbouring Transoxiana. Greater Khorasan is today sometimes used to distinguish the larger historical region from the former Khorasan Province of Iran (1906–2004), which roughly encompassed the western half of the historical Greater Khorasan.

Kufa

Kufa

Kufa, also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about 170 kilometres (110 mi) south of Baghdad, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Currently, Kufa and Najaf are joined into a single urban area that is mostly commonly known to the outside world as 'Najaf'.

Caliphate

Caliphate

A caliphate or khilāfah is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph, a person considered a political-religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of the entire Muslim world (ummah). Historically, the caliphates were polities based on Islam which developed into multi-ethnic trans-national empires. During the medieval period, three major caliphates succeeded each other: the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), and the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258). In the fourth major caliphate, the Ottoman Caliphate, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire claimed caliphal authority from 1517. Throughout the history of Islam, a few other Muslim states, almost all hereditary monarchies such as the Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) and Ayyubid Caliphate, have claimed to be caliphates.

Amir ibn Abd al-Qays

Amir ibn Abd al-Qays

Amir ibn Abd al-Qays was a tabi`i of Basra who died at Damascus, where he had become famous within the Muslim community for his austere and eloquent speeches. Numerous miracles are recorded of him; it is said that he lived in the desert where wild beasts came tamely to him. He was also known for his charity towards orphans. These and other aspects of his life are often cited by the Sufis.

Abu Muslim al-Khawlani

Abu Muslim al-Khawlani

Abu Muslim Al-Khawlani was a well-known tabi'i and a prominent religious figure in Damascus, Syria. He was one of the 'Eight Ascetics,' who also included Amir ibn Abd al-Qays, Uways al-Qarani, Al-Rabi ibn Khuthaym, al-Aswad ibn Yazid, Masruq ibn al-Ajda', Sufyan al-Thawri ibn Said and Hasan al-Basri.

Al-Rabi ibn Khuthaym

Al-Rabi ibn Khuthaym

Al-Rabi ibn Khuthaym al-Thawri was a pupil of Abdullah ibn Masud and a famous tabi'i ascetic of Kufa. Constantly ill with a form of palsy, in later generations he became a symbol of endurance in the face of suffering. He emphasized the importance of silence, scrupulousness in religious observance, and the fear of Hell. Many traditions in the collection of Sahih Bukhari are given on his authority.

Al-Aswad ibn Yazid

Al-Aswad ibn Yazid

Al-Aswad ibn Yazid was a well-known scholar from among the taba'een and pupil of Abd-Allah ibn Mas'ud

Masruq ibn al-Ajda'

Masruq ibn al-Ajda'

Masruq ibn al-Ajda' was a well-known and respected tabi'i, jurist and muĥaddith. Chiefly a resident of Kufa (Iraq) he was among the many students of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. Masruq would later become a popular teacher in his own right, including future Islamic scholars, such as Ibrahim al-Nakha'i and others as his pupils. He is said to have fought on the side of caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib against the Kharijites in 658.

Hasan al-Basri

Hasan al-Basri

Abu Sa'id ibn Abi al-Hasan Yasar al-Basri, often referred to as Hasan of Basra for short, or as Hasan al-Basri, was an early Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, judge, and mystic. Born in Medina in 642, Hasan belonged to the second generation of Muslims, all of whom would subsequently be referred to as the tābiʿūn in Sunni Islamic piety. In fact, Hasan rose to become one of "the most celebrated" of the tābiʿūn, enjoying an "acclaimed scholarly career and an even more remarkable posthumous legacy in Islamic scholarship."

Al-Mahdi

Al-Mahdi

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Manṣūr, better known by his regnal name al-Mahdī, was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 775 to his death in 785. He succeeded his father, al-Mansur.

Of his books, perhaps best known is his Tafsir of the Qur'an, one of the earliest in the genre. An Indian MSS purports to preserve it up to Q. 52:13, as published by Imtiyâz ʿAlî ʿArshî in 1965; also Tabari's tafsir quotes extensively from the whole text. He also preserved the books of his Umayyad predecessors.^[15]

It was reported that Sufyan al-Thawri was of the view that jihad was only obligatory in the case of defensive warfare, although this opinion has not been authentically traced to him.^[16][17][18]