Abu al-Hasan al-Hakari
- Died
- 486 AH
- Born in
- -
Abu al-Hasan al-Hakari (409–486 AH / 1018–1093 CE) was a Sufi master, ascetic, and transmitter from the Hakkari region who authored works on Sunna and asceticism, including the devotional treatise Hadiyat al-Ahya ila al-Amwat.
Lineage and Early Life
His full name was ‘Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn Ja‘far ibn ‘Arafa ibn Ma’mun ibn al-Mu’ammal ibn al-Walid ibn al-Qasim ibn al-Walid ibn ‘Utba ibn Abi Sufyan Sakhr ibn Harb ibn Umayya al-Umawi al-Sufyani al-Hakkari; in an alternate transmission of his genealogy, Khalid is inserted between al-Walid and al-Qasim. His nisba refers to the Hakkari region, a mountainous area inhabited by Kurdish clans located to the east above Mosul. He recorded in his own hand that he was born in Shawwal 409 AH and began hearing hadith at ten years of age.
Travels and Spiritual Career
Al-Hakari traveled widely to seek religious knowledge and meet scholars and Sufi masters. He heard hadith in Baghdad from ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Bishran and al-Husayn ibn Ahmad al-Samit al-Shirazi, in Cairo from Abu ‘Abd Allah ibn Nazif al-Farra’, in Mecca from Abu al-Hasan ibn Sakhr, in Ramla from Ibn al-Tarjuman, in Sidon from Abu al-Hasan ibn Jami‘, and in Mosul from Abu Ja‘far ibn al-Muhtaj. During his travels, he met the poet and philosopher Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri; when his companions subsequently questioned him regarding al-Ma‘arri’s creed, al-Hakari responded simply that he was a man among the Muslims.
Upon returning to his native region, al-Hakari retreated to the mountains for solitary worship and devotion. He erected several hospices (ribats) and lodges to shelter the poor, traveling Sufis, and ascetics. He enjoyed widespread popular veneration, and when addressed with the honorific Shaykh al-Islam, he deflected it by saying he was merely an elderly man in Islam (shaykh fi al-Islam). Among those who transmitted from him were Yahya ibn ‘Attaf, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hasan al-Farisi, and Hasan ibn Abi ‘Ali al-Muqri’. Several of his children and grandchildren later attained high standing and command under contemporary rulers.
Scholarly Standing and Critique
Al-Hakari was widely celebrated among Sufis for his rigorous devotion and asceticism. ‘Abd al-Ghaffar al-Karaji remarked that he had seen no one comparable to him in renunciation and virtue, while the hadith scholar Yahya ibn Manda described him as a leading figure among the Sufis, characterized by perpetual prayer and spiritual exertion. Abu Sa'd al-Sam'ani commended his ascetic demeanor, grave demeanor, and dedication to God.
In hadith transmission, however, al-Hakari faced severe criticism from traditionalist critics. Ibn 'Asakir stated that he was not reliable in his transmission. Ibn al-Najjar noted that he was accused of fabricating hadith and fabricating chains of transmission (tarkib al-asanid), observing that his narrations were dominated by anomalous and uncorroborated reports (al-ghara'ib wa-l-munkarat) with forged texts grafted onto sound chains. Ibn ‘Asakir related that when the Baghdadi scholar Abu Bakr ibn al-Khadiba questioned al-Hakari about the date he claimed to have heard from a certain teacher, al-Hakari cited a date occurring well after that teacher’s death, prompting Ibn al-Khadiba to reject his reports and depart.
Death
Al-Hakari died on 1 Muharram 486 AH in the Hakkari mountains near Mosul at the age of seventy-seven.
Answer updated
List of Works
Hadiyat al-Ahya ila al-Amwat wa-ma yasil ilayhim min al-naf‘ wa-l-thawab ‘ala mamarr al-awqat is a theological and devotional treatise devoted to proving that the deceased benefit from pious deeds dedicated to them by the living. Addressing the gifting of religious rewards, it compiles traditions and transmitted reports to argue that voluntary acts of worship—such as supplication, seeking forgiveness, charity, Quran recitation, ritual prayer, and pilgrimage—reach Muslims in their graves and afford them relief and reward.