Al-Ḥasan ibn ʻAlī al-Barbahārī was a Muslim theologian and populistreligious leader from Iraq. He was a scholar and jurist who played an important role in the Sunni struggle against the S̲h̲īʿa missionaries and successfully opposed the progress of Mu'tazilism in the Abbasid Caliphate during the 10th–11th centuries. His books include creedal and methodological refutations against the Shias, Qadaris, Mu'tazilis and Ash'aris.
Biography
Al-Barbahari was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and learned from the students of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. In addition, al-Barbahari took Ibn Hanbal's views and championed them. Al-Barbahari had several widely known students, including the famed scholar Ibn Battah. His status as an authority within the Hanbali school was not universal, however, and al-Barbahari and his students were often in conflict with Abu Bakr al-Khallal, generally considered to be the sole preserver and codifier of the school. While al-Barbahari contributed little to jurisprudence, he was well known as a polemicist. His book Sharh as-Sunnah was written to educate the Hanbalites in methods to identify heretics.
Al-Barbahari was the leader of a number of protests against other sects during the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. His audience was strong in the Hanbalite quarter of the city. He was very influential among the urban lower classes, and exploited popular grievances to foment what often turned into mob violence against religious minorities and supposed sinners. From 921 until his death in 941 CE, al-Barbahari fought for orthodox Sunni thought and practice, leading masses of Sunnis in actions to stop the sale of wine and visits to the "tombs of certain religious figures", destroy musical instruments, combat Shiism and Mu'tazilism. Under the influence of al-Barbahari and popular pressure of his followers, the Caliphs Al-Muqtadir and Al-Qahir enforced Hanbalism as the state creed, exiling and imprisoning al-Barbahari's enemies and even burying renowned Muslim historianMuhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari -- considered a heretic by most Hanbalites at the time -- in secret due to fears of mob violence were a funeral to be held at the public graveyard. The efforts of al-Barbahari and the Baghdad Hanbalites were put to an end in 935 by the new CaliphAr-Radi. Al-Barbahari had ordered groups to check any homes suspected of containing wine or musical instruments. The crowds confiscated from shops and physically enforced female entertainers to leave their practices. Ar-Radi ended the favored status of the Hanbalites.
Thought
Like other Hanbali, Barbahari strongly opposed bidʻah, defined as anything that the first generation of Muslims,, "did not do". Thus he taught that "whoever asserts that there is any part of Islam with which the Companions of the Prophet did not provide us has called them liars". While not opposed to reason in religion, provided it was put to good use and did not contradict doctrine such as divine attributes, he nonetheless, opposed asking "'Why?' and 'How?' Theology, polemic, disputation, and argument are an innovation which casts doubt into the heart".
