Al-Muhasibi

al-Ḥārith al-Muhāsibī
المحاسبي
Personal life
Born781 CE
170 AH
Basra, Abbasid Caliphate (now Basra, Basra Governorate, Iraq)
Died857 CE (aged 73)
243 AH
Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
EraIslamic Golden Age
RegionAbbasid Caliphate
Main interest(s)Sufism, Aqidah, Kalam (Islamic Theology)
Notable idea(s)Baghdad School of Islamic philosophy, Muhasabah
Notable work(s)Kitab al-Khalwa, Kitab al-Ri`aya li-huquq Allah, Kitab al-Wasaya
Religious life
ReligionIslam
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceShafi'i
CreedKullabi
Muslim leader
Influenced by

Al-Muḥāsibī (Arabic: المحاسبي) (781–857 CE) was a Muslim Arab, theologian, philosopher and ascetic. He is considered to be the founder of the Baghdad School of Islamic philosophy which combined Kalam and Sufism, and a teacher of the Sufi masters Junayd al-Baghdadi and Sirri Saqti.

His full name is Abu Abdullah Harith bin Asad bin Abdullah al-Anizi al-Basri, and he hailed from the Arab Anazzah tribe. He was born in Basra in about 781. Muhasibi means self-inspection or audit. He was a founder of what later became the mainstream Sufi doctrine, and influenced many subsequent theologians, such as al-Ghazali.

The author of approximately 200 works, he wrote about theology and Tasawwuf (Sufism), among them Kitab al-Khalwa and Kitab al-Ri`aya li-huquq Allah ("Obeying God's Permits").