An Analytic Look at the Ḥārith bin Asad MuḥāsibῙ's Methodology in Compilation of his Works

Ḥārith bin Asad MuḥāsibῙ is the ascetic preacher, Hadith expert, mystic, scholar and theologian of the third century. The treatises written by him and still available to us indicate how unique and helpful his works are. The focus of all his works is the human soul. In his works, MuḥāsibῙ is not just concerned with analyzing or elaborating on the theoretical aspect of the subject, but he considered the effect of his words as well. He has utilized the four main sources of (Quran, Hadith, Tradition and Reason) in his writings, but paid more attention to the subject than the mentioned sources.

For this reason he can be described as the subject-oriented rather than method-oriented author. That explains why he does not follow a single method in his writing; he sometimes acts as a jurist, sometimes as a Sufi and sometimes as a theologian. It can be said that he uses a combined method. In addition, part of his work in the field of mysticism, is the result of worshiping not pure reasoning. He had a lot of opponents, but was never influenced by them in his works. 

For centuries, attempts have been made to introduce MuḥāsibῙ's works, but due to the extinction of some of his work no comprehensive study has been done yet. The researchers, counting on his accessible works and other available documents, have introduced some. In this article, the analytical methodology of Compilation of his works is introduced.