PART I
BY G M MIR NADIM
Abu Hanifah who was born in Kufah, Iraq in 699 and left for
heavenly abode in767 at the age of 70 in Baghdad. His real name
was Numan Ibn Thabit . There are two versions of facts behind his
name Abu Hanifah. One is that he had a daughter whose name was
hanifah. On the other hand the word ‘hanifah’ means ink pot and
because the Imam used to keep an inkpot with him all the time ,
that’s why he was called Abu Hanifah. He was also known as Imam ul
Azam i.e. Great Imam.
Imam Abu Hanifah was the earliest among the renowned four
imams of Sunni branch of Islam, and he is the only one who was a
Tabeyi according to most of the scholars and historians. A Tabeyi
means a person who met a Companion of the Prophet (PBUH).
According to various sources, Imam Abu Hanifah met several
Companions including the famous Anas Ibn-Malik.
He was a muslim jurist and theologian whose systemization of
Islamic legal doctrine was acknowledged as one of the four canonical
schools of Islamic law. The Hanafi school of Abu Hanifah acquired
such prestige that its doctrines were applied by a majority of muslim
dynasties. Even today it is widely followed in India, Pakistan, Turkey,
Central Asia and Arab countries.
Born to a muslim family in Kufah, Abu Hanifah is known to have
travelled to Hejaz region of Arabia in his youth, where he studied in
Makka and Madinah.
Abu Hanifah was born in an intellectual Centre of Iraq called
Kufah, who pioneered intellectual activity in Islamic lands. The son of
a merchant, young Abu Hanifah took up the silk trade for a living and
eventually became moderately rich and wealthy. In early days of his
youth, he was attracted to theological debates, but later,
disenchanted with theology, he turned to law and for about 18 years
was a disciple of Hammad (who lived upto 738) then the most noted
Iraqi jurist. After Hammad’s death, Abu Hanifah became his
successor. He also learned from several other scholars, notably the
Meccan traditionist ‘Ata’ (died 732) and the founder of Shia school of
law, Ja’far Al Sadiq (died 765). Abu Hanifah’s mind was also matured
by extensive travels and by exposure to the heterogeneous,
advanced society of Iraq. By Abu Hanifah’s time a vast body of legal
doctrines had accumulated as a result of the endeavor to apply
Islamic norms to legal problems. The disagreements in these
doctrines had rendered necessary the development of a uniform
code. Abu Hanifah responded by scrutinizing the current doctrines in
collaboration with his students, several of them outstanding
scholars. He had each legal problem discussed before formulating
any doctrines. Before Abu Hanifah’s time doctrines had been
formulated mainly in response to actual problems, where as he
attempted to solve problems that might arise in the future. By the
introduction of this method, the area of law was considerably
enlarged. Because of this enlargement of the bounds of law and
because of Abu Hanifah’s somewhat rationalist orientation and his
reserve about traditions that were not highly authenticated, his
school was sometimes erroneously denounced as the school of ra’y
(independent opinion), as opposed to that of Hadith(authoritative
tradition).
Being a jurist of speculative theology(kalam), Abu Hanifah
brought about systematic consistency in legal doctrines. In his
doctrines, emphasis shifts from material to systematic
considerations. Again and again he disregarded established practices
and considerations of judicial and administrative convenience in
favor of systematic and technical legal considerations. His legal
acumen and juristic strictness were such that Abu Hanifah reached
the highest level of legal thought achieved up to his time.
Because of his temperament and academic pre occupation, Abu
Hanifah took no direct part in court politics or power struggles,
despite his obvious antipathy towards the ruling dynasties of the
time.
Pertinently Abu Hanifah was the only son of Thabit bin Zuta,
who was a rich businessman from the very beginning. Father
involved his son in business and died when Imam Azam was only 16.
Imam sahib used to travel a lot for business and during one trip, he
met the famous Imam Ash Shabi who gave him the advice to study
the religion of Islam more in-depth.
That one piece of advice changed the life of Abu Hanifah and he
became one of the greatest scholars of Islamic history. He mastered
multiple branches of the religion including theology, aqeedah(creed),
fiqh(Islamic rulings) and Hadith(sayings of the Prophet). He was the
pioneer to develop methods of looking into the texts of Qur’an and
Hadith and deduce rulings out of them to resolve current issues.
Imam Abu Hanifah who was also a prolific orator and debator
participated in numerous debates with the people of different
schools of thought.
The books authored by Abu Hanifah include Fiqh al Akbar,
Musnad Abu Hanifah, Kitab ul Aathaar and Musnad Imaam ul.
Yousuf Ibn Abd Al Rahman Al MIzzi listed 97 Hadith scholars
who were his students. Most of them were famous Hadith scholars
and their narrated hadiths were compiled in the Sahih Al Bukhari,
Sahih Muslim and other famous books of Hadith. Imam Badr Al Din Al
Ayni included another 260 students who studied hadith and FIqh
from Abu Hanifah.
His most famous student was Imam Abu Yusuf who served as
the first Chief Justice in the Muslim World. Another famous student
was Imam Al Shaybani, who was the teacher of the Shafi’I school of
jurisprudence founder Imam Al Shafi’i.
continued……
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