Abu Hanifa Al-Numan bin Thabit bin Marzban Al-Kufi (80-150 AH / 699-767 AD)
A Muslim jurist and scholar, the first of the four imams according to the Sunnis and the community, and the owner of the Hanafi school of thought in Islamic jurisprudence. He is called in the Arab-Islamic heritage “the Greatest Imam.” He was famous for his abundant knowledge and good morals, to the point that Imam Al-Shafi’i said about him: “Whoever wants to delve into jurisprudence is Children of Abu Hanifa.” Abu Hanifa is considered one of the followers, as he met a number of companions, including Anas bin Malik, and he was known for his piety, abundance of worship, dignity, sincerity, and strength of character. In his jurisprudence, Abu Hanifa relied on six sources: the Holy Qur’an, the Sunnah of the Prophet, consensus, analogy, approval, custom and custom.
Abu Hanifa was born in Kufa and grew up there. Kufa was one of the great cities of Iraq, where scholars of different sects and laws spread. Abu Hanifa grew up in this environment rich in knowledge and scholars. Since childhood, he began to argue with the debaters, but he was devoted to the profession of trade, so his father and grandfather They were merchants, then he turned to seeking knowledge, and began to go to circles of scholars, and he turned to studying jurisprudence after reviewing the known sciences of that era, and he joined his sheikh Hammad bin Abi Suleiman to learn jurisprudence from him until Hammad died in the year 120 AH, so Abu Hanifa assumed the presidency of his sheikh’s circle. Hammad in the Kufa Mosque, and began studying his students with the fatwas presented to him, until he developed the jurisprudential method from which the Hanafi school of thought was derived.
Two ordeals befell Imam Abu Hanifa, the first ordeal in the era of the Umayyad dynasty, and the reason for it was that he supported the revolution of Imam Zaid bin Ali, and he refused to work for the governor of Kufa, Yazid bin Omar bin Hubayra, so the governor imprisoned him and beat him, and the ordeal ended with his departure to Mecca in the year 130 AH, and he remained residing. There, until the caliphate became the Abbasids, he came to Kufa during the time of the Abbasid Caliph Abu Jaafar Al-Mansur. As for the second ordeal, it occurred in the era of the Abbasid state, and its reason was that he stood with the pure revolution of Imam Muhammad, and he openly disagreed with Al-Mansur in his goals when he asked him for a fatwa. When Abu Jaafar Al-Mansur invited him to take over the judiciary, he refused, so he asked him to be the judge of judges, but he refused, so he imprisoned him until he died in Baghdad in the year 150 AH. He was buried in the Bamboo Cemetery in Baghdad, and the Great Imam Mosque was built next to his grave in the year 375 AH.
His birth and lineage
Imam Abu Hanifa was born in Kufa in the year 80 of the Prophet’s Hijra, corresponding to the year 699 AD, according to a narration on which historians agree. His father: Thabit bin al-Numan bin Zuti bin Mah. There is disagreement in determining his ethnic affiliation, as there are multiple narrations, including that he is of Persian origin, and this narration is common and well-known. In the narration of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi in his book The History of Baghdad, Thabit is the father of Abu Hanifa, from the people of Anbar, from Nabataeans. Iraq is Babylonian, which is suggested by a number of academic studies, which proved its Arabism and that it is of Arab origin according to Arab historians such as Mustafa Jawad, Naji Ma’rouf, Rashid al-Khayoun and others. Naji Ma’rouf wrote a book proving his Arabism and belonging to an Arab origin with historical evidence, which invalidates everything that has been said. He was previously mentioned as a non-Arab, in his valuable book The Arabism of Imam Abu Hanifa al-Numan, and based on the saying: (The people of Mecca know best about its paths) the Hanafi sources confirm that he is an Arab Arab, and that Thabit ibn al-Marzban, from the children of Yahya ibn Zaid ibn Asad, is one of the Azd Arabs who They migrated from Yemen and inhabited the land of Iraq after the collapse of the Ma’rib Dam due to the torrent of Al-Aram, and they became part of Nabataean Iraq. His nickname, Abu Hanifa, was said to be because the meaning of the Hanif is the hermit Muslim who leans toward the true religion. It was said that Hanifa means an inkwell, which is the inkwell in the Iraqi dialect. He was given the nickname because he was attached to the inkwell, and it was said that he was given that nickname because he had a daughter named Hanifa.
His family and the environment in which he grew up
Abu Hanifa grew up and was raised in Kufa, and lived most of his life there, learning, debating, and teaching. The sources do not clarify his father’s life, condition, or the work he did, but something of his conditions may be inferred from them. It may be learned from them that he was one of the people of the left and the rich, and that he was one of the merchants. And he was a good Muslim. It has been narrated that Ali bin Abi Talib prayed for Thabit when he saw that he would be blessed and his descendants, and it is taken from this that he was a Muslim at the time of this call, and history books have stated that Thabit was born to Islam, and therefore Abu Hanifa had his initial upbringing in a purely Islamic home. This is what all scholars affirm, except for those who do not care about their anomalies and do not pay attention to their words.
Kufa, the birthplace of Abu Hanifa, was one of the great cities of Iraq, and even the second great city of Egypt at that time, and in Iraq there were sects, sects, and whims. It was the home of ancient cities. The Syriacs had spread there and established schools for themselves there before Islam, and they used to study Greek philosophy and wisdom there. Persians, just as there were Christian sects in Iraq before Islam that disputed over beliefs, and Iraq after Islam was a mixture of different races, filled with turmoil and strife, and conflicting opinions on politics and the foundations of beliefs. It had the Shiites, the Kharijites in its desert, the Mu’tazilites, and diligent followers who carried the knowledge of They met some of the Companions, and the knowledge of religion was acceptable and prevalent, and there were conflicting issues and conflicting opinions.
Abu Hanifa’s eyes were opened and he saw these types, and his mind matured and these opinions were revealed to him, and from his youth he began to argue with the debaters, but he was devoted to the profession of trade, and he would go to the markets and would not go to the scholars except a little, until some of the scholars noticed the intelligence and scientific mind in him. He believed in it, and did not want it to be entirely for trade, so he advised him to go to the scholars just as he went to the markets. It is narrated on the authority of Abu Hanifa that he said: One day I passed by Al-Sha’bi while he was sitting, and he called me, and he said to me: “Who do you go to?” I said: “I go to the market.” He said: “I did not mean to go to the market, I meant to go to the scholars,” so I said to him. “I disagree with them a little,” so he said to me: “Do not neglect, and you should look into knowledge and sit with the scholars, for I see in you alertness and movement.” He said: “And his saying struck my heart, so I left the disagreement to the market, and took up knowledge, and God benefited me with his saying.” ».
Direct him to seek knowledge
Abu Hanifa turned to science after Al-Shabi’s advice, and began to join scholars’ circles. The circles of knowledge in that era were of three types: circles for studying the foundations of beliefs, and this is what the people of the various sects would delve into, circles for studying the Prophetic hadiths and their narration, and circles for deducing jurisprudence from the book. And the Sunnah, and fatwas regarding incidents that occur.
The sources mentioned several narrations about Abu Hanifa indicating that when he devoted himself to seeking knowledge, he turned to jurisprudence after reviewing the known sciences of that era. He first chose the science of theology and argumentation with sects, then he turned from it to jurisprudence. This is a narration that has been narrated in several ways, one of which is on the authority of Abu Yusuf, the companion of Abu Hanifa, that Abu Hanifa was asked: “How did you achieve success in jurisprudence?” He said: “I will tell you, as for success, it was from God, and to Him is praise as it is due and deserving of it. When I wanted to learn knowledge, I kept all the sciences before my eyes, and I read one art of it after another, and I thought about its outcome and where it would be beneficial, so I said, “I am beginning to speak,” and then I looked, and if a bad consequence befalls him, his benefit is little, and if a person completes it, he is unable to speak out loud, and he is thrown out of every evil and is called a person of inclination. Then I followed the matter. Literature and grammar, so if the outcome of his command was that I would sit with a boy and teach him grammar and etiquette, then I followed the matter of poetry, and I found that the outcome of his command was praise and satire, and telling lies and tearing up religion. Then I thought about the matter of the readings, and I said: If I have achieved the goal of it, I will meet young people who recite to me, and talk about The Qur’an and its meanings are difficult, so I said: I seek hadith, so I said: If I collect a lot of it, I need a long life until I am needed, and if I am needed, only young people will meet me, and perhaps they will accuse me of lying and poor memorization, so that will remain with me until the Day of Judgment. Then I turned jurisprudence around, so every time I turned it around, I would not He only increases his majesty, and I did not find any flaw in him, and I saw sitting with scholars, jurists, sheikhs, and insightful people and adhering to their morals, and I saw that performing the obligations, establishing religion, and worshiping is not right except with knowledge of Him, and seeking this world and the hereafter except through Him, and whoever wants to seek the world through him has asked for a grave matter through him, and has come to It is an elevation of it, and whoever wants to worship and renounce, no one can say: He worshiped without knowledge, and it was said that he understood and acted with knowledge.”
Abu Hanifa was thus educated in the entire Islamic culture that existed in his time. He memorized the Qur’an while Asim recited it, knew a fair amount of hadith, a fair amount of grammar, literature, and poetry. He debated with different sects on issues of belief and what was related to it. He used to travel for this discussion to Basra, and he would stay there. Sometimes he spent a year in that debate, then after that he turned to jurisprudence, and he turned to studying the fatwas of the great sheikhs who were in his time, and he adhered to one of them, and he learned from him and graduated from him. Kufa during his reign was the home of Iraqi jurists, just as Basra was the home of the various sects and those who were They delve into the foundations of belief, and that intellectual environment had an impact on him, to the point where he said: “I was in the field of knowledge and jurisprudence, so I sat with its people and associated with one of their jurists.”
Kufa Mosque in 1915 AD, where Abu Hanifa learned and taught Islamic jurisprudence
Abu Hanifa joined Hammad bin Abi Suleiman, graduated with him in jurisprudence, and settled with him until he died. Even if Hammad died in the year 120 AH, it is as if he died when Abu Hanifa was forty years old. Accordingly, Abu Hanifa did not study independently until he was forty years old. He reached his peak in both body and mind, and it was narrated on the authority of Abu Hanifa that he said about his relationship with his sheikh Hammad: “I accompanied him for ten years, and then my soul struggled with my desire for leadership, so I wanted to isolate him and sit in a circle for myself, so I went out one day in the evening with my intention to do so, so when I entered the mosque And when I saw him, my soul did not ask me to separate from him, so I came and sat with him, and that night he received the news of a relative of his who had died in Basra and left behind money, and he had no heir other than him. So he ordered me to sit in his place, and it was only after he left that I received questions that I had not heard from him, so I was answering and writing. My answer, then he came and I presented the issues to him, and they were about sixty issues, so he agreed with me on forty and disagreed with me on twenty, so I vowed to myself that I would not separate from him until he died, and I did not separate from him until he died.”
It has been proven that Abu Hanifa stayed with him for eighteen years. It was reported that he said: “I came to Basra and thought that I would not be asked about anything without answering it. They asked me about things for which I did not have an answer, so I made it a duty not to leave Hammad until he died, so I accompanied him for eighteen years.” year". It is noted from this that Abu Hanifa studied with his Sheikh Hammad at the age of twenty-two, and he accompanied him until the age of forty, then he became independent in studying and researching, and took over his circle after that. While he remained with his Sheikh Hammad, he met other jurists and hadith scholars, and he followed the followers wherever they were and wherever they were educated. .
When Abu Hanifa was forty years old, he sat in the council of his Sheikh Hammad in the Kufa Mosque, and he began to study with his students the fatwas presented to him, and the rulings he had learned, and he measured things by their likes, and proverbs by their likes, until he established that jurisprudential
method from which the Hanafi school of thought was derived.
His jurisprudence and the principles of his doctrine
It was narrated on the authority of Imam Abu Hanifa that he said: “I will follow the Book of God Almighty, and if I do not find it, then by the Sunnah of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace. If I do not find it in the Book of God or the Sunnah of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, I will take the saying of the Companions. I will take the saying of whomever I want from them and leave the saying of whomever I want of them. Deviate from their words to the words of others, and if the matter ends with Ibrahim, Al-Sha’bi, Ibn Sirin, Al-Hasan, Ata’, and Saeed bin Al-Musayyab - and he enumerated men - then some people worked hard, so I worked hard as they did.”
Sahl bin Muzahim said: “The words of Abu Hanifa are based on trust and escaping from ugliness, and looking at people’s dealings and what they have been upright upon and their affairs are corrected upon, he proceeds with matters according to analogy, and if the analogy is ugly, he proceeds with approval, as long as it is satisfactory to him, and if it does not suit him, he returns to what he did.” Muslims dealt with it, and he used to establish the well-known hadith on which there was consensus, then he would make an analogy based on it as long as the analogy was acceptable, then he would return to it for approval, and he would refer to whichever was more correct.”
These and other sayings indicate the totality of the jurisprudential sources of Imam Abu Hanifa, which are: the Holy Qur’an, the noble Sunnah of the Prophet, consensus, analogy, approval, custom and habit.
The Holy Quran
According to Imam Abu Hanifa, the Holy Qur’an is the first and highest source in matters of jurisprudence, because it is the definitively proven book, not a single letter of it is doubted, and nothing equals it or reaches its level in reliability except the mutawatir hadith. Therefore, it is not seen that the Holy Qur’an is abrogated by individual reports from the Sunnah, but rather He should do it as much as possible, otherwise he will leave the speculative Sunnah of the definitive book.
Sunnah
Imam Abu Hanifa does not place the Prophetic Sunnah in one rank. Rather, for example, he gives precedence to the verbal Sunnah over the actual, due to the possibility that the action may be specific to the Prophet, and he gives priority to the Mutawatir Sunnah over single narrations when there is a conflict and it is not possible to combine them. Rather, he abandons working with single narrations if it violates an established legal rule. From the text of the Qur’an or Sunnah.
Consensus
What the Companions of the Messenger agreed upon and what they disagreed about does not deviate from their sayings to the sayings of others. Consensus: is the agreement of the diligent Imams in an era after the Messenger left this world on a legal ruling, and the consensus according to Imam Abu Hanifa is an applicable proof.
Measurement
It is attaching a branch to an original in which there is a text with a specific ruling of obligation or prohibition, due to the existence of the reason for the ruling in the branch as it is in the original. Imam Abu Hanifa gives precedence to the Sunnah, even if it is a mursal hadith, over analogy, just as he gives precedence to a weak hadith over analogy.
Approval
It is seeking what is best for the followers who are commanded to do it. It has become clear that approval according to Imam Abu Hanifa is neither following one’s desires nor a judgment of purpose, but rather choosing the stronger of the two pieces of evidence in a specific incident.
Custom and habit
This is what settled in the souls from the point of view of the minds, and the sound natures accepted it with acceptance. The basis for considering custom as legal evidence is the saying of Ibn Masoud: “What the Muslims see as good is good in the sight of God.” Custom is evidence where there is no legal evidence from the Qur’an and Sunnah, but if it contradicts custom. The Qur’an and Sunnah are like the custom of some merchants to deal with usury. It is a custom that is rejected because it is contrary to and contrary to the Sharia.
His trade
Abu Hanifa grew up in a house of people of the left and the wealthy. His father and grandfather were merchants, and it is most likely that their trade was in khaz (which is a type of fabric), and it is a trade that brings abundant good to its owner. Abu Hanifa took this trade from them, so his early upbringing was different. He went to the market, and did not devote himself to listening to scholars, then he turned to science, but he did not stop trading, rather he continued as a merchant until he died, and he had a partner who appeared to have helped him to continue seeking knowledge, serving jurisprudence, and narrating hadith.
Abu Hanifa the merchant was characterized by characteristics that make him a perfect example of an upright merchant. He was wealthy in soul and was not controlled by the greed that impoverishes souls. Perhaps the reason for this is that he grew up in a rich family and did not experience the humiliation of need. He was very honest, strict with himself in everything related to it, and he was tolerant. God protected him from his miserliness, and he was extremely religious, extremely ascetic, and a great worshiper, fasting during the day and praying at night. These qualities had an impact on his commercial transactions, until he was a stranger among merchants, and many compared him in his trade to Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq. It is narrated that a woman came to him with a silk dress to sell to him, and he said: “How much is it?” She said: “A hundred.” He said: “It is better than a hundred. How much do you say?” So she added a hundred until she said: “Four hundred.” He said: “It is better than that,” she said, “You are mocking me.” He said, “Get a man to do it.” So she brought a man, and he bought him for five hundred.
Abu Hanifa was very critical of everything that involved suspicion of sin, even if it was distant. If he thought he had sinned or imagined that he had sinned, he would take it out and give it in charity to the poor and needy. It is narrated that he sent his partner, Hafs bin Abdul Rahman, with some belongings, and informed him that there was a flaw in one of his clothes, and he was obligated to do so. He must explain the defect when selling it. Hafs sold the item and forgot to explain it, and he did not know who bought it. When Abu Hanifa found out, he gave the entire price of the item in charity.
Abu Hanifa’s trade brought him abundant wealth, and it is narrated that he used to collect profits from year to year, and with it he would buy the needs of the sheikhs and the moderns, their food, their clothing, and all their needs, and then he would pay the rest of the dinars from the profits to them, and he would say: “Spend on your needs, and praise no one but God.” I did not give you anything from my wealth, but from God’s grace upon me in you.” Abu Hanifa was also keen to have a good appearance like his informant, so he took great care of his clothes, choosing them to be good, to the point that his clothing was valued at thirty dinars, and he had a good appearance and a lot of perfume.