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Abu Hanifa (ra)
by GF Haddad ©
AL-NU`MAN IBN THABIT al-Taymi, al-Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 150), called "The Imam" by Abu Dawud, and "The Imam, one of those who have reached the sky" by Ibn Hajar, he is known in the Islamic world as "The Greatest Imam" (al-imâm al-a`zam) and his school has the largest number of followers among the four schools of Ahl al-Sunna. He is the first of the four mujtahid imams and the only Successor (tâbi`i) among them, having seen the Companions Anas ibn Malik, `Abd Allah ibn Abi Awfa, Sahl ibn Sa`d al-Sa`idi, Abu al-Tufayl, and `Amir ibn Wathila.
Abu Hanifa is the first in Islam to organize the writing of fiqh under sub-headings embracing the whole of the Law, beginning with purity (tahara) followed by prayer (sala), an order which was retained by all subsequent scholars such as Malik, Shafi`i, Abu Dawud, Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, and others. All these and their followers are indebted to him and give him a share of their reward because he was the first to open that road for them, according to the hadith of the Prophet:
"He who starts something good in Islam has its reward and the reward of those who practice it until the Day of Judgement, without lessening in the least the reward of those who practice it. The one who starts something bad in Islam will incur its punishment and the punishment of all those who practice it until the Day of Judgement without lessening their punishment in the least." Al-Shafi`i referred to this when he said: "People are all the children of Abu Hanifa in fiqh, of Ibn Ishaq in history, of Malik in hadith, and of Muqatil in tafsîr."
Al-Khatib narrated from Abu Hanifa's student Abu Nu`aym that the latter said: "Muslims should make du`a to Allah on behalf of Abu Hanifa in their prayers, because the Sunan and the fiqh were preserved for them through him. Al-Dhahabi wrote one volume on the life of each of the other three great Imams and said: "The account of Abu Hanifa's life requires two volumes." His son Hammad said as he washed his father's body for burial: "May Allah have mercy on you! You have exhausted whoever tries to catch up with you."
Abu Hanifa was scrupulously pious and refused Ibn Hubayra's offer of a judgeship even when the latter had him whipped. Like al- Bukhari and al-Shafi`i, he used to make 60 complete recitations (khatma) of Qur'an every Ramadan: one in the day, one in the night, besides his teaching and other duties. Ibrahim ibn Rustum al- Marwazi said: "Four are the Imams that recited the entire Qur'an in a single rak`a: `Uthman ibn `Affan, Tamim al-Dari, Sa`id ibn Jubayr, and Abu Hanifa."
Ibn al-Mubarak said: "Abu Hanifa for a long time would pray all five prayers with a single ablution."
Al-Suyuti relates in Tabyid al-Sahifa that a certain visitor came to observe Abu Hanifa and saw him all day long in the mosque, teaching relentlessly, answering every question from both the scholars and the common people, not stopping except to pray, then standing at home in prayer when people were asleep, hardly ever eating or sleeping, and yet the most handsome and gracious of people, always alert and never tired, day after day for a long time, so that in the end the visitor said: "I became convinced that this was not an ordinary matter, but wilâya (Friendship with Allah)."
Al-Shafi`i said: "Knowledge revolves around three men: Malik, al-Layth, and Ibn `Uyayna." Al-Dhahabi commented: "Rather, it revolves also around al-Awza`i, al-Thawri, Ma`mar, Abu Hanifa, Shu`ba, and the two Hammads [ibn Zayd and ibn Salama]."
Sufyan al-Thawri praised Abu Hanifa when he said: "We were in front of Abu Hanifa like small birds in front of the falcon," and Sufyan stood up for him when Abu Hanifa visited him after his brother's death, and he said: "This man holds a high rank in knowledge, and if I did not stand up for his science I would stand up for his age, and if not for his age then for his Godwariness (wara`), and if not for his Godwariness then for his jurisprudence (fiqh)." Ibn al-Mubarak praised Abu Hanifa and called him a sign of Allah. Both Ibn al-Mubarak and Sufyan al-Thawri said: "Abu Hanifa was in his time the most knowledgeable of all people on earth." Ibn Hajar also related that Ibn al-Mubarak said: "If Allah had not rescued me with Abu Hanifa and Sufyan [al-Thawri] I would have been like the rest of the common people." Dhahabi relates it as: "I would have been an innovator."
An example of Abu Hanifa's perspicuity in inferring legal rulings from source-texts is his reading of the following hadith:
The Prophet said: "Your life in comparison to the lifetime of past nations is like the period between the time of the mid- afternoon prayer (`asr) and sunset. Your example and the example of the Jews and Christians is that of a man who employed laborers and said to them: "Who will work for me until mid-day for one qirât (a unit of measure, part of a dinar) each?" The Jews worked until mid-day for one qirât each. Then the man said: "Who will work for me from mid-day until the `asr prayer for one qirât each?" The Christians worked from mid-day until the `asr prayer for one qirât each. Then the man said: "Who will work for me from the `asr prayer until the maghrib prayer for two qirât each?" And that, in truth, is all of you. In truth, you have double the wages. The Jews and the Christians became angry and said: "We did more labor but took less wages." But Allah said: "Have I wronged you in any of your rights?" They replied no. Then He said: "This is My Blessing which I give to whom I wish."
It was deduced from the phrase "We did more labor" that the time of mid-day to `asr must always be longer than that between `asr and maghrib. This is confirmed by authentic reports whereby:
The Prophet hastened to pray zuhr and delayed praying `asr. The Prophet said: "May Allah have mercy on someone who prays four rak`as before `asr. `Ali delayed praying `asr until shortly before the sun changed, and he reprimanded the mu'adhdhin who was hurrying him with the words: "He is trying to teach us the Sunna!"
Ibrahim al-Nakha`i said: "Those that came before you used to hasten more than you to pray zuhr and delay more than you in praying `asr." Al-Tahanawi said: "Those that came before you" are the Companions. Ibn Mas`ud delayed praying `asr.
Sufyan al-Thawri, Abu Hanifa, and his two companions Muhammad ibn a-Hasan and Abu Yusuf therefore considered it better to lengthen the time between zuhr and `asr by delaying the latter prayer as long as the sun did not begin to redden, while the majority of the authorities considered that praying `asr early is better, on the basis of other sound evidence to that effect.
Like every Friend of Allah, Abu Hanifa had his enemies. `Abdan said that he heard Ibn al-Mubarak say: "If you hear them mention Abu Hanifa derogatively then they are mentioning me derogatively. In truth I fear for them Allah's displeasure." Authentically related from Bishr al-Hafi is the statement: "No-one criticizes Abu Hanifa except an envier or an ignoramus." Hamid ibn Adam al-Marwazi said: I heard Ibn al-Mubarak say: "I never saw anyone more fearful of Allah than Abu Hanifa, even on trial under the whip and through money and property." Abu Mu`awiya al-Darir said: "Love of Abu Hanifa is part of the Sunna."
Main sources: al-Khatib, Tarikh Baghdad 13:324-356; al-Dhahabi, Manaqib Abi Hanifa 22-36 and Tabaqat al-Huffaz 1:168; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 10:450; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya 10:114; al-Suyuti, Tabyid al-Sahifa p. 94-95; al-Haytami, al-Khayrat al-Hisan.
Blessings and peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions
by GF Haddad ©
Greatness of Abu Hanifa (ra)
As-Salamu `alaykum:
There is a current trend of slighting Imam Abu Hanifa and his School. To some people even in Arab lands, indulging this trend gives a sense of Madhhab identity ("We Such and-such" -pick a Madhhab-).
The Umma has long settled the issue that Imam Abu Hanifa are among those who are imitated in Islam. The unparallelled spread of his School to this day is a confirmation of this God-sanctioned acceptance. One should learn something of why his Madhhab spread so much: if not for curiosity in (the Divine conduct of) our intellectual history then at least for elemental acquaintance with the Fiqh followed by most Muslims. In this respect love of Abu Hanifa and his Madhhab is love and mercy for the Umma of Sayyidina Muhammad sallAllahu `alayhi wa Alihi wasallam.
The precondition of studenthood is adab - humility and poverty - which is not harmed by simply keeping quiet about what we do not know. However, actually slighting such a major Imam and the Ulema of his entire School shows arrogance and destroys works. Wal-`aqibatu lil-muttaqin.
What Hanafi has done for the Ummah what Al-Ash'ari and al-Ghazali have done?
Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and Shah Muhammad Naqshband, Allah be well-pleased with them.
(Note: al-Ash`ari is claimed as a Maliki in their books cf. al-Dibaj al-Mudhahhab and Shajarat al-Nur al-Zakiyya. Further: the text of the Ibana attributed to al-Ash`ari states that he follows Imam Ahmad. Al-Ash`ari did have the Basrian Shafi`i Hafiz Zakariyya al-Saji, the student of al-Shafi`i's companions: al-Muzani and al-Rabi` ibn Sulayman, as his teacher in Fiqh.)
Is there any Hanafi imam whose works are more famed than Imam Nawawi's Riyadh al- Saaliheen and Forty Hadeeth, or Tafseer al-Jalaalain?
Is there any Shafi`i, Maliki, or Hanbali Imam whose works are more famed than the above?
(Nor does the fame of the Jalalayn denote an unanimous endorsement on the part of the Ulema.)
This is not to mention the major hadeeth imams (Buhkari etc) nearly all of whom were Shafi'is.
No. Not al-Bukhari, nor Muslim, nor Abu Dawud, nor al-Tirmidhi, nor Ibn Majah, nor al-Darimi. Just Ahmad, al-Tabari, and al-Nasa'i. But the former two became independent and the latter was also a Maliki.
In fact, the one most-followed School among the major Imams of Hadith that were the teachers or peers of al-Shafi`i, Ahmad, and al-Bukhari, was apparently the Hanafi School.
A few names of the Hanafi *muqallids* in Fiqh among the early hadith Masters:
- Yahya ibn Sa`id al-Qattan: Ahmad would not dare sit in his presence; Yahya ibn Sa`id said: "We have not heard better than Abu Hanifa's opinion and we have followed most of his positions."
- Yahya ibn Ma`in, he said of Abu Hanifa that he is not only thiqa (trustworthy) but thiqa thiqa. Al- Dhahabi even calls Ibn Ma`in a fanatic Hanafi.
- Al-Layth ibn Sa`d the Egyptian Mujtahid whom al- Shafi`i considered superior to Malik: Shaykh al- Islam Zakariyya al-Ansari (in his Sharh al-Bukhari) and Ibn Khallikan (in Wafayat al-A`yan) - both Shafi`is - class al-Layth among the Hanafis as do the Hanafi books of Tabaqat.
- Al-Fadl ibn Dukayn, one of the major authorities of Ahl al-Hadith. He said: "Muslims should make du`a to Allah on behalf of Abu Hanifa in their prayers, because the Sunan and the fiqh were preserved for them through him."
- Waki` ibn al-Jarrah, he replied to some of them: "You barred us from Abu Hanifa, are you going to bar us from Zufar??" (Zufar took over the teaching of Hanafi Fiqh in Kufa and Basra after the Imam.)
- Abu Mu`awiya al-Darir, he said: "Love of Abu Hanifa is part of the Sunna".
- Ibn Dawud al-Khuraybi: "Among the people [of learning] there are plenty of enviers and ignorant ones concerning Abu Hanifa."
- Bishr al-Hafi, he said: "None criticizes Abu Hanifa except an envier or an ignoramus".
- Ibn al-Mubarak. When al-Awza`i criticized Abu Hanifa, Ibn al-Mubarak copied a compilation of Abu Hanifa's fiqh under the name al-Nu`man. Al- Awza`i read it without interruption except for Salat al-Fard. Then he said: "This Nu`man is a grand master (hadha nabilun min al-ashyakh). Go to him and take as much as you can from him!" Ibn al-Mubarak said: "This is the Abu Hanifa you had forbidden me to see." Tarikh Baghdad. Ibn al-Mubarak considered one's hatred of Abu Hanifa a mark of Divine wrath. He also said: "If Allah had not rescued me with Abu Hanifa and Sufyan [al-Thawri] I would have been like the rest of the common people." Al-Dhahabi relates it as: "I would have been an innovator."
- Ibn `A'isha mentioned a fatwa of Abu Hanifa then said: "Truly, if you had seen him you would have wanted him [for your teacher]! Truly, his similitude and yours is as in the saying:
Curse them much or not, I care little to blame you;
But fill - if you can! - the space they left vacant.
This is not to mention Abu Hanifa's Fiqh students that were the teachers of subsequent Imams:
Zufar (taught Ibn al-Mubarak); Abu Yusuf (taught Ahmad); Muhammad ibn al-Hasan (taught al-Shafi`i, Ahmad, Ibn Sallam) Asad ibn `Amr al-Bajali (taught Ahmad).
According to Shaykh Wahbi al-Ghawji, even Imam al-Bukhari began as a Hanafi. I would think that this is true of Imam al-Darimi also.
This is all to say that if one ignores the warnings of Abu Mu`awiya, Ibn Dukayn, Bishr, Ibn Dawud, Ibn `A'isha etc. then also fails to grasp the meaning of al-Shafi`i's statement about the Fuqaha' being all indebted to Abu Hanifa in Fiqh [including al-Layth, al-Awza`i, and Malik], let them consider the non-Hanafi hadith Masters' awe before him in the following works of "Merits":
- Manaqib al-A'immat al-Thalathat al-Fuqaha' by Ibn `Abd al-Barr [Maliki]; - Manaqib Abi Hanifata wa Sahibayh by al-Dhahabi [Hanbali...]; - Manaqib al-A'immat al-Arba`a by Yusuf ibn `Abd al-Hadi [Hanbali]; - Tabyid al-Sahifa fi Manaqib Abi Hanifa by al-Suyuti [Shafi`i]; - Al-Khayraat al-Hisaan fi Manaaqib al-Nu`maan by al-Haytami [Shafi`i]; - `Uqd al-Jumaan fi Manaqib al-Nu`man by al-Salihi [Shafi`i].
All in print.
If all this fails to show you that love of Abu Hanifa and his School is not for Hanafis but for Muslims as a whole, then consider the meaning of Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani's expression in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib about Abu Hanifa: "He is of those whose rank reaches over the firmament." This expression means: try as you may, you cannot dent his name with the least aspersion; it is beyond dispute that Allah Most High has written acceptance for him in the Umma.
So the question is why Hanafis would consider these candidates to be more significant than Shafi'is whose works were of benefit to the whole Ummah.
"More significant" - if claimed - might be true numerically from the start, even before the Hanafis emerged above the rest in the res publica.
Muslims of intellect today are like candlelights flickering on a cold, windy night, discussing galaxies. They should not, in addition, try to blow each other out. This Umma is rich enough to have not two, but ten Mujaddids per century. However, who is listening? Who is acting? Allah have mercy on all of them and us.
Hajj Gibril
GF Haddad ©
[2001]
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