Imam Abu Hanifa

Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, (699 — 767 CE / 80 — 148 AH) was the founder of the Sunni Hanafi school of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).

Imam of Imams; Lamp of the Ummah; Leader of the Jurists and Mujtahideen; Hafize-Hadith Hadhrat Imam Abu Hanifah raḍyAllāhu 'anhu (may Allāh be pleased with him) was a prestigious Mujtahid, Muhaddith, authoritative person, truthfully spoken, abstinent, wise, and pious.



Name, birth and ancestry

Imām Abū Ḥanīfah was born in the city of Kufa in Iraq, during the reign of the powerful Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
His ancestry is generally accepted as being of non-Arab origin as suggested by the etymology of the names of his grandfather (Zuta) and great-grandfather (Mah). The historian, Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, records a statement from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah’s grandson, Ismail bin Hammad, who gave Abū Ḥanīfah’s lineage as Thabit bin Numan bin Marzban and claiming to be of Persian origin.

Imām Abū Ḥanifa was born 67 years after the death of Muhammad, but during the time of the Sahaba of Muhammad, some of whom lived on until Abū Ḥanīfah’s youth. Anas bin Malik, Muhammad’s personal attendant, died in 93 AH and another companion, Abul Tufail Amir bin Wathilah, died in 100 AH, when Abū Ḥanīfah was 20 years old.
However the author of al-Khairat al-Hisan collected information from books of biographies and cited the names of the Sahaba whom it is reported that the Imam has transmitted hadith from. He counted them as sixteen of the Sahaba. They are: Anas ibn Malik, Abdullah ibn Anis al-Juhani, Abdullah ibn al-Harith ibn Juz’ al-Zabidi, Jabir ibn Abdullah, Abdullah ibn Abi Awfa, Wa’ila ibn al-Asqa`, Ma`qal ibn Yasar, Abu Tufail `Amir ibn Wa’ila, `A’isha bint Hajrad, Sahl ibn Sa`d, al-Tha’ib ibn Khallad ibn Suwaid, al-Tha’ib ibn Yazid ibn Sa`id, Abdullah ibn Samra, Mahmud ibn al-Rabi`, Abdullah ibn Ja`far, and Abu Umama.

Hadith Reported by Abū Ḥanīfah upon the authority of Anas ibn Malik “Seeking of knowledge is an obligation on each and every Muslim.”


Imam Abu Haneefa was one of the greatest of the mujtahideen.  He was also a great city planner, responsible for the planning of the city of Baghdad when it was founded by the Caliph al Mansur in 765 CE. Abu Hanifa was a mathematician of the first magnitude.  He was aware of the concepts of specific density and specific volume and implemented them in practice. As a philosopher, his work anticipated the Hegelian dialectic by more than a thousand years. The Hegelian dialectic (named after Hegel the German philosopher of the 17th century) is one of the basic principles of Western philosophy.  Its premise is that a higher collective truth emerges when multiple individual truths compete. Abu Hanifa was no hermit, or a pure academician, cloistering himself in a monastery or a mosque. He was a rich man, a successful merchant, a wonderful human being who lived among common folk with the zest and enthusiasm of a believer and contributed to the life of the community that he was a part of.

The Tigris River kisses the tomb of this mujtahid as it meanders through the now battered city of Baghdad. Located approximately six kilometers from the city center, the mosque of Abu Haneefa complex spreads out in the district of Al A’zamiyah which is named after him. It attracts pilgrims from Turkey, Bosnia, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India , Bangladesh, indeed from all over the Islamic world. The cemetery is old. During the Abbasid period (751 to 1258 CE) it was called Maqbaratul Khaysarun, named after the mother of the famed Caliph Harun al Rashid (763-809CE). It has the tombs of many of the Abbasid Caliphs and dignitaries.

Gazing at the Abu Haneefa mosque from across the Tigris River on the west bank is the tomb of another great savant, Imam Musa al Kazim. The district is named after him and is called Al Kazimiyah. Musa al Kazim (745-799CE) was the seventh imam in the lineage of ahl-e-bait in the Ithna Ashari Shia tradition. The Tigris River divides the two tombs and in a wistful simile symbolizes the Shia-Sunni divide that runs through Islamic history as does the river Tigris through the divided city of Baghdad. It is said among the believers on both sides that the two great scholars, Imam Abu Haneefa and Imam Musa al Kazim talk to each other in the early hours of the morning bemoaning the Shia-Sunni fitna that has engulfed Baghdad and urging the believers to build a bridge. Indeed, a bridge was built connecting the two mosques early in the twentieth century. The Shias and the Sunnis could not agree whether to call it the al-A’azamiyah bridge or the al Kazimiyah bridge. Therefore, a compromise was reached and it was simply called Burj al Imamiyah (the Bridge of the Imams).


Adulthood and death



Abu Haneefa was born as Nu’man bin Thabit bin Marzuban. His grandfather Marzuban was an Afghan from Kabul. Unlike most Arabic names, the name Abu Haneefa is derived from the name of one of his daughters, The people of Baghdad relate that Haneefa, the daughter of the Imam, was well known for her piety and showed great intelligence and wisdom at an early age. She had her own halqa (a study circle) where she instructed students in matters of religion. One day, a group of women asked her how so many individual men and women could work together for the common good even though they had their own separate families. Haneefa asked each of the women to bring a cup of milk. Taking a large ceramic jug from her father’s house, she poured the milk from each of the individual cups into the jar. “Now, tell me”, she asked each of the ladies, “which portion of the milk is yours”. The women instantly understood that the community was like the milk in the jar. The milk came from different cups but it was now one. As the fame of Haneefa spread, people started to refer to the Imam as Abu Haneefa (the father of Haneefa).



Nu’man bin Thabit, later known by his universal name Imam Abu Haneefa, was born in the year 699 CE in the city of Kufa. As it is with most famous men and women in history, his lineage is claimed by Iranians, Afghans and Arabs alike. But most scholars agree he was of Afghan parentage through his grandfather Marzuban. Kufa was at the time a garrison city in a period of rapid expansion of the Omayyad Empire. It was also the provincial capital of Iraq and a commercial center, a meeting place for Persians, Arabs, Afghans and Indians. Turkish tribesmen wandered in from Central Asia as did the Chinese from far away Sinkiang. Abu Haneefa was only twelve years old when Sindh and Multan were added to the Omayyad domains through the conquests of Mohammed bin Qasim (711CE).

The melting pot that was Kufa left a lasting impact on the young Abu Haneefa and this impact is reflected in his Fiqh. His oft-quoted saying: “The Iman (faith) of a converted Turk is the equal of the iman of a resident of Madina”, summarizes his openness and acceptance of people of all nations and ethnic origins. Kufa was a very different town from Madina. While Madina was the city of the Prophet, the cradle of Islamic civilization, insulated from the convulsive currents in faraway lands, Kufa was at the very center of cultural and intellectual turbulence brought on by the mixing of Persian Zoroastrians, Chinese Buddhists, Indian Hindus, Roman Christians and Arab Muslims. The geopolitical as well the cultural contexts of the two cities was different. This background must be kept in mind by students of comparative Fiqh who study the positions of the various schools of Fiqh on specific issues.

Abu Haneefa, born as he was into a merchant family, learned the silk trade from his grandfather. His early training was in commerce rather than in Sunnah and Fiqh. It is related that when he was eight years old and was on his way to his grandfather’s silk store, he was stopped by a Shaykh and was asked which madrasa he was headed to. The Shaykh saw the light on the face of the young Abu Haneefa and sensed his great potential. When Abu Haneefa answered that he was headed to the silk store of his grandfather and not to a madrasa, the Shaykh guided him instead to a classroom. The young Abu Haneefa made rapid progress and soon outperformed all the other students in his class, memorizing the Quran, learning hadith and Sunnah and soaking in the knowledge that the best of the Shaykhs had to offer.

The learning of the young Shaykh Abu Haneefa soon attracted the attention of students and scholars. Young and old alike attended his halqa (a circle of students) and learned from him. Traveling to the Hijaz, Abu Haneefa performed his Hajj and spent two years in Madina attending the halqa of Imam Ja’afar as Sadiq, learning from him the inner meaning of the Shari’ah as transmitted from the Prophet through ahl-e-bait. There is, however, another tradition which believes that Imam Abu Haneefa and Imam Ja’afar as Sadiq never met. However, on the basis of the well known saying of Imam Abu Haneefa, “If it were not for the two years I spent with Ja’afar as Sadiq, I would be left wandering”, we accept the premise that Imam Abu Haneefa did indeed attend the halqa of Imam Ja’afar as Sadiq and learned ilm ul ishara (the knowledge of the unseen) from him.

Imam Abu Haneefa had a unique method of teaching his students. Instead of giving them solutions to specific questions brought before him, the Imam would divide up his students into two groups. One group was asked to defend a proposition while the other was asked to oppose it. “What if” propositions were placed before the class. The students would study the Quran, the Sunnah, the hadith as well as the earlier decisions taken by the Suhaba, passionately debate among themselves, and would finally come up with a consensus. The process was devised to remove any probability of error in the judgment and the premise was that a higher truth emerges out of the dialectic (debate) of two opposing positions. A thousand years later, the same process became the foundation for the Hegelian dialectic, a school of philosophy named after the German philosopher George Wilhelm Frederich Hegel (1770-1831). Hegel is considered the father of dialectic philosophy. The Marxists as well as the German nationalists before the Second World War considered Hegel to be the father of their ideology.

Imam Abu Haneefa was keenly aware of the challenges faced by jurists in the dynamic social environment of Kufa. The Zoroastrians, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Muslims, the Sabians and the Christians had their own view of the cosmos and their own way of relating to the transcendent. As more and more followers of these ancient faiths accepted Islam, especially during the reign of the Caliph Omar bin Abdel Aziz (717-719 CE), there arose the immediate challenge of answering the questions posed by the new entrants to the Islamic faith. Imam Abu Haneefa rose to the challenge. He looked upon Fiqh as a dynamic process, applicable in all ages and all locations. No jurist of the future would be left without the tools required to search for solutions to the specific issues faced by him in his own space and time.


Fiqh is the historical dimension of the Shari’ah. It is the human attempt to apply the Shari’ah so that they discharge the Divine commandment to create Divine patterns on earth. It defines the how, what, who when and what ifs of the Shari’ah. The process of Fiqh is a dynamic balance between the application of Divine Mercy and Divine Wrath with justice acting as the governing principle. The Quran and the hadith explain clearly that Divine Mercy is preponderant over Divine wrath (The Quran, 11:119. Please also see the hadith, “By Him in whose Hand is my life, if you were not to commit sin, Allah would sweep you out of existence, and He would replace you by those people who would commit sin and seek forgiveness from Allah, and He would have pardoned them.“ Sahih Muslim, Volume 4, 1143, Kitab al-Tauba). The majestic panorama of creation revolves around knowledge, worship, service and forgiveness. The dimensions of Shari’ah are infinite. The dimensions of Fiqh are finite and it has definite hudood (limits).

The Hanafi Fiqh which evolved as an outgrowth of the teachings of Imam Abu Haneefa offers five sources for the development of Fiqh: the Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet and his confirmed Ahadith, the Ijmah of the Companions, Qiyas and Estehsan. The different schools of Fiqh differ on the importance of these five sources.The Maliki school which grew up in Madina in the heart of the Islamic world, accepts the Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the collective Ijmah of all the Companions as sources of Fiqh but it rejects Qiyas and Estehsan. The Shafii school requires the Ijmah of the Companions to be universal as does the Maliki Fiqh, but unlike the Maliki Fiqh, it accepts the principle of Qiyas under exceptional circumstances. The Shafii Fiqh rejects Estehsan as does the Ithna Ashari Fiqh. The Hanbali Fiqh is the strictest of them all. It accepts only the Quran, the verified Sunnah of the Prophet and the universal consensus of the Companions as sources of Fiqh.



The principles of Qiyas and Estehsan are available to the large number of Muslims who live as minorities in India, China, Europe and America to apply the Shari’ah and deduce legal opinions that meet the requirements of their social, political and economic context. For instance, in the thirteenth century, at the height of the Mongol destructions, the great scientist Nasiruddin al Tusi applied the principles of Estehsan to develop a school of akhlaq (character) called akhlaq e Nasiri. This school later became the foundation of the curriculum in the schools of Mogul India. Through his very openness, Imam Abu Haneefa left open the doors to ijtehad for minorities, doors that were shut in later times. This is his legacy. This is his greatness. No wonder he is referred to as al Imam al A’zam (the great Imam).If ever a Fiqh for minorities, al Fiqh al akhliyya (minority Fiqh) is evolved (as opposed to the existing schools of Fiqh which are al Fiqh al Aghlabiya, the Fiqh of the majority or the dominant group), the credit for its foundation must go to Imam al A’zam, Abu Haneefa.


Even while maintaining the rigor of his principles, al Imam al A’zam, Abu Haneefa was very human and had a keen sense of humor. Once a man asked him about taking a swim in the river. “Should I face the qibla when I bathe in the river”, asked the man. “No”, replied the Imam, “You should face the bank of the river and watch your clothes”.

His success and his greatness made the political establishment of the times jealous of him. In 766 CE Caliph al Mansur asked Imam Abu Haneefa to be the chief Kadi (judge) of Baghdad. The Caliph had hoped that by offering him a high post he could bring the Imam under his control. But the great ulema and sages and awliyah have through the ages refused the favors of kings and noblemen to maintain their independence. Abu Haneefa declined. The Caliph, furious that his invitation was spurned, had the Imam flogged and put in jail. Even in the prison, the Imam continued to teach and train his disciples. And it was in prison that this great mujtahid breathed his last in the year 767 CE. The tribute to this giant among scholars is that a large majority of Muslims around the world, from Istanbul to Dhaka, from Samarqand to Cairo, use the Fiqh named after him. The principles of Qiyas and Estehsan evolved by Imam Abu Haneefa, when they are applied in conjunction with the Quran, the Sunnah and Ijmah, provide the intellectual tools that can be used to develop a minority Fiqh (al Fiqh al Akhliyya) which has yet to emerge in the Islamic world despite the fact that more than three hundred million Muslims live as religious minorities in India, China, Russia, South Africa, Europe, Australia and North America.


Imam Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq, Aamir Ibn Shurahbeel,  Adi Ibn Thabit,  Alqama Ibn Marthad,  Mansoor Ibn Umar,  Muhammed Ibn Munkadir Madni,  Sha’abi Kufi,  Simaak Ibn Harb,  Qataada Basri,  Qays Ibn Muslim Kufi,  Ziyaad Ibn Ilaqa
Abdullah Ibn Mubarak, Abu Bakr Ibn Ayyaash,  Abu Ismat Mugheera Ibn Miqsam,  Ali Ibn Aasim, Imaam Abu Yusuf, Hammad Ibn Abu Hanifah,  Ja’far Ibn Awn,  Muhammad Ibn Hasan,  Tobah Bin Saad,  Ubaydullah Ibn Musa , Yunus Ibn Is‘haaq,  Zufar Ibn Huzayl
Kitaab-ul-Aathaar narrated by Imaam Muhammad al-Shaybani – compiled from a total of 70,000 hadith, Kitabul Aathaar narrated by Imaam Abu Yusuf,  Aalim wa’l-muta‘allim,  Fiqh al-Akbar Musnad Imaam ul A’zam,  Kitaabul Rad alal Qaadiriyah,  Read by Munir