The Flowering Stage: The Schools of Legal Islamic Thought (The Hanafi and Awzaa'i Madh'habs)

Most of the leading early scholars were from the latter part of the Umayyad era, and the beginning of the Abbasid era.

The Hanafi Math’hab
 

The Founder: Abu Hanifa (703-767CE)

His real name was Nu’man ibn Thabit. His father was of Persian origin, and had converted to Islam during the period of the righteous caliphs. His early studies were in the field of philosophy and dialectics (Ilm ulKalam), and this is later reflected in his Math’hab.
He favoured a reasoned approach which was the same methodology as Ali ibn Abi Talib and Abdullah ibn Masoud, who are the leading companions of the Prophet that settled in Iraq.

In modern times, people have gone overboard in attacking him for not having a Hadith background. They call him a philosopher as opposed to a scholar who was grounded in the sciences of Islam. This is a false claim. He studied for 19 years under Hammad ibn Zayd, one of the leading scholars of Hadith during that time, who has more than 230 narrations in Sahih alBukhari, and more than 370 narrations in Sahih Muslim. During these 19 years, Abu Hanifa became qualified enough to become a teacher, but remained Hammad’s student until he died. (Another example of this is Imam Ash-Shafi’i, who studied under Imam Malik. He didn’t leave him until he passed away)

After the death of his teacher in Basra, Abu Hanifa moved to Koofa and began to teach. A few students would gather him, until word spread around, and it became every evident in Koofa that Abu Hanifa was an oustanding scholar. 

The Umayyads wanted him to be a Qadhi in Koofa, to strengthen their own legitimacy. Abu Hanifa refused this offer, and the governor of Koofa (Yazid ibn Umar) had him arrested and beaten to try to force him into accepting judgeship. But he remained obstinate. Eventually they let him out, and again during the period of the Abbasids, Caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansour offered him appointment, and he refused once again. He was then imprisoned until he died. He refused these appointments because of the compromises judges during these periods were forced to make. You’re walking a thin line; the caliphs had deviated and wanted rulings that would justify their deviation.

In Abu Hanifa’s perspective, someone else who was more prepared to take the route of compliance of the pressure of leadership could have done it. It is not that if he refused the position would be empty. But as a leading scholar, for him to do it would set precedence for all that would come after him, therefore he had to stand firm. So he died in prison refusing to be a judge.

He is considered by some to be among the minor Tabi’oon in that he did meet some of the lesser companions of the Prophet. There are few narrations which are attributed to him, but he studied under Hammad ibn Zayd who wasn’t a Tabi’i. He was a student of the Tabi’oon.

Also among his teachers was Abdur-Rahman ibn Abi Layla, who was himself a Tabi’i. His father Abu Layla was a major companion of the Prophet.

And among his teachers was the Alawite, one from the family of Ali, to whom the Ja’fari Math’hab is attributed.



How this Math’hab was formed
Abu Hanifa’s teaching methodology was group discussion. He would present a legal problem to his students for debate and discussion, and tell them to record the solution whenever they arrived at a unified position. After the students had come to a conclusion and wrote it down, he would then start to argue from another perspective. He would play devil’s advocate, until they were convinced that his argument was correct. Then he would discuss both sides, and come to which one in fact was most correct.

This is the reason many scholars say that this Math'hab was that of him and his students. 

Their philosophy for delving into hypothetical Fiqh was what they called preparing for a problem before its occurrence. You don’t wait until issues arise and then deal with it, you prepare for it ahead of time. This was the logic behind it.
It was their school that became to be known as the WhatIfers school or the People of Opinion.
But we cant say that this school was one of just opinion, they did have a firm grounding in Hadith. However they did give precedence to certain rulings and principles over some Hadiths in certain circumstances.



The Sources of Law used by the Hanafi Math’hab

1)     Qur’an

2)     Sunnah 
      The Hanafi’s did put a limitation on the Sunnah, because Iraq was the area where Hadith fabrication to support sectarian trends began. The condition scholars used to accept Hadiths as legal proof was that it should be well-known. They might accept others types of Hadiths for usage in other areas, but not  for establishing a point of law.

3)     Ijma’a  
      Abu Hanifa gave the consensus of the Companions precedence over personal opinion. Since they were the ones who lived the revelation, so what they agreed upon should be given precedence over what people agreed upon after them.

4)     Individual opinion of the Sahabah 
      Abu Hanifa would choose the opinion of the companion that was most consistent with the principle he developed. If he couldn’t find a united opinion, but found individual companions whose opinion supported the principle he extracted from the Qur’an and Sunnah, he took that opinion. It's important to note that he didn't take it according to what pleased him, but what seemed to be the most correct.

5)     Qiyas (Analogical Deduction) 
      Abu Hanifa would make his own Qiyas, and didn’t feel obliged to take the opinions of the Tabi’oon in areas where there was no clear proof available from the above sources. He considered himself equal to them in this respect.

6)     Istihsan (Legal Preference) 
     Weaker proof would be given precedence over a stronger deduced proof because of the general need of the community. This was practiced by most of the schools under different names. Qiyas itself was a ruling by reason, not revealed law. Revealed law is always going to stand and be applicable. However, when you are deducing principles, they may be applicable in most circumstances, but not all. This is why laws deduced by Qiyas cannot be written in stone. Other scholars can come to different conclusions.

7)     Customs of the People which didn’t go against Islamic law. These were given legal weight, not in the sense of producing laws, but in the application of laws.




Main Students of Abu Hanifa: 

1)     Zafar ibn Al-Hudhayl (732-774CE)
           He also rejected offers to be a judge, and remained a teacher in Basra until he died.


2)     Mohammed ibn Al-Hasan (749-805CE)
     He accepted appointment briefly, but soon learnt that the comprises it required didn’t suit him, and left      it. He only studied under Abu Hanifa for a brief period, and was originally from Wasit. He grew up in      Koofa. He spent 3 years studying under Imam Malik in Madinah, after Abu Hanifa died, during which      he became a narrator of Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik. Among his students was Imam Ash-Shafi’i.


3)     Abo Yusuf Ya’qoob ibn Ibrahim (735-795CE)
      He accepted appointment and became a chief judge of the Abbasid Caliphs AlMahdi and Harun
      AlRasheed. These Caliphs were among the strong Fiqh caliphs. One thing he did, which caused the Hanafi Madh'hab to become widespread, was that whenever he appointed other judges, he would favour those among the Hanafi School (because they were easier to work with). What that did was give a certain dominance to the Hanafi Math’hab. It became clear that if you want appointment as a judge, it was best to master the Hanafi school.


He studied Fiqh in Koofa for 9 years under Abdur-Rahman ibn Abi Layla. He studied for 9 years under Abu Hanifa, becoming one of his outstanding students. He also went to Madinah and studied for a brief period under Imam Malik.



Followers of this Math’hab:
We find that it mostly spread to India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Turkey. The Ottoman scholars were mostly Hanafi, and when they codified Islamic law in the 19th century, they codified it according to the Hanafi Math’hab. Prior to that, the early ottomans were also hanafis. We also find it in Egypt (not dominant), Guyana, Trinidad, and Surinam.




The Awzaa’i Math’hab


The Founder: Imam Abdur-Rahman ibn Al-Awzaa’i (708-774CE)

Most people don’t know his Math’hab. He was a contemporary of Abu Hanifa, born only 5 years after him. He spent most of his life in Beirut.
The leading Islamic university in Lebanon now is called imam AlAwzaai University.



The Disappearance of this Mad'hab:
One of the reasons of its disappearance was that from the 10th Century, when Abu Za’rah Muhammed ibn Uthman of the Shafi’i Math’hab was appointed Judge of Damascus, He began the practice of giving prize of 100 dinars for any student who memorized the book “Mukhtasim AlMuzani” which was a book of basic Shafi'i Fiqh. The Shafi’i Math’hab thus spread in Syria.

The number of Awzaa’is followers dwindled until the 11th century, until none were to be found.
But he was a scholar of Hadith who made rulings which are preserved in the books of comparative Fiqh.
In more recent times, some scholars have put together the Fiqh of Imam AlAwza’i. The book is available in Arabic.
He was a leading scholar, some of his approaches even more valid than the known four. But his Math’hab was not adopted by any of the leading dynasties, which is why it died out. 


Followers of this Mad'hab: 
This Math’hab dominated Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon, and for a period of time, Spain.


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