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.
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.
Comments
Post a Comment