In the year 720, when Abu Hanifah was twenty-one, he left Makkah for Madinah where he learned hadith from Sulaiman and Salim ibn Abdullah. Sulaiman was an aide of ummul mu’minin (the ‘mother of the believers’) Maimuna, the wife of the Prophet, and Salim was a grandson of Umar, the second Caliph of Islam. They were considered to be two of the most learned scholars of Madinah at the time. Having travelled to some of the leading centres of Islamic learning and acquired thorough training in all the branches of Islamic knowledge under the guidance of some of the most eminent Islamic scholars of his time, Abu Hanifah became a great repository of Islamic knowledge. His mastery of Islamic thought elevated him to a new level within the firmament of Islamic learning and scholarship. Thanks to his vast knowledge, he became a very famous scholar, even during his own lifetime. As his reputation spread far and wide, certain unscrupulous people began to circulate misinformation and falsehoods about him; perhaps they were jealous of his personal standing and immense learning. Once, during his stay in Madinah, Abu Hanifah was introduced to Imam Muhammad al-Baqir by one of his colleagues. When the great Imam asked Abu Hanifah why he contradicted the hadith of the Prophet through qiyas (or analogical deduction), he retorted that he would never dare do such a thing. He then asked Imam al-Baqir to take a seat and he would explain his position. The following conversation ensured:
Abu Hanifah: ‘Who is the weaker, man or woman?’
Imam al-Baqir: ‘Woman.’
Abu Hanifah: ‘Which of them is entitled to larger share in inheritance?’
Imam al-Baqir: ‘The man.’
Abu Hanifah: ‘If I had been making deductions by analogy, I should have said that the woman should get the larger share, since on the face of it the weaker one is entitled to more consideration. But I have not said so. To take up another subject, which do you think is the higher duty, prayer or fasting?’
Imam al-Baqir: ‘Prayer.’
Abu Hanifah: ‘In that case, it should be permissible for a woman during menstruation to postpone her prayers and not her fasts. But the ruling I give is that she can postpone her fasting and not her prayers.’
Hearing this Imam al-Baqir stood up, smiled and kissed Abu Hanifah on his forehead and acknowledged that he was no ordinary scholar; rather he was one of Islam’s greatest legal minds.
As an Islamic thinker and pioneer of Islamic legal thought, Abu Hanifah was way ahead of his time. His grasp of Islam was as rigorous, comprehensive and authentic as it could ever be, but he knew more than anyone else that the law was meant to be followed and adhered to by the people, rather than kept in books. As such, he argued, law and legal principles had to be directly relevant to people’s daily lives. Since people are mobile, society is constantly in flux. Thus a legal framework which remained static for too long could easily become irrelevant over time, unless it was constantly renewed in the light of new social, political, economic and technological developments. Abu Hanifah understood this process of socio-political change and historical evolution better than any other scholar of his generation, and he set about interpreting the Islamic scriptural sources [namely the Qur’an and the authentic sunnah (normative practice of the Prophet)] in direct response to the needs of his time. That is to say, he pioneered a new legal interpretative methodology based on the two fundamental sources of Islam and used this fresh, innovative and dynamic legal methodology to formulate Islamic answers to the problems and challenges which confronted the Muslims of his time.
Although the answers formulated by Abu Hanifah were based on a literalist understanding of the Qur’an and sunnah of the Prophet, he did not hesitate to use his intellectual discretion (ijtihad) where he felt this was appropriate. As an undisputed master of Islamic legal theory and jurisprudence, he was able to bridge gaps which others struggled even to see. Not surprisingly, even some of the most eminent Islamic scholars of his time initially misunderstood his ideas and thoughts. Thus, some people accused him of being a wilful innovator in religion, while others suggested he was misguided. Even a great scholar like Imam Abu Amr Abd al-Rahman ibn Amr al-Awza’i failed to understand his legal thought and methodology. Once Abdullah ibn Mubarak, who was a prominent student of Abu Hanifah, visited Imam al-Awza’i in Beirut to complete his study of hadith under the latter, but on his arrival there al-Awza’i asked him, ‘Who is this man Abu Hanifah who has appeared at Kufah? I hear he makes all sorts of new points about religion.’ Abdullah did not respond to his query and returned home to collect a manuscript authored by Abu Hanifah, and handed it over to al-Awza’i. After reading the entire text, al-Awza’i remarked, ‘Who is this worthy, Numan?’ Abdullah replied that he was a great scholar of Kufah under whom he had studied. ‘A great man.’ responded Awza’i. ‘This is the same Abu Hanifah whom you called an innovator.’ countered Abdullah. Al-Awza’i regretted his error.
All great pioneers have obstacles placed in their way by their detractors at one time or another, and Abu Hanifah was no different. He was an outstanding genius and a great visionary who not only acquired a thorough understanding of the Islamic sources, but also developed an unusual insight into human nature and its frailties. The vast corpus of juristic pronouncements (fatawa) developed by Abu Hanifah and his trusted disciples became so large that, over time, a school of Islamic legal thought emerged named after him. Known as the hanafi madhhab, this school of Islamic legal thought is today the Muslim world’s most widely followed madhhab. Pioneered by Abu Hanifah and his distinguished pupils such as Zu’far ibn al-Hudhail, Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ibrahim and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, this school of legal thought is most prevalent in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. Towards the end of his life, Abu Hanifah was imprisoned by the Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansur for refusing to take up the post of qadi (Judge) of the Abbasid Empire. But, according to another account, he was imprisoned for allegedly supporting the Zaydis (a Shi’a faction) who were bitterly opposed to the Abbasids. Either way, Abu Hanifah died in prison at the age of around sixty-seven and was buried in Baghdad, where a mausoleum was later built in his memory by Mimar Sinan, the famous Ottoman builder and architect.
AFTER THE DEATH of Caliph Uthman, huge controversy ensued within the Islamic State regarding the question of leadership and political legitimacy. During this period, a number of political factions emerged including the shi’at Ali, khawarij, murji’ah and the mu’tazilah. Although these groups emerged due to differences of opinion over political matters, they subsequently went on to develop their own distinct philosophical and theological views. Of these factions, the most politically neutral were the mu’tazilah who later acquired a largely philosophical and theological contour under the influence of Wasil ibn Ata. A student of Hasan al-Basri, he parted company (i’tizal) with his tutor following an acrimonious dispute between the two men. Under Wasil’s tutelage, Mu’tazilism became an influential philosophical-cum-theological edifice. Heavily influenced by political Mu’tazilism and Greek philosophical thought, Wasil and his associates formulated a distinct Mu’tazilite creed based on their rationalistic understanding and interpretation of the nature of God, His Essence and Attributes (dhat wa sifat Allah), the concept of Divine speech (kalam Allah) and the purpose of creation. The Mu’tazilite philosophical interpretation of these fundamental Islamic beliefs and concepts was vehemently opposed by the traditionalists, but it received a favourable reception from the Abbasid elites. Thus famous Abbasid rulers like Harun al-Rashid and his son al-Ma’mun