Abu Hanifa (Arabic: أَبُو حَنِيفَة, romanized: Abū Ḥanīfa; 5 September 699 – 18 June 767 CE) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, and ascetic, and the founder and eponym of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence. The Hanafi school remains the most widely practised of the Sunni schools and is extensively followed and applied throughout the Muslim world, predominating in Central and South Asia, Turkey, Africa, the Balkans, Russia, and parts of the Arab world.
Abu Hanifa came from Central Asia, although sources disagree on his precise birthplace, variously identifying Kufa, which is supported by the majority, Kabul, Anbar, Nasa, or Termez. In his youth he travelled to the Hejaz and studied in the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and he later became established as a leading religious authority in Kufa. Al-Dhahabi described him as "one of the geniuses of the sons of Adam" who "combined jurisprudence, worship, scrupulousness, and generosity".
As a jurist and theologian, Abu Hanifa became particularly associated with the use of reason in both jurisprudential rulings and theology. He played an important role as a theoretical systematizer of technical legal thought and exercised considerable influence over his students in Kufa, especially Abu Yusuf, although he never held an official post as qadi. His school was distinguished from other schools of law by its use of qiyās (analogy), istiḥsān (juristic preference), and raʾy (personal judgement) to resolve new legal problems arising in the expanding Muslim world. He also emphasized the conception of an international Muslim community united by the Qurʾān and Sunna while avoiding extremes. After his death, his school continued to develop, and most of its adherents eventually also came to follow the Maturidi school of theology. His two principal students, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani, subsequently became celebrated jurists in their own right.
Abu Hanifa maintained an independent position toward political authority. He suffered punishment and imprisonment under both the Umayyads and the Abbasids because of these independent views and his refusal to accept the official office of qadi in Kufa. He ultimately died in prison in Baghdad in 767 (AH 150).
Muslim scholarship states that there is no disagreement with his name being Nu'man. This name is said to mean blood on which the body survives, which some suggest is the soul. An alternate meaning is that this is the name of a pleasantly smelling red or purple flower. A third alternative is that it is the fa'lan (template) from the word ni'mah (blessing), as Muslims believe Abu Hanifah is God's blessing upon His creation.
How Abu Hanifa earned his patronymic is disputed. According to some linguists, including Muhyi al-Din, ḥanīfa refers to "inkpot" in Abu Hanifa's dialect. He was often seen with one, thus earning his name this way. According to this interpretation, his name literally means the "Father of the Inkpot". Alternatively, Hanifah is the feminine form of hanif, which means a recluse (nasik) or submitter (Muslim).
However, some historians contest he earned it as he had a daughter named Hanifa. His name would then mean the "Father of Hanifa". The opposing side believes he never had a daughter with such name.
Historians disagree with regards to where he was born, though they agree he was born during the period of the Umayyad Caliphate. However, they differ regarding the year: 699 CE / 80 AH (held by the majority of classical Muslim scholarship), 696 CE / 77 AH, 689 CE / 70 AH, or 680 CE / 61 AH. Many historians choose the latest date, 699 CE / 80 AH; however, Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari believed the date of 689 CE / 70 AH is supported by two considerations:
First, Muhammad ibn Makhlad al-Attar considered the narration of Abu Hanifa's son, Hammad, from Malik ibn Anas to be an example of an older man's narration rather than a younger man.
Second, Abu Hanifa was concerned with who should succeed Ibrahim al-Nakha'i after his death in 96 AH. This concern would have only arisen if he was older than 19, since it is considered he only took his religious studies seriously after then. If Abu Hanifa was born in 80 AH, Abu Hanifa would have been 16 at the time of al-Nakhai's death.
Abu Hanifa is thought to be of Persian ancestry. However, he has also been stated to have been an Arabs from Azd, or descended from the Zutt, Jats who migrated into Iraq during the Islamic Golden Age. His grandfather, Zuta, may have been captured by Muslim troops in Kabul and sold as a slave in Kufa, where he was purchased and freed by an Arab tribesman of the Taym Allah, a branch of the Banu Bakr. Zuta and his progeny thereafter would have become clients of the Taym Allah, hence the sporadic references to Abu Hanifa as "al-Taymi". Abu Hanifa was also described of being originally from the Arabs of Anbar in Iraq, who lived there before Islam. Hanafi sources confirm that he was of Arab stock, and that Thabit ibn al-Nu'man ibn al-Marzuban was from the Banu Yahya ibn Zayd ibn Asad, from the Arab tribe of Azd who migrated from Yemen and settled in Iraqi lands after the collapse of the Marib Dam due to the Great Flood, becoming part of the Nabataeans of Iraq. As Abu Hanifa's family were Christians, which was the religion of the Arabs of Iraq and the religion of the Arab Lakhmid kingdom. the name of Imam Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man has a great historical significance regarding the affiliation of his ancestors to the Arabs of Iraq who inhabited it before Islam, as it is the name of an important king of the Arab kings of Iraq, who had campaigns against the Sasanian Empire. According to Abu Hanifa's grandson, Abu Hanifa was the descendant of free Persians who had never been enslaved. He called Abu Hanifa's great-grandfather "Marzuban", which is an Arabicized form of the Sasanian military office of marzban, held by governors of the frontier provinces of the Sasanian realm. historian Naji Ma'ruf argues that the statement of Abu Hanifa's grandson, Ismail ibn Hammad, is interpreted to mean that Abu Hanifa's grandson was only referring to the place, rather than the ethnicity. That is to say, Abu Hanifa was from an Arab family that lived within Sasanian borders, not necessarily a Persian family.
There is scant biographical information about Abu Hanifa. It is generally known that he worked a producer and seller of khazz, a type of silk clothing material. He attended lectures on jurisprudence conducted by the Kufan scholar Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman (d. 737). He also possibly learnt jurisprudence (fiqh) and narrated Hadith from the Meccan scholar Ata ibn Abi Rabah (d. c. 733) while on pilgrimage.
When Hammad died, Abu Hanifa succeeded him as the principal authority on Islamic law in Kufa and the chief representative of the Kufan school of jurisprudence. Abu Hanifa gradually gained influence as an authority on legal questions, founding a moderate rationalist school of Islamic jurisprudence that was named after him.
In 763, al-Mansur, the Abbasid caliph offered Abu Hanifa the post of qadi al-qudat (chief judge of the state), but he declined the offer, choosing to remain independent. His student Abu Yusuf was later appointed to the post by Caliph Harun al-Rashid.
In his reply to al-Mansur, Abu Hanifa said that he was not fit for the post. Al-Mansur, who had his own ideas and reasons for offering the post accused Abu Hanifa of lying.
"If I am lying," Abu Hanifa responded, "then my statement is doubly correct. How can you appoint a liar to the exalted post of a qadi?"
Incensed by this reply, al-Mansur had Abu Hanifa arrested, locked in prison and tortured. It was said that once in prison he was never fed nor cared for. Even in prison, the jurist continued to teach those who were permitted to visit him.
On 15 Rajab 150, (15 August 767) Abu Hanifa died in prison. The cause of his death is not clear, as it was said by some that Abu Hanifa issued a legal opinion for bearing arms against al-Mansur, so al-Mansur had him poisoned. His fellow prisoner and founder of Karaite Judaism, Anan ben David, was said to have received life-saving counsel from Abu Hanifa. It was said that so many people attended his funeral that the funeral service was repeated six times for the more than 50,000 people who had massed before he was actually buried. The historian al-Khatib said that for a full 20 days people performed funeral prayers for him. Many years later, the Abu Hanifa Mosque was built in the Adhamiyah neighbourhood of Baghdad. Abu Hanifa also supported the cause of Zayd ibn Ali and Ibrahim al Qamar, both Alid Zaydi Imams.