Abū Hanīfa

Abu Hanifa tomb

Abū Hanīfa an-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit al-Kūfī ( Arabic أبو حنيفة النعمان بن ثابت الكوفي, DMG Abū Ḥanīfa an-Nuʿmān ibn Ṯābit al-Kūfī ; born 699 in Kufa ; d. 767 ) was an Islamic theologian and jurist , who in Kufa and Baghdad had and after the law school of Hanafi is named. Abū Hanīfa is revered by his followers as "the greatest Imam " ( al-Imām al-Aʿẓam ).

Origin and life

Abū Hanīfa was of Persian descent. Most sources report that his ancestors came from Kabul . His grandfather Zuta is said to have been brought as a slave from Kabul ( Afghanistan ) to Kufa in what is now Iraq and was released there. According to other sources, Anbar, a former Mesopotamian city on the left bank of the Euphrates, is the home of his great-grandfather, who served as the Sassanid military governor there.

He was born in Kufa, one of the centers of Islamic learning at the time, and spent almost his entire life there. Little is known of his life. He was a well-to-do man and lived off the profit of his clothing trade. He owned a large building with workers and craftsmen, in which he had khazz , a type of silk, made. The circumstances in which he lived allowed him independence so that he could concentrate his energies on science. During his lifetime there was a change of power between the Umayyads and Abbasids . In later biographies it is reported that both the governor of the Umayyads in Kufa and almost two decades later the caliph al-Mansur wanted to force Abu Hanifa to take over a judicial office by beating. Abu Hanifa visited the Hejaz while traveling and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. He also spent the last years of the Umayyad rule there as a political refugee. After the change of power, Abu Hanifa returned to Kufa. Many years later he was taken to Baghdad and detained there. Abu Hanifa died in prison. Some sources report that the caliph poisoned him there.

At the beginning of his career Abū Hanīfa devoted himself to theology. In this area he quickly gained notoriety and prestige in Kufa and gathered a group of students around him. He was known for his special doctrine of faith. Later he devoted himself to Islamic law . His mentor was Hammad ibn Abi Sulaiman, after whom Abu Hanifa named his eldest son. He is also said to have heard lectures from Ata ibn Abi Rabah in Mecca . He also became acquainted with the 5th and 6th Imam of the Twelve Shia , Muhammad al-Bāqir and Jafar as-Sādiq , who also founded the Jafarite school of law. Among his most important students are Abu Yusuf , al-Shaybani and, according to these, Zufar ibn al-Hudhail .

Works

Abu Hanifa himself did not write any legal works, his teaching in this area has been handed down solely through the writings of his students, for example Abu Yusuf in Ichtilaf Abi Hanifa wa-bn Abi Layla and al-Radd ala Siyar al-Awza'i and Asch-Shaybani in his writing al-Hujaj .

The only authentic document from Abū Hanīfa is a letter of theological content that he sent to Basra to the cloth merchant ʿUthmān al-Battī (d. 760). In it he defended himself against the accusation that he was a Murji'it and affirmed the doctrine he was accused of that a Muslim who commits a sin is still to be regarded as a believer ( muʾmin ). Abū Hanīfa believed that the pejorative designation Murji'a was wrongly used to refer to a group of people who are in fact respectable and orthodox.

Another well-known text ( Fiqh al-Absat ) contains Abu Hanifa's answers to theological questions of his disciple Abu Muti 'al-Balchi. Finally, there are two texts with lists of beliefs that circulate under the title al-Fiqh al-akbar ("the greatest insight") and are ascribed to Abū Hanīfa. The term al-Fiqh al-akbar was generally used in Hanafi circles as a term for ʿIlm al-Kalām (Systematic Theology) in the sense of knowledge of the doctrines of the faith. Conversely, it was thought that what is usually called Fiqh was only the "minor insight ( al-Fiqh al-aṣġar ). In research, a distinction is made between Fiqh akbar I, Fiqh akbar II and Fiqh akbar III. Fiqh akbar I is by Arent Jan Wensinck from a commentary dated by Josef van Ess to the second half of the 10th century and consists of a list of ten doctrines.Fiqh akbar II is a considerably longer work that, according to Wensinck's count, contains 29 Articles of Faith and is also dated by William Montgomery Watt to the late 10th century. Finally, Fiqh akbar III has nothing to do with Abū Hanīfa, but is ascribed to ash-Shāfiʿī , but is textually dependent on Fiqh akbar III.

to teach

Abū Hanīfa's thinking is theoretically stringent and sometimes brave in its innovations, but sometimes a little too little practice-oriented. As Abū l-Hasan al-Ashʿarī narrates , he claimed that belief was knowledge ( maʿrifa ) of and confession ( iqrār ) of God as well as knowledge of the prophet and confession of that which has come from God (i.e. revelation) - in summary, without explanation in detail. Regarding the sinner, he took the view that he was a muʾmin ḍāll , "a believer who has gone astray," but by no means a kafir . The Ahl al- Qibla , ie the Muslims, he said, are all to be regarded as believers.

reception

Adoration

Nizam al-Mulk , the Hanafi finance minister ( mustawfī ) Alp Arslans , built a dome mausoleum together with a madrasa over the grave of Abu Hanīfas in the Baghdad district of ar-Rusāfa . He wanted to provide the Hanafi madhhab with a cultural center and a central teaching facility. The quarter around Abū Ḥanīfa's mausoleum is still called al-Aʿzamīya after his nickname al-Imām al-Aʿzam . The Abu Hanifa Mosque in Baghdad is also named after him.

Various scholars, such as Muwaffaq ibn Ahmad al-Makkī (d. 1172), adh-Dhahabī (d. 1348), Muhammad al-Kardarī (d. 1423/24), Shams ad-Dīn as-Sālihī (d. 1532) and Ibn Hajar al-Haitamī (d. 1567), composed hagiographical works on Abū Hanīfa, in which they collected reports of his excellent qualities (manāqib) . An important topic of this hagiographic literature are traditions which were interpreted as announcements of Abu Hanīfa by the prophet Mohammed . One of these traditions is the prophetic word: "If the knowledge were with the Pleiades , men would get it from the Persians (Lau kān al-ʿilm ʿinda aṯ-ṯuraiyā la-tunāwilu-hū riǧāl min abnāʾ Fāris)" . As-Suyūtī is quoted as saying: "This is a valid basis on which one can rely on the announcement of Abū Hanīfa (sc. By the Messenger of God) and the perfect excellence due to him ." Another alleged prophetic prediction, the When it was referred to Abū Hanīfa, the tradition is that the Messenger of God once said: "The adornment of the world will rise in the year 150 (Tarfaʿ zīnat ad-dunyā sanat ḫamsīna wa-miʾa) ". It could therefore be related to Abū Hanīfa because he died in the year 150 of the Hijra (= 767/68 AD). According to another narration, the Prophet said: “In my umma there will appear a man called Abū Hanīfa an-Nuʿmān. He is the lamp of my ummah until the day of resurrection. ”However, this tradition met with little approval and was rejected as“ invented ” (mauḍūʿ) by most authors of hagiographic works on Abū Hanīfa .

criticism

Especially Shafi'i scholars have repeatedly criticized Abu Hanifa. One of his harshest critics was al-Juwainī (d. 1085). He wrote in his book al-Burhān fī uṣūl al-fiqh :

"As for Abu Hanifah, he by no means one of the mujtahids because he did not even mastered the Arabic language, so he said: lau mā Rama-hu bi-ABA Qubais . Anyone who can only speak a little Arabic knows that this is wrong. He also had no knowledge of the hadith , so he took pleasure in accepting weak hadith and fighting healthy hadith. And he also had no knowledge of the Usūl , so he preferred to draw analogies over hadiths. Since he himself had no understanding , his madhhab got confused and entangled in contradictions. "

- Al-Ǧuwainī : al-Burhān fī uṣūl al-fiqh . Ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm ad-Dīb. Dār al-Anṣār, Cairo, 1399h (= 1978/79). Vol. II, pp. 1335f. Digitized

literature

Hagiographic works

• Muwaffaq ibn Aḥmad al-Makkī and Muḥammad al-Kardarī: Manāqib al-Imām al-Aʿẓam Abī Ḥanīfa . 2 vols. Hyderabad 1321h (= 1905). The works of the two authors are printed below one another. Site with first band , site with a second band
• Sams ad-Dīn al -Ḏahabī : Manāqib al-imām Abī-Ḥanīfa wa-ṣāḥibaihī Abī-Yūsuf wa-Muḥammad Ibn-al-Ḥasan . Ed. Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kauṯarī and Abū l-Wafā al-Afġānī. Beirut 1408h digitized
• Shams ad-Dīn aṣ-Ṣāliḥī: ʿUqūd al-ǧumān fī manāqib al-imām Abī Hanīfa an-Nuʿmān . Ed. Maulawī Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Afġānī. Riyadh 1398 / 99h. Digitized
• Ibn Ḥaǧar al-Haitamī : Al-Ḫairāt al-ḥisān fī manāqib al-imām al-aʿẓam Abī Ḥanīfa an-Nuʿmān . Bombay 1324h (= 1906/1907). Digitized
• Shibli Numani : Imam Abu Hanifah: life and work; German translation of Allamah Shibli Nuʾmani's "Sirat-i-nuʿman" by M. Hadi Hussein. Islamic Book Service, New Delhi, 1998.

Secondary literature

• Muḥammad Abū Zahra : Abū Ḥanīfa, Ḥayātuhu wa-ʿaṣruhu, ārā'uhu wa-fiqhuhu Abu Hanife. Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī, Cairo, 1366h (= 1947 AD).
• Josef van Ess : Theology and society in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Hijra. A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam . 6 Vols. Berlin: De Gruyter 1991–1997, in particular Vol. I, pp. 183–214.
• Joseph Schacht : Art. "Abū Ḥanīfa an-Nuʿmān" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. I, pp. 123-124.
• Arent Jan Wensinck : The Muslim Creed. Its Genesis and Historical Development. Cambridge 1932.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, pp. 192-200 and Vol. V, pp. 24-13.
2. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. V, p. 29.
3. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. I, pp. 51, 209.
4. ↑ Cf. ʿAlī al-Qārī : Šarḥ Muḫtaṣar al-Manār . Ed. Ilyās Qablān. Beirut 2006. p. 30.
5. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. I, pp. 207f.
6. ↑ It is with Wensinck: The Muslim Creed. 1932, p. 103f reproduced in translation.
7. ↑ Cf. the translation in Wensinck 188–197
8. ^ W. Montgomery Watt, Michael Marmura: Der Islam II. Political developments and theological concepts. Stuttgart u. a. 1985, p. 133.
9. ^ Translation by Wensinck: The Muslim Creed. 1932, pp. 265-268.
10. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. I, pp. 207f.
11. ^ Van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. V, p. 32.
12. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. V p. 28.
13. ↑ See Thomas Leisten: Architecture for the dead. Burial in an architectural context in the core countries of the Islamic world between 3./9. and 6./12. Century . Berlin 1998. pp. 42, 125f.
14. ^ Carl Brockelmann : History of the Arabic literature. Supplementary volume I. Brill, Leiden, 1937. p. 285.
15. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-Haitamī: Al-Ḫairāt al-ḥisān . 1324h, p. 15.
16. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-Haitamī: Al-Ḫairāt al-ḥisān . 1324h, p. 17.
17. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-Haitamī: Al-Ḫairāt al-ḥisān . 1324h, p. 16.
18. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-Haitamī: Al-Ḫairāt al-ḥisān . 1324h, p. 17.

Web links

• Literature by and about Abū Hanīfa in the catalog of the German National Library