IMAM ABOÛ HANIFA - His life and times, his opinions and his fiqh according to Mohammad Abou Zahra

This work, written by a contemporary, presents Abou Hanîfa, the founder of one of the four great legal schools of the Muslim world, the Hanafi School. He details his biography: his youth in Koûfa, his participation in polemical circles ('Ilm al-kalâm) and his meeting with ach-Cha'bî who guided him towards religious science. This book summarizes Abou Hanîfa's opinions on the major political, theological and ideological questions of his time. He also presents his fiqh and the sources on which it is based, then studies certain subsidiary cases revealing the thinking of this exceptional scholar. The author thus shows how the study of fiqh developed, which is essential for any analysis of the evolution of fiqh in Islam, and how Abou Hanîfa knew how to adapt it to the Muslim world then in full expansion, grouping under the Islam of peoples of the most diverse origins. Drawing on his personal experience, he particularly developed fiqh concerning any transaction or commerce.

Abou Hanîfa marked his era with his strong personality, his influence and his remarkable knowledge. He was nicknamed “The Essence of Science” by his contemporaries. He developed the iftâ' like no one else, and was known for the extent of his deductive logic and his extrapolation. He made extensive use of ijtihâd, thus knowing how to enrich it and not ossify it, giving it all its value and its place in Islam. He then brought to Muslims a number of resolutions to their problems and in particular, without betraying the texts of the Koran and the Sunnah.

He was therefore exposed to criticism for his intensive use of interpretation, but always knew how to counter them with logical and implacable arguments.

His disciples spread his science and quickly his doctrine toured the Islamic world. It dominated Iraq, Egypt, Syria and extended its influence over Muslim India to then be adopted by Muslims in China.

Abu Hanifa was born in Koûfa in 80 AH (699 AD) and died in 150 (767) in Baghdad. He discovered very early the diversity of ideas abounding in Koûfa, a city where various thought groups coexisted. He engaged in polemics ('Ilm al-kalam) and was noted for his intelligence and intellectual understanding. It was then that he began to study and devoted himself to meeting scholars. He replaced his master Hammad Ibn Abi Soulayman at the age of forty and became a great faqih. He knew both the Umayyad dynasty and the Abbasid dynasty and went through the troubles of his time with magnanimity.