Imam Abu Hanifah

Imam Abu Hanifah ...

01) A) Imam Abu Hanifah’s Early Years .... LINK
      B)  At the age of 20, Imam Abu Hanifah turned his attention towards the pursuit of advancing his Islamic knowledge.
     C) His most important work is the Kitab-ul-Aasaar which was compiled by his students – Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad
     D) More than 50,000 people participated in the first Janaza Salaat. People continued to flock and before the Janaza could be finally taken for burial, the Salaatul Janaza was offered 6 times in all. For days, people came in large numbers to pay their respects at the grave side.
02) A) The Life of Imam Abu Hanifah  Nu'man ibn Thabit, 80-150 A.H. by Maida Malik ... LINK
      B)  Hadith on Imam Abu Hanifah ....
A hadith given by al-Bukhari and Muslim states that Abu Hurairah (ra) narrated Allah's Messenger (saw) as saying:"If the Religion were at the Pleiades, even then a person from Persia would have taken hold of it, or one amongst the Persian descent would surely have found it." Abu Hurairah (ra) also narrates:"We were sitting in the company of Allah's Apostle (saw) when Surat al-Jum`a was revealed to him and when he recited amongst them, (those who were sitting there) said `Allah's Messenger?' but Allah's Apostle (saw) made no reply, until he was questioned once, twice or thrice, and there was amongst us Salman the Persian. Allah's Apostle (saw) placed his hand on Salman and then said:"Even if faith were near the Pleiades, a man from amongst these would surely find it."
Imam as-Suyuti a Shafi'i alim (rh) remarked:"It has been communicated unanimously that this hadith refers to Imam Abu Hanifah."
03) A) Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, (699 — 767 CE / 80 — 148 AH) was the founder of the Sunni Hanafi school of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). ... LINK
      B) Imam Abu Haneefa was one of the greatest of the mujtahideen.  He was also a great city planner, responsible for the planning of the city of Baghdad when it was founded by the Caliph al Mansur in 765 CE. Abu Hanifa was a mathematician of the first magnitude.  He was aware of the concepts of specific density and specific volume and implemented them in practice. As a philosopher, his work anticipated the Hegelian dialectic by more than a thousand years. The Hegelian dialectic (named after Hegel the German philosopher of the 17th century) is one of the basic principles of Western philosophy.  Its premise is that a higher collective truth emerges when multiple individual truths compete. Abu Hanifa was no hermit, or a pure academician, cloistering himself in a monastery or a mosque. He was a rich man, a successful merchant, a wonderful human being who lived among common folk with the zest and enthusiasm of a believer and contributed to the life of the community that he was a part of.
     C)  Imam Abu Haneefa was commissioned by the Caliph to locate and plan a site for the new capital. Abu Haneefa chose the current location, around a bend of the River Tigris, paying careful attention to defense and communications. To obtain the concurrence of the Caliph, Abu Haneefa marked out the geometrical layout of the planned capital, showing in detail the location of the palace, the mosque, the market place, the residential areas and the fort. Then he sprinkled cotton seeds over the marked outlines. Selecting a moonless night when there was little background radiation, Imam Abu Haneefa set fire to the cotton seeds. One of the characteristics of cotton seeds is that they radiate a brilliant light when they are ignited. Using the ignited cotton seeds as his guide, Imam Abu Haneefa showed the outline of the planned city to the Caliph from a tower specially constructed for observation on the occasion. The Caliph was pleased and authorized the construction to begin.
A large number of bricks were needed for the construction of the city. Factories went up all around the selected site but there was no quality control, of either weight or size. Imam Abu Haneefa prescribed that each brick must meet specific requirements of dimensions and weight. In addition, he stipulated that the bricks, once delivered, be stacked in cubical piles of prescribed dimensions so that the total number of bricks in each pile was one thousand. In this manner, he introduced the concepts of specific density and specific volume and applied them in a major architectural project.
     D) ইমাম আবু হানিফার কন্যা ...  Unlike most Arabic names, the name Abu Haneefa is derived from the name of one of his daughters, The people of Baghdad relate that Haneefa, the daughter of the Imam, was well known for her piety and showed great intelligence and wisdom at an early age. She had her own halqa (a study circle) where she instructed students in matters of religion. One day, a group of women asked her how so many individual men and women could work together for the common good even though they had their own separate families. Haneefa asked each of the women to bring a cup of milk. Taking a large ceramic jug from her father’s house, she poured the milk from each of the individual cups into the jar. “Now, tell me”, she asked each of the ladies, “which portion of the milk is yours”. The women instantly understood that the community was like the milk in the jar. The milk came from different cups but it was now one. As the fame of Haneefa spread, people started to refer to the Imam as Abu Haneefa (the father of Haneefa).
     E) ইমাম আবু হানিফার দাদা ... Marzuban was a successful merchant, engaged in the silk trade through the ancient caravan silk road leading from India through Afghanistan, Central Asia to China. He entered the fold of Islam during the period of Khulfa e Rashideen and moved to the garrison city of Kufa in southern Iraq. Located not far from the port city of Abadan, the city of Kufa became the provincial capital of Iraq and a bustling town of commerce and trade. Marzuban prospered as a silk merchant and it was here that Thabit, the father of Abu Haneefa was born.
     F) ইমাম আবু হানিফার পিতা মাতা ...... 
Thabit ibn Marzuban grew up to be a God fearing young man. It is related that one day as he walked by the banks of the Tigris River, he found an apple that had floated downstream. Hungry as he was, he picked up the apple and ate it. But then remorse set in. “Who did the apple belong to?”, asked the young Thabit. “I consumed an item without paying for it. How will face the Judgment Day for this forgetfulness?”. He walked upstream along the river bank to find the apple orchard so that he could approach its owner and seek his pardon. He located the orchard and knocked at the door of the owner who was amazed at the honesty and integrity of the young man standing before him, head bowed, asking for his forgiveness. “I will pardon you, but on one condition”, said the owner. “Anything you propose, sir, I will accept”, said the young Thabit, “I am even willing to work for you to pay off the debt of the apple”. “The condition, my son, is this”, said the owner, “You must marry my daughter. She is blind, deaf and dumb. I need someone to take care of her”. That was the language of the Haneefs (for instance, according to the Quran, Prophet Ibrahim was a Haneef). The young Thabit understood that the daughter had never seen anything objectionable, heard anything bad or spoken ill of anyone. He immediately agreed.
Nu’man bin Thabit, later known by his universal name Imam Abu Haneefa, was born in the year 699 CE in the city of Kufa. As it is with most famous men and women in history, his lineage is claimed by Iranians, Afghans and Arabs alike. But most scholars agree he was of Afghan parentage through his grandfather Marzuban.
     G) Abu Haneefa was only twelve years old when Sindh and Multan were added to the Omayyad domains through the conquests of Mohammed bin Qasim (711CE).
     H) Kufa was at the very center of cultural and intellectual turbulence brought on by the mixing of Persian Zoroastrians, Chinese Buddhists, Indian Hindus, Roman Christians and Arab Muslims.
4)  A) Yazid ibn 'Amr, Governor of Iraq during the time of Marwan ibn Muhammad, the fourteenth and last Umayyad Khalifah, asked Abu Hanifa to become a judge for the law-court of Kufa. But, since he had he refused his offer, for he wanted to devote his time and effort serving Islam, and had not interest in worldly pleasures. He was afraid of not being able to safeguard human rights because of human weaknesses. With a command from Yazid, he was given a whipping, hundred and ten blows to the head. His blessed face and head swelled. The next day, Yazid took the Imam out and oppressed him by repeating his offer. The Imam said, "Let me consult," and obtained permission to leave. He left to Mecca and remained there for five or six years. ..... LINK  (Profile: Imam Abu Hanifa (Numan ibn Thabit))
     B) The 'Abbasid Khalifah Abu Jafar Mansur offered Imam Abu Hanifa to be the chief of the Supreme Court of Appeal in 150 A.H. [767 A.D.]. Again the Imam refused, and was put into jail. He was subjected to whipping, ten blows more every following day. When the number of whipping reached one hundred, he attained martyrdom. So many people attended his funeral that the funeral service was repeated six times before the Imam was actually buried.
     C) The Hanafi Madhhab (approach) spread far and wide during the time of the Ottoman Empire. It almost became the official Islamic approach of the State. Today, more than half of the Muslims all over the world follow this approach.
5) THE LIFE OF IMAM ABU HANIFA
6) The Four Imams: Information Sheet