Abu Hanifah

Abu Hanifah an-Numan ibn Thabit ibn Zuta (80-150 AH / 699-767 CE) was the founder of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence — the most widely followed school of Islamic law in the world today — and is considered by his followers to be al-Imam al-Azam (the Greatest Imam). He was born in Kufa, Iraq, to a family of Persian origin involved in the silk trade, a background that gave him both practical commercial knowledge and access to the cosmopolitan intellectual life of one of early Islam's greatest cities. His father Thabit had reportedly met Ali ibn Abi Talib and received his blessing.

Abu Hanifah studied under over a thousand teachers, but his foundational education was primarily through Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman in Kufa, whose legal methodology derived ultimately from Ibrahim an-Nakhai and through him from Abdullah ibn Masud. He also traveled to Mecca and Medina, where he is reported to have studied briefly under Imam Malik. He met and learned from the last surviving companions, including Anas ibn Malik, Abdullah ibn Abi Awfa, and others. He was among the Tabiin in the technical hadith sense.

Abu Hanifah's jurisprudential method was innovative and systematic. His school employed the Quran, the Sunnah (with careful attention to reliability), the consensus of the companions (ijma), analogical reasoning (qiyas), juristic preference (istihsan), and the consideration of local custom (urf) as sources of law. He was particularly famous for his method of hypothetical jurisprudence (al-fiqh at-taqdiri), posing and solving legal problems before they arose — a methodology that produced the most comprehensive and anticipatory body of Islamic law in his era. His teaching circle in Kufa operated like a legal academy, with students debating cases collectively.

He refused appointments as a judge under both the Umayyads and the early Abbasids, and was imprisoned by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur as a result of his refusal to serve as chief qadi of Baghdad. He died in prison in Baghdad in 150 AH (767 CE). His legal methodology was codified and transmitted by his students Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ash-Shaybani, and the Hanafi school became the official school of the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire, and numerous other Islamic states.