Legal method
Extensive use of qiyas (analogy) and istihsan (juristic preference), with careful scrutiny of narrations and a strong tradition of collective legal reasoning among his students.
المذهب الحنفي
The Hanafi School
Imam Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man · 699 – 767 CE (80 – 150 AH)
Kufa, later the Ottoman and Mughal lands
Introduction
The Hanafi school grew out of the legal circle of Kufa, where Abu Hanifa taught by putting questions to a council of senior students and recording only what they settled together. It is the oldest of the four surviving schools and, through the Ottoman and Mughal states, the one followed by the largest number of Muslims today.
Principles of the school
- •Quran, then the Sunnah established by reliable transmission, then the consensus of the companions.
- •Qiyas (analogy) applied with unusual rigour, and istihsan where strict analogy would cause hardship.
- •Urf (settled custom) is a valid consideration where no text governs the case.
- •The 'apparent transmissions' (zahir al-riwaya) of al-Shaybani define what counts as the school's position.
Distinctive positions
- •Hands are folded below the navel in prayer.
- •The witr prayer is three connected rak'ahs.
- •Zakat may be paid in monetary value rather than in kind.
- •An adult woman may contract her own marriage, subject to suitability.
Chain of scholars
Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man ibn Thabit
80–150 AH
Founder of the school
Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Ansari
113–182 AH
Chief judge of the Abbasid state
Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani
132–189 AH
Recorded the school in writing
Ahmad al-Quduri
362–428 AH
Author of the standard beginner's matn
Al-Sarakhsi
d. c. 483 AH
Author of al-Mabsut
Al-Marghinani
511–593 AH
Author of al-Hidaya
Ibn Abidin
1198–1252 AH
Final reference of the late school
Where it is followed
Iraq and Khurasan first, then Central Asia, Anatolia and the Balkans under the Ottomans, the Indian subcontinent under the Mughals, and today also Egypt's Azhari tradition, the Levant, the Caucasus and China.
Scholar Books Library · Hanafi
المبسوط
Al-Mabsut
Imam al-Sarakhsi · Fiqh
A thirty-volume exposition of Hanafi law with comparative evidence, dictated largely from memory while imprisoned.
الهداية
Al-Hidaya
Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani · Fiqh
The central teaching text of the Hanafi school, balancing brevity with proofs from Quran, Sunnah and reasoning.
بدائع الصنائع
Bada'i al-Sana'i
Ala' al-Din al-Kasani · Fiqh
Renowned for its rigorous thematic ordering and derivation of legal principles from cases.
مختصر القدوري
Mukhtasar al-Quduri
Imam Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Quduri · Fiqh
The classical Hanafi primer studied for a thousand years: concise rulings on worship, transactions and family law, memorised before any larger work.
العقيدة الطحاوية
Al-'Aqida al-Tahawiyya
Imam Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi · Creed
A concise statement of Sunni belief accepted across the four schools, written as the creed of Abu Hanifa and his two companions.