Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Raheem

Translated and partly prepared by:

Mufti Obaidullah Qasmi, Maulana Afzal Qasmi, Mufti Muhammadullah
Khalili Qasmi

Introduction of Hanafi School of Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)

Fiqh Hanafi is the oldest of all four Sunni Fiqhi schools. The Fiqhi rules
and matters were fi rst compiled in this school. This school spread the
most in the Islamic world and it was followed by a majority of the
Muslims. This Fiqh is attributed to Imam Abu Hanifah and therefore is
called Hanafi . It came in to being at Kufa and the compilation was
carried out by collective research and interpretations. This Fiqh is
originally based on the opinions, fatwas, judgments and thinking
methods of the outstanding Companion Hadhrat Abdullah bin Masood
and fourth Caliph Hadhrat Ali bin Abu Talib. These opinions, fatwas,
judgments and thinking methods reached Abu Hanifah by the channel
of Hammad bin Abi Sulaiman, Hadhrat Ibrahim Nakhee and Hadhrat
Alqamah. Imam Muhammad bin Hasan Shaibani, the renowned disciple
of Imam Abu Hanifah, recorded the thousands of mas'alas (issues or
cases) in to form of a book which were derived and compiled by a panel
of forty ablest students and friends of Imam Abu Hanifah. Imam Abu
Yusuf Yaqub bin Ibrahim Ansari, the other student of Imam Abu
Hanifah, played a prominent role in compiling and spreading Fiqh
Hanafi .
Imam Abu Hanifah
The name of Imam Abu Hanifah is Noman bin Sabit Zooti. Abu Hanifah
is his nickname. He was born in 80 Hijri in Kufa, a city of present day
Iraq. As a profession, his family was cloth merchant and he also took in
the same profession. A famous scholar of Kufa, Shabi apprehended his
sharp-mindedness and sought him to achieve education. So, he joined

the prominent circle of Hadhrat Hammad bin Abi Sulaiman and

remained in his company till his demise. He benefi ted from all the
scholars of Hadith in Kufa. He traveled Hijaz many a times and learned
from the scholars and other educated ones. He benefi ted from Imam
Malik in Medina and Imam Malik also benefi ted from him. He had so
many teachers; among them are senior Tabeen (the successor of the
companions of Prophet) from Makkah, Medina, Iraq and Syria. He
himself was a Tabee, since he had the honour of visiting some
companions of the Prophet (pbuh), though he did not narrate from
them. After the demise of Hadhrat Hammad, all of his students agreed
that Abu Hanifah, the youngest of them, is ablest among them to
succeed their Shaikh. So they forced him to take over his position. This
circle had the grand collection of the derivation method of Hadhrat
Umar Farooq, traditions and fatwas of Hadhrat Abdullah bin Masood,
rulings and thoughts of Hadhrat Ali and the Hadiths and traditions of
scholars of Hadith in Kufa. Imam Abu Hanifah was bestowed matchless
mind, power of understanding and derivation, expansion and depth in
knowledge. He had good moral characters and held a high position in
fearing Allah, piety, righteousness and nobility. He was prosperous, so
he used to spend wealth wholeheartedly in the path of Allah. He was
famous in honesty in dealings and business. Because of these virtues,
his circle of teaching earned fame far and wide and prominent scholars
started to attend his classes where this generous teacher encouraged
them and discussed the academic matters openly. He observed the
Umayyad sultanate and witnessed its decline. The Abbasid caliphate
was established before his eyes. Some Alvis also made armed eff orts to
gain power. Realizing them as able for the position, he extended oral
and fi nancial support to them. When the Abbasid caliphate was
established the Caliph Mansoor off ered him the post of Qazi, most
probably, in order to test his loyalty to his government. He denied it and
as a punishment was whipped lashes at public place and was put in to
prison. He was then about seventy years old. He continued teaching
while he was in prison and the punishment of whips also continued.
Ultimately, he died in prison in 150 H in the month of Rajab and was
buried in the graveyard of Khaizuran.
Method & Characteristics
The Fiqh of Imam Abu Hanifah bears this characteristic that it was
collectively formulated. Hadhrat Umar Farooq populated the city of Kufa
with keen interest and sent Hadhrat Abdullah bin Masood as teacher

and Qazi with this letter: O people of Kufa! I prefer you on myself by
sending Ibn Masood. So much of the companions turned to Kufa that it
accommodated more than one thousand companions. Hadhrat Ali
Murtuza, the fourth Caliph of Islam, made it his capital. Later, this city
competed the cities of Makka and Medina in Hadith and Islamic
sciences. This city was newly built, therefore the new coverts, who were
from urban background and brought with them an asset of Greek and
Persian sciences and philosophy, inhabited there in a big number. The
mixing of Arabs with Iranian culture created countless many new
problems and issues. On the other side, there came up so many sects
due to political diff erences and amalgamation of religions and nations.
Some of them were secretly involved in anti-Islamic eff orts. One of
these phenomena was to forge false Hadith. Every sect forged Hadith to
support its view. The cities of Hijaz; Makka and Medina, were secure
from such kinds of special cases to an extent.
Hadhrat Umar Farooq had a special relation with Iraq. He himself sent
Hadhrat Abdullah bin Masood to Kufa. Hadhrat Umar was given the title
of Muhaddith from the Prophet (pbuh) i.e. 'his tongue and heart spoke
according to the revelation'. There were several verses in the Glorious
Quran which were revealed according to his opinion. Hadhrat Umar
Farooq prevented the companions to go out of Medina in his time of
caliphate. He formed two groups among the companions. He used to
consult smaller group of the elder companions in special cases. And,
whenever there happened to occur any important matter he used to
assemble all of the companions for consultations. His style of derivation
was that he used to deliberate in the depth of the Quran and Hadith,
used to keep the objectives of Shariah and the interest of the Muslims
before his eyes, observed the circumstances and used to reach a
conclusion by cfollective decision. His interpretative judgments and
Awwaliyaat (pioneering judgments) are well known, and they not only
played a key role to enliven the Islamic Shariah in the wide Islamic
caliphate but also provided a fi rm basis for his successors. This style of
derivation was circulated in Kufa by Hadhrat Ali and Abdullah bin
Masood. Hadhrat Ibn Masood and his disciples, Alqamah and Ibrahim
Nakhee, on one hand applied strict laws in accepting narrations so that
no false Hadith is accepted. On the other hand, they avoided attributing
Hadith directly to the Prophet (pbuh) and liked to narrate attributing to
companions and Tabeens lest an incorrect meaning is associated to the
Prophet (pbuh). Thirdly, they applied their reasons and issued fatwas.
These were the characteristics and styles that Imam Abu Hanifah

inherited.
Collective Compilation of Fiqh
When Imam Abu Hanifah formed his penal to compile Fiqh he selected
forty people from among his students. They were experts of Quranic
exegesis, Hadith, Asmaur Rijal (complete record of the narrators),
language, literature, logic, philosophy, analogy, history, mathematics
and several other sciences. He himself had the experience of trade and
marketing. He started this noble mission of compiling Fiqh. It was thus
that a matter was presented before the panel and each member used to
express his view, and he himself put his opinion. Sometimes, the
discussion continued till a month on a single matter. When a decision
was reached on he ordered to record it down. The matter was discussed
in the light of Quran and Hadith. If they did not fi nd any evidence in any
of them, they turned to the sayings of the companions. Having failed
they used to apply analogy. All the members also sometimes discussed
analogy and some times discrete in legal matters. The conclusions of
the discussion were written down in registers. Thus, the Mas'alas of
Fiqh were compiled in a new order. This order was known as Fiqhi
order; starting from chapter of prayers, dealings and ending at
inheritance. It is said that thus 500,000 matters were compiled and
38000 matters of them were related to prayers.
Method of Derivation
Imam Abu Hanifah himself describes his method of derivation: "First of
all I look in to the Noble Quran, then search the matter in the Hadith of
the Prophet (pbuh) and take the narrations of the Faqeeh (jurist)
narrators. If the matter is not found in the Quran and Hadith, then I
turn to the sayings of the companions. If their opinions diff er then I
prefer any of them. If the opinions of the companions contradict the
opinions of others I never go against the opinions of the companions.
And, when it come to the opinions of Ibrahim Nakhee, Hasan Basari, Ibn
Seereen, Saeed bin Musayyib and others then I also apply mind and
interpret as they do.
Principle Books
After the collective compilation of the Fiqh matters, some companions
of Imam Abu Hanifah wrote books. There is no book recorded on Fiqh

by Imam Abu Hanifah. But, the books of his disciple Imam Muhammad
Shaibani are considered to the fi rst and foremost source of Hanafi Fiqh.
In Fiqh Hanafi there are three types of books:
(1)
(2)
(3)

Books of Zahir Al-Riwayah

Books of Nawadir
Fatawa and Waqi;aat.

The contents of Zahir Al-Riwayah are most trusted ones. Zahir AlRiwayah is a collection of six books written by Imam Muhammad.
1.
Al-Jame Al-Sageer: Eisa bin Aban and Muhammad bin Samaah
narrated this book from Imam Muhammad. In this book, Imam
Muhammad narrated from Imam Abu Hanifah through Imam Abu Yusuf.
But, this book does not contain proofs.
2.
Al-Jame Al-Kabeer: This book is like the previous one, but it deals
with the subjects in details.
3.
Ziyadaat: This is the complementary of Al-Jame Al-Kabeer.
4.
Al-Mabsoot: This is also known as Al-Asl. In this book, Imam
Muhammad has collected the thousands of Mas'alas that were derived
by Imam Abu Hanifah. This book deals with Ahadith that is followed by
Mas'alas and the variant opinions of the contemporary Ulama.
5.
Al-Siyar Al-Sageer: This book deals with the subject of Jihad and
international laws.
6.
Al-Siyar Al-Kabeer: This is his last Fiqhi book that was narrated by
Abu Sulaiman Jauzjani.
Muhammad bin Ahmad Marwazi, known as Hakim Shahid, amassed all
of Imam Muhammads books with the name of Al-Kafi after the deletion
of repeated matters. Imam Sarkhasi has written its detailed
commentary named as Al-Mabsoot.
Nawadir comprises the matters that are found in books other than the
books of Imam Muhammad or in the books of Imam Abu Yusuf or Imam
Hasan bin Ziyad. The collection of Nawadir consists of:
1.
Harooniyaat: Imam Muhammad dictated it in the reign of Caliph
Haroon Al-Rashid, this book is attributed to the Caliph.
2.
Kisaniyaat: The narrations of his student Shoaib bin Sulaiman
Kisani.
3.
Ruqyaat: These are the matters that he expressed while he was

Qazi in Ruqa area.

4.
Kitabul Mujarrad: It is written by Hasan bin Ziyad.
5.
Kitabul Amali: It is attributed to Imam Abu Yusuf.
Nawazil were the Mas'alas about which there was no mention in the
aforementioned books and the succeeding scholars of Fiqh derived
solutions keeping these books before them. Kitab Al-Nawazil of Abul
Lais Samarqandi, Majmooun Nawazil wal Waqiaat of Natifi and AlWaqiaat of Sadr Shahid are well known among scholars.