A brief biographical sketch of the life of Abu Hanifah

1.         Abū Ḥanīfah, in full Abū Ḥanīfah An-nuʿmān Ibn Thābit   (born 699, Kūfah, Iraq—died767, Baghdad), was a Muslim jurist and theologian (=a person who studies beliefs).

2.         His systematization of Islāmic legal doctrine was acknowledged as one of the four canonical schools of Islāmic law.

3.         The school of Abū Ḥanīfah acquired such prestige that its doctrines (=a set of principles) were applied by a majority of Muslim dynasties.

4.         Abū Ḥanīfah was born in Kūfah, an intellectual centre of Iraq, and belonged to the mawālī, the non-Arab Muslims, who pioneered intellectual activity in Islāmic lands.

5.         The son of a merchant, young Abū Ḥanīfah took up the silk trade for a living and eventually became moderately wealthy.

6.         In early youth he was attracted to theological debates, but later, disenchanted with (=no longer feeling enthusiasm for) theology, he turned to law and for about 18 years was a disciple of Ḥammād (d. 738), then the most noted Iraqi jurist.

7.         After Ḥammād’s death, Abū Ḥanīfah became his successor. He also learned from several other scholars, notably the Meccan traditionist ʿAṭāʾ (d. c. 732) and Jaʿfar aṣ-Ṣādiq (d. 765).

8.         Abū Ḥanīfah’s mind was also matured by extensive travels and by exposure to the heterogeneous (=consisting of many different kinds of people), advanced society of Iraq.

9.         By Abū Ḥanīfah’s time a vast body of legal doctrines had accumulated. The disagreements in these doctrines had rendered necessary the development of a uniform code. Abū Ḥanīfah responded by scrutinizing (=look at or examine carefully) the current doctrines in collaboration with his students, several of them outstanding scholars.

10.       He had each legal problem discussed before formulating any doctrines.

11.       Before Abū Ḥanīfah’s time, doctrines had been formulated mainly in response to actual problems, whereas he attempted to solve problems that might arise in the future. By the introduction of this method, the area of law was considerably enlarged.

12.       Compared with his contemporaries, the Kufan Ibn Abī Laylā (d. 765), the Syrian Awzāʿī (d. 774), and the Medinese Mālik (d. 795), Abū Ḥanīfah’s doctrines are more carefully formulated and consistent and his technical legal thought more highly developed and refined.

13.       Although theology was not Abū Ḥanīfah’s primary concern, he did take distinct positions on several theological questions, stimulating the development of the Māturīdīyah school, a champion of orthodoxy (=the traditional beliefs or practices of a religion).

14.       Because of his temperament and academic preoccupation, Abū Ḥanīfah took no direct part in court politics or power struggles, despite his obvious antipathy (=a strong feeling of dislike) toward the Umayyads and ʿAbbāsids, the ruling dynasties of the time.

15.       His sympathies lay with the ʿAlids (the successors of ʿAlī), whose revolts he openly supported with words and money. This fact partly explains why Abū Ḥanīfah steadfastly refused a judgeship and also why he suffered severe persecution under both dynasties.