Fiqh scholar, founder of Hanafi
school (B. 699, Kufah- D. 767, Baghdad). His real name is el- Numân b. Sabit b. El-Numân Zuta. His title Ebû Hanife means “One
who runs from Falsehoods to the Truth”. He was born in a scientific center of
the Islamic World, in Kufah city (nowadays within the borders of
Numân
memorized the Holy Koran at an early age and learnt current disciplines of
Arabic which were sarf
(grammar) and nahv (syntax), poetry and literature. He
saw among the Prophet’s Companions Enes bin Malik, Abdullah bin Ebi Evfa,
vasile bin Eska, Sehl bin Saide and Ebu’t-Tufeyl Amir bin Vasile who passed
away in Mecca 102 years after the hegira and listened to hadith (words of the
Holy Prophet) they narrated.
Upon the suggestion of İmam-ı Şabi, Ebu Hanife started to be part of
study chains. He first learnt kalam, and acquired knowledge of faith, creed and
debating from Şabi. Later he continued Hammad bin Ebu Süleyman’s lectures for
eighteen years and learnt fiqh (Islamic law). During these lectures he often
went to Hejaz, met scholars in
Ebû Hanife acquired his knowledge on Sufism from Muhammed Bakır and after him from
Imam Cafer-i Sadık. He learnt from Nafi, the former
servant of Abdullah bin Ömer, the knowledge of İbni Abbas who was one of the
Companions of the Prophet, and the knowledge transferred from the conqueror of
Mecca Ata bin Ebi Rebah and İkrime and her son Abdullah.
Ebu Hanife with his service to
Islamic religion announced Islamic religion to people again, with its essential
dimensions of faith, practice and ethics; he answered people with doubt and
deviations and primarily maintained the unity and solidarity in creed. He
determined the essentials and form of Islamic fiqh in worshipping practices and
daily life. Thus he obtained the title of “müceddid” (someone who spreads the
religion again) in the 2nd century after the hegira.
Ebû Hanife defined fiqh as “knowing
pros and cons”. According to this definition he applied to Edille-i şeriyye (provisions of Shariah) in order to
determine fiqh. These were the Holy Koran, Sunnah (Words and
deeds of the Holy Prophet), İcma-ı Ümmet (unanimity of the Companions of the
Prophet about an issue) and Kıyas-ı
Fukaha (solving a
problem through similar problems which are decided), i.e. comparison. He used
these sources to solve a problem. With his knowledge of fiqh (law) he
accumulated after long researches and practices of perfect methods, Ebû Hanife
showed Muslims the path to follow about their worshipping and other practices
in order to obey the Islamic rules in a right way and this path was called “
İmam Ebu Hanife’s most important
work is Fıkhu’l-Ekber. This work was
interpreted by many scholars, in the first place by Ebû Mansur el-Matûridi and
translated to Turkish various times. It explains the Sunni creed in a short,
substantial and encompassing way.
His work titled El-Fıkhül-Ebsât was interpreted by Ata el-Cürcâni. His work titled El-Âlim ve’ln-Müteallim contains his
answers to the questions of his student Ebû Mukatil.
Ebû Hanife divided fiqh for the
first time to branches and collected knowledge of each branch separately,
assigned them methodologies. He wrote the books of “Feraiz” (Islamic Obligations) and “Şurût” (Laws of Shariah). Besides he collected the knowledge on
faith and creed narrated by the Companions of the Prophet by transfer from the
Holy Prophet and submitted them to hundreds of students. He raised experts of
Kalam Science.
Imam Ebu Hanife who was an example
of devotedness in Islamic history never gave consent to oppression throughout
all his life and even risked his life to remain loyal to this principle. He was
martyred because of not compensating from his principle. The 2nd
caliph of the
One of the Viziers of the Seljuk
Sultan Melikshah, Ebu Sa’d-i Harezmi, built a perfect tomb on Ebu
Hanife's grave and a madrasah around it. Later the Ottoman Sultans renovated
this tomb numerous times.
WORKS:
Fıkhu’l-Ekber (Hasan
Basri Çantay’s translation of Fıkh-ı
Ekber, 1954), El-Fıkhül-Ebsât, El-Âlim ve’l-müteallim (Manuscript is in
the library of
REFERENCE: Mehmet Arif / “İmam Ebu Hanife” (Beyan´ül Hak, Sayı: 6, 1324 İstanbul), Muhammed Ebû Zehra / İmam Ebû Hanife (Çev. Osman Keskioğlu (1959), İsa Doğan / Mürcie ve Ebu Hanife (1992), İsmail Hakkı Ünal / İmam Ebu Hanife’nin Hadis Anlayışı ve Hanefi Mezhebinin Hadis Metodu (1994), Yusuf Ziya Yörükan / İslâm Akaid Sisteminde Gelişmeler İmam - ı Azam Ebu Hanife ve İmam Ebu Mansur - i Maturidi (2001), Ekrem Sağırğlu / İmam-ı Azam Ebu Hanife (2003), Abdülvehhab Öztürk / İmam-ı Azam Ebu Hanife ve Eserleri (2004), İhsan Işık / Ünlü Bilim Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüler Ansiklopedisi, c. 2, 2013) ) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (C. 12, 2017).