Ebu Hanife

Fıkıh Bilgini

Doğum
Diğer İsimler
Abu Hanifa, Numân b. Sabit b. el-Numân Zuta, İmam-ı Âzâm

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 Iraq). Imam Ebû Hanife is the leading scholar of Sunni creed. His father Sabit belongs to a notable lineage of Horasan and opinions about him to be a Turk are widespread. His grandfather Zevta is one of the first people to accept Islamic religion among people. It is narrated that his father Sabit met Ali the Caliph.

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 Mecca and Medina who mostly were of Tabiin (T.N. 1st generation of Muslims after the Prophet), listened to hadith they narrated and took part in discussions about fiqh. Besides he took lectures from Zeyd bin Ali and Muhammed Bakır of the House of the Prophet.

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 “Hanafi School”. Ebû Hanife during all his life struggled against fractions called “Dehriyyun” who tried to separate people from faith.

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 Abbasid State, Ebu Cafer Mansur, first imprisoned Ebu Hanife who did not publish a fatwa to his anti-Islamic behaviors and administration and then killed him through torture and poison. Many claimed to have dreamt of him after his death, visited his grave and narrated about his greatness.

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 Cairo), Er-Risâle (Manuscripts are in the library of Cairo), El-Vasıyye (It has copies in European and Cairo libraries; and manuscripts of el-Baberti interpretation are in libraries of Nuru Osmaniye, Ayasofya, Bayezid and Selim Ağa.)

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).

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