The Hanafi school (madhhab)

Overview

The Hanafi school is named after Abu Hanifa. According to Ahmad Amin it is the widest of the schools in its use of personal opinion. If circles were drawn to represent the schools' use of opinion, the smallest would be the Zahiri circle, then the Hanbali, then the Maliki, then the Shafi'i, and the largest the Hanafi. ³

Istihsan

The Hanafis upheld istihsan (juristic preference). As Ahmad Amin explains it, this means that the jurist leaves analogy in favour of judging a matter by what justice requires, seeking absolute justice. The Shafi'is rejected it, and a saying of al-Shafi'i in disapproval is transmitted: "Whoever practises istihsan has made a law." ⁴

This needs a second source: the page presents one author's view, and does not present what the Hanafis themselves say about their method.

The Treaty with the Christian Taghlib

In al-Baladhuri through multiple chains: Umar ibn al-Khattab meant to take jizya from the Christian Taghlib, who fled — a body crossing the Euphrates for Byzantine lands — until al-Nu'man ibn Zur'a — or Zur'a ibn al-Nu'man — adjured him: 'Banu Taghlib are Arabs who would scorn the jizya and are a people of stout valour; let not your enemy gain strength against you by them'; Umar sent after them, brought them back and compounded with them for a doubling of the sadaqa taken from the Muslims on every grazing herd and acre — another chain has Umar ordering they be fought till destroyed or converted if they refused — and they accepted, saying 'since it is no jizya like the jizya of foreigners, we accept and keep our religion'; the treaty bound them not to baptize a child nor coerce one into their faith — Dawud ibn Kurdus holding they therefore had no dhimma, meaning they baptized in their faith — and Ali would say 'were I free to deal with Banu Taghlib I should have my way: kill their fighters and take their children captive, for they broke the covenant, their dhimma lapsing when they Christianized their children'; Umar sent Ziyad ibn Hudayr al-Asadi to take of them a half-tithe of their wealth, forbidding him to tithe a Muslim or a kharaj-paying dhimmi; Uthman ordered only gold and silver accepted of them until word came that Umar had taken double-sadaqa, whereupon he retracted; al-Zuhri held there is no sadaqa on the People of the Book's herds save the Christian Taghlib; and Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Awza'i, Malik ibn Anas, Ibn Abi Dhi'b, Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf all hold that the Taghlibi pays double what a Muslim pays on his land, livestock and wealth — the Iraqis taking double-sadaqa from the minor and the incompetent's land but nothing of their livestock, the Hijazis from both — all agreeing that what is taken of Taghlib's wealth is disposed as kharaj-money, being a substitute for jizya.

The Hanafi school (madhhab)

At a glance

Overview

Istihsan

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

The Treaty with the Christian Taghlib