The Four Imams: Life of Hazrat Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him)

Life of Hazrat Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him)

Hazrat Imam Abu Hanifa r.a

His name is Noman, his nickname is Abu Hanifa and his title is Imam-e-Azam. His father's name is Thabit and his grandfather's name is Zuti. He was born in 80 AH. Among the four Imams, Imam Azam (may Allah have mercy on him) has the honor of being a Tabi'i. It is proven that he met two companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him):

Hazrat Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), the servant of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), who died in 93 AH

Hazrat Abu Tufail Aamir bin Wathilah (may Allah be pleased with him), who died in 100 AH

The Imam received his initial education at home, then he attended the lessons of the famous scholar of Kufa, Imam Hammad (may Allah have mercy on him), for two full years and acquired the knowledge of jurisprudence with full attention. Along with this, he also started studying Hadith. The Imam's famous teachers in Hadith are Imam Sha'bi (may Allah have mercy on him), Salama bin Kahil Muhareb bin Dutsar, Abu Ishaq bin Sami (may Allah have mercy on him), Aun bin Abdullah Samak bin Harb, Ibrahim bin Muhammad (may Allah have mercy on him), Adi bin Thabit and Mosam Musa bin Abi Aisha (may Allah have mercy on him). When his teacher Hazrat Hammad (may Allah have mercy on him) passed away in 20 AH, the people of Kufa chose Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) from among all the students to succeed the teacher and requested that he be honored with the teaching post.

The Imam (may Allah have mercy on him) realized his responsibilities and with some insistence He accepted this request and began teaching with great independence. Within a few days, Imam Abu Hanifa's ability attracted the attention of the entire Islamic world, and students from far and wide began to come to his school, and the circle of disciples continued to grow wider and wider.

A brief outline of the characteristics of Imam Sahib:

Once, Caliph Harun al-Rashid asked Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) to describe some of the characteristics of Imam Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him). The Qadi Sahib gave a short but comprehensive speech on the character and habits of Imam Sahib (may Allah have mercy on him), which is as follows:

Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) was a very moral and pious elder. He would remain silent most of the time except during lessons, and it seemed that he was engaged in some deep thought. If a problem was asked, he would answer it, otherwise he would remain silent. He was very generous and generous. He never took any need in front of anyone. He would sell to the people of the world as much as possible and considered worldly honor and respect to be contemptuous. He never backbited anyone. If someone was mentioned, he would remember them well. He was a great scholar and was generous in spending knowledge as well as wealth.

Compilation of Hanafi Fiqh:

Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) selected a few of his special students, among whom Qadi Abu Yusuf, Dawood Ta'i, Imam Muhammad and Imam Zafar (may Allah have mercy on him) are very distinguished. He established a council to deduce issues and compile jurisprudence. This council began its work in 121 AH and continued until the death of Imam Sahib (may Allah have mercy on him) in 150 AH.

The last years of Imam Sahib (may Allah have mercy on him) were spent in prison, where this work was also ongoing, meaning that in a period of more or less thirty (30) years this great work was completed and a collection of jurisprudence issues was prepared in which all issues from the chapter of purification to the chapter of inheritance were present.

Imam Abu Hanifa's service to Hadith:

Imam Azam (may Allah have mercy on him) is the first to compile jurisprudence and also has the first place in the service to Hadith, so the "Kitab al-Athar" is his witness of justice. This book was the first to organize the hadiths in a jurisprudential order. It has a very high status in the science of hadith, and Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) chose this book from among forty thousand hadiths. There are several copies of this book, "Dhikr al-Muwafq fi Manaqib Imam Abu Hanifa", narrated by Imam Muhammad, narrated by Imam Abu Yusuf, narrated by Imam Zufar (may Allah have mercy on them), and this book is older than "Muwatta Imam Malik" in terms of time. It is also proven that Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) benefited from the works of Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him).

Therefore, this book is the original of Imam Malik in its editing style. It should also be remembered here that the book compiled by Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah be pleased with him) in the science of hadith is the "Kitab al-Athar". In addition, the various books found under the name of Musnad Abu Hanifa (may Allah be pleased with him) are not the work of the Imam himself, may Allah be pleased with him, but after him, many scholars of hadith prepared his Musnads. Later, Allama Khwarizmi (may Allah be pleased with him) combined all these Musnads into a collection which is known as Jame' al-Masnad Imam al-Azam and is currently included in the collection of Musnad Imam al-Azam (may Allah be pleased with him) in the Indian subcontinent. This is actually the work of Imam Abdullah al-Harithi, which was abridged by Allama Haskafi (may Allah be pleased with him) and arranged in its chapters on jurisprudence by Mulla Muhammad Abid Sindhi (may Allah be pleased with him). 

Death of  Imam Abu Hanifa.

In Rajab 150 AH, Caliph Mansur poisoned Imam Sahib inside the prison. Imam Sahib felt the effect of the poison and advised his disciples to bury him in his tomb. Then he fell into prostration and passed away in this state. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.

Date of death 15th Rajab 50 AH. Taken from the introduction of Musnad Imam-e-Azam / Dars Tirmidhi