Review of Abu Hanifah - His Life, Legal Method and Legacy

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The Muslim World Book Review, 31:4, 2011 29

ABu HANiFAH: HIS LIFE, LEgAL METHOd ANd LEgACY . By Moham-

mad Akram Nadwi. Markfeld: Kube Publishing Ltd. 2010. Pp. xii+148. ISBN:

9781847740175.

This very short, albeit highly erudite, work o hagiography is written by a

scholar who has engaged with the study o Abu Haniah and his legacy or a

very long time. By using only the most authentic reports ound in the classical

Islamic prosopographical collections, original Arabic and Urdu sources and

core Hana i legal texts, the author endeavours to understand why and how

Abu Haniah came to inherit the appellation al-Imam al-A[zam (the greatest

one worthy to be ollowed), an epithet which is worthy o him today as it was

in his days.

The book is written in the typical ormat o a classical Islamic biography

work. The author discusses Abu Haniah’s lie, his lie style, his erudition and

probity, his piety and propriety, his scholarship, his teachers and his students.

He talks about him as a jurist, theologian and H ad i th scholar. The impact o

Abu Haniah’s fqh and its status in the modern age is discussed in details. All o

these discussions take place within the ramework o the overall development

o Islamic law in general. The quality o the book is urther enhanced by the

use o diagrams and an annotated reading list. Given the plethora o sources

ound on Abu

H

aniah’s lie in English in the orm o monographs, articles,introductory sections to translated classical texts, translations o Arabic and

Urdu books, audio and visual recordings and the internet, the question that

looms on this reviewer’s mind is: what is the need or yet another biography

o Abu Haniah?

The reviewer believes that it is what the author wants to do with the

biography o Abu Haniah that justifes the writing o this book. The author

deems it pertinent to write this book because o three reasons. Firstly, he takes

issues with the many voices rom within and without Islam that are calling or

an Islamic reormation. He argues that Islam’s contribution to the modernworld especially in trade and commerce has been advanced by people like Abu

Haniah and other scholars like him. It is only through understanding and

emulating the lives o these pious savants that some o the ethical and moral

principles that have been lost can be restored. Secondly, inormation readily

available through high-speed medium is not [ilm but short lived data, devoid

o any substance and missing the personal touch o a wise master. Through

this book, the author wants to remind us that true [ilm can only be sought

through slow and painstaking study where knowledge is passed rom heart

to heart.



The Muslim World Book Review, 31:4, 201130

For this reviewer, the most unique contribution o this book is the author’s

third reason or writing the book. The author draws a distinction between Abu

Haniah and later Hana i scholars. Abu Haniah is someone who understood

the context as well as the text; he made a distinction between the spirit o the law; and his understanding o the law is not partial but holistic. He urges

Muslim scholars to recover both their intellectual ability as well as their

moral authority to understand the Qur’a n and Sunnah in its entirety and not

just in parts. The scholars will fnd a precedent or this in Abu Haniah, who

paradoxically, was neither a Hana i nor a proessional Hana i muti. This is a

streak that one can implicitly see throughout the work (pp.115-120). The author

very subtly tries to rescue Abu Haniah rom Hana i scholars who are engaged

in a ‘sel-contained discourse’, where the fqh is presented ‘with reerence to

itsel rather than its sources’, a partial and anachronistic understanding o

fqh that is severed rom reality.

Equally unique is the author’s discussion on the development o the

sciences o H ad i th. One o the major drawbacks, that this reviewer has noticed

in some traditional Islamic circles, is that people tend to treat the works o

the scholars as i they were all written in the same era; working with the same

hermeneutical devices and employing terminologies that are ossifed in time.

This kind o attitude towards the sources leads to misunderstanding and

unounded criticism, as the author has shown. Abu Haniah cannot be blamedor ollowing a had i th deemed to be weak by later standards i those standards

were not available in his day and age. I the Hana i School is ounded upon

those standards used by Abu Haniah, then it is not air to judge the actions

o its ollowers through later developments. This is a very important subject

as it will put a lot o minds at ease as to why Abu Haniah does not, seemingly,

ollow sound H ad i th.

This reviewer has a ew personal observations. One does not get an inkling o

the author’s opinion regarding the authorship o a l-Fiqh al-Akbar . Abu Zahrah

opines that some o the topics discussed in the work seem to have developedater Abu Haniah. It would have been interesting to see how the author reacts

to this assertion. The author very brilliantly sheds light on Abu Haniah as a

H ad i th scholar. However, this discussion would have been urther enhanced

i the author addressed the common cliché that Abu Haniah knew only 17

had i ths. An assumption that stems rom a comment made by Ibn Khaldun

in his Prolegomena (although Ibn Khaldun does indicate it is a weak claim by

using the passive perective verb qi la). A section on the H ad i th works o the

school would have nicely complemented the legacy o Abu Haniah. Finally,

Radd al-Mukht ar should read Radd al-Muht ar (p.111).



The Muslim World Book Review, 31:4, 2011 31

The author has successully delivered his promise to understand why and

how Abu Haniah came to deserve the title al-Imam al-A[zam; it now remains

the duty o the scholars to appreciate Abu Haniah’s teachings by trying to

understand the Qur’a n and Sunnah holistically in both letter and spirit.

Cariff University M. Mansur Ali

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Review of Abu Hanifah - His Life, Legal Method and Legacy