The Hanafi School of Jurisprudence is as per the Holy Quran and Hadith

 

The Hanafi School of Jurisprudence is as per the Holy Quran and Hadith

An incident from the annals of Islamic history

 

In a city in Iraq, some Hadith-experts of that city, out of prejudice, washed away the books of Imam Azam Abu Hanifa (May Allah be well pleased with him).  This reached Khalid bin Sabeeh, the judge of the city.  He took 50 of his associates, all of whom were worthy of being judges themselves and rode to that place.  They questioned Fadhl bin Sahl about this.  He wrote about this to the Caliph Mamun. 

 

Mamun inquired:  Who are those people who have committed this act?  He was told:  A couple of young men, but Nadhr bin Shumail is also among them.  Mamun gave the order:  Both the groups should be brought before me to debate.  I will myself judge whose proofs are stronger. 

 

This news reached those people.  They thought that Nadhr bin Shumail cannot talk to the caliph and eventually decided that Ahmad bin Zubair should speak to the caliph.

 

At the appointed time, both the groups were present in the court.  The caliph entered, greeted everyone with Salaam and said:  Why did you wash away the books of Abu Hanifa (May Allah be well pleased with him)?

 

Nadhr bin Shumail did not answer.

 

Ahmad bin Zubair entreated:  O Commander of the faithful!  May I speak?

 

Mamun said:  If you can speak nicely, do so.

 

Ahmad said:  We found his books against the Holy Quran and Hadith.

 

Mamun asked:  On which point?

 

Ahmad asked Khalid bin Sabeeh:  What does Abu Hanifa (May Allah be well pleased with him) say about this issue?  Khalid bin Sabeeh described the opinion of Abu Hanifa (May Allah be well pleased with him).  Then Ahmad bin Zubair presented a Hadith which (apparently) went against the opinion of the Imam.

 

On hearing this, Mamum himself quoted several Hadith that supported the opinion of the Imam.  They had not even heard of those Hadith.

 

When the debate went on for a long time and Ahmad bin Zubair and his group was silenced, Mamun said:  If we had found jurisprudence (Fiqh) to be against the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), we wouldn’t have allowed anyone to act on it.  Then Mamun warned them:  Don’t you dare do anything of this sort again.  If this elder (Nadhr bin Shumail) wasn’t there among you, I would have punished you so severely that you would never have forgotten it.

 

[Excerpted from Haqeeqatul Fiqh, Vol. 2]