Imam Abu Hanifa - His Life, Opinions and Fiqh

Groups of Magians, Sabaeans, Jews and Christians and others entered Islam, their minds still full of the
teachings of those religions, and their understanding of Islam necessarily being filtered through them. Some
pretended to have faith out of fear of the ruler, concealing their old belief, and began to try to corrupt the
Muslims’ deen, to make them doubt their own beliefs, and to introduce ideas and opinions for which Allah
had given no authority. The fruits of their efforts appeared: there were anthropomorphists, zindiqs and many
other groups. The Mu‘tazilites tried to defend Islam, and their Five Tenets were the result of their sharp
debates with their opponents. The tenet of Tawhid was formulated to refute the anthropomorphists; Justice
was to refute the Jahmites; the Promise and Threat was to refute the Murji’ites; and the Position between the
Two Positions was to refute the Kharijites who said that anyone who commits a sin was unbeliever.
The khalif’s patronage of the Mu‘tazilites
The Mu‘tazilites appeared at the time of the Umayyads but the Umayyads did not oppose them because
they did not provoke any discord or declare war. They were a group who took no action beyond thinking,
countering evidence with evidence and proof with proof, and analysing matters by sound criteria. They did not
involve themselves in politics – their weapons were exposition and proof, not swords. Al-Mas‘udi reported
that Yazid II espoused their tenets.
When the Abbasids came to power, heresy and the zindiqs had become a flood and the khalif found in the
Mu‘tazilites a sword to employ against zindiqs and left them to combat heresy. When al-Ma’mun came to
power, he took their side and brought them near to him. He saw that there was a disagreement between them
and the fuqaha’, and thought that debates between the two groups would result in the emergence of a single
point of view, but he was completely wrong in this.
Al-Ma’mun then sought to use the power of the state to force the fuqaha’ and hadith scholars to adopt the
opinion of the Mu‘tazilites on the Qur’an. This is not the proper role of the state. If it is forbidden to force
people to embrace the deen, how can they be forced to accept a tenet the denial of which does not constitute
disbelief? He tried to force the fuqaha’ to declare that the Qur’an was created. Some of them complied out of
taqiyya and fear, not true belief and adherence, while others endured violence, humiliation and long
imprisonment and would not say anything other than what they believed.
That inquisition lasted after al-Ma’mun through the khalifates of al-Mu‘tasim and al-Wathiq. Al-Wathiq
tried to coerce people to deny that Allah will be seen – another orthodox position denied by the Mu‘tazilites.
When al-Mutawakkil came to power, this inquisition stopped, and things were allowed to take their course
and opinions to evolve naturally, and people were left to choose their own position regarding these matters.
The position of the Mu‘tazilites among their contemporaries
The fuqaha’ and hadith scholars attacked the Mu‘tazilites and so they were caught between strong
opponents on either side: the zindiqs and those like them on one side, and the fuqaha’ and hadith scholars on
the other. One can see in the arguments and discussions of the fuqaha’ that they pilloried the Mu‘tazilites at
every opportunity. One hears ash-Shafi‘i, Ibn Hanbal and others criticising the science of kalam and those
who took knowledge through the method of the mutakallimun. Why did the fuqaha’ dislike the Mu‘tazilites
when both groups were trying to support the deen and did not spare any efforts in its defence? It seems that
there were a number of factors which combined to produce such enmity.
The suspicions of the fuqaha’ and hadith scholars
The fuqaha’ and hadith scholars were strong opponents of the Mu‘tazilites and suspected them of
deviation. Ash-Shaybani gave a fatwa that anyone who prayed behind a Mu‘tazilite had to repeat the prayer.
Imam Abu Yusuf considered them zindiqs. Imam Malik would not accept the testimony of any of them. They
were suspected of corruption and committing haram acts. In fact, the Mu‘tazilite school embraced all sorts of
individuals.