Imam Abu Hanifa - His Life, Opinions and Fiqh

his knowledge. When I had got what I wanted and desired to depart, I told him, ‘I fear that you will have
hostile and envious people telling you things about Abu Hanifa which do not tally with his true position. I
want to make his position clear to you. If you are pleased with it, that is it. If you have something better, I will
learn it.’ ‘Go ahead,’ he replied. I said, ‘He does not consider a believer to be an unbeliever on account of
committing a sin.’ He said, ‘He did well,’ or ‘He was correct.’ I said, ‘He said more than that. He used to say,
“Even if he commits atrocious actions, I do not consider him an unbeliever.”’ He said, ‘He was correct.’ I
went on, ‘He says more.’ ‘What is that?’ he asked, ‘He said, “Even if he kills a man deliberately, I do not
consider him an unbeliever.”’ He said, ‘He was correct.’ I said, ‘This is his position. If someone tells you
otherwise, do not believe him.’” (al-Makki, pt. 2, p. 77)
Some people misconstrued his position and he explained this in al-Fiqh al-Akbar: “We do not say that sins
do not harm the believer nor do we say that he will not enter the Fire. We do say that he will not be in it for
eternity, even if he is a deviant, provided he leaves this world a believer. We do not say that his good deeds
are accepted and his evil ones forgiven as the Murji’ites sayÉ He is subject to the will of Him who will punish
him in the Fire if He wills and forgive him if He wills.”
We can state that the disagreement regarding people who commit major sins has three branches. One are
those groups who do not consider them believers at all – the Kharijites and Mu‘tazilites. The second are those
who say that disobedience is not harmful when there is belief and that Allah forgives all sins – the
blameworthy Murji’ites. The third are the majority of scholars who say that a rebel is not an unbeliever and
that a good action is multiplied ten times and that an evil deed is only counted as one, and that the pardon of
Allah is not limited or confined. Abu Hanifa was one of these; and it is the opinion of the majority of
Muslims, which would make the majority of Muslims Murji’ites by this definition. The term Murji’ites,
however, is normally confined to the second group.
Qadar and a man’s actions
Abu Hanifa was very perceptive and that is why he refused to become involved with the topic of qadar and
encouraged his companions to follow the same course. When Yusuf ibn Khalid as-Samti came to him from
Basra, Abu Hanifa said to him about the question of qadar, “This is a question which is difficult for people.
How should they be capable of understanding it? It is a lock whose key is lost. If the key is found, what is in it
will be known. It is only opened when someone is informed by Allah.”
When the Qadarites came to argue with him about qadar, he said, “Do you not know that someone who
looks into qadar is like someone who looks into the rays of the sun: the more he looks, the more his confusion
increases. But you do not stop at this point. You carry on until you equate the decree and justice. How is it
that Allah decrees all things and they happen according to His decree and yet people reckon that what happens
is by their own actions.” They said to him, “Can any of the creatures bring about in the kingdom of Allah
something he did not decree?” “No,” he replied, “but there are two aspects to the decree (qada’): command
and power. He decided for them and decreed unbelievers but did not command it, and indeed forbade it. There
are two commands: the existential, which is when he commands a thing to be, and the command of
Relevation.”
This is an excellent, precise distinction by Abu Hanifa. He separated the decree from qadar and made the
decree what Allah had ruled which is brought by Divine Revelation and qadar what His power makes occur.
He decreed what would be from before time. Responsibility is according to Revelation while actions occur
according to the decree before time. The command has two categories: bringing into existence and imposing
obligation. The second category has a reward in the Next World.
The History of Baghdad reports that Abu Yusuf said: “I heard Abu Hanifa say, ‘When you speak to the
Qadarite, there are two possibilities: either he is silent or he disbelieves.’ He was asked, ‘Did Allah know in
His prior knowledge that these things would be as they are?’ He said, ‘Someone who responds to such a
quetion has disbelieved. If he says, “Yes,” is it that He wills that it be as He knows or did He will it to be
different from what He knows?’ If he says, “He wants it to be as He knows,” then he avers that He desires
belief from the believer and disbelief from the unbeliever. If he says, “He wants it to be different from what
He knows,” he makes the Lord unable to achieve what He wants because He desires the existence of that
which He knows will not be. A person who affirms that is an unbeliever.’”
In summary, Abu Hanifa used to deal with this question in a restrained way. He believed in the decree of
good and evil and the comprehensiveness of Allah’s knowledge, will and power in created beings. None of a
person’s actions are independent of Allah’s will even though man’s acts of obedience and disobedience are