Imam Abu Hanifa - His Life, Opinions and Fiqh

with the behaviour of the people. This makes it clear, without a doubt, that he accepted the consensus of the
mujtahids in general and was strong in following that. It appears that the consensus which counts as evidence
with the fuqaha’ has three pillars:
• The Companions sometimes exercised ijtihad regarding questions which were presented to them. In
many cases which arose where public well-being was concerned, ‘Umar would consult them and opinions
would be exchanged. When they agreed, that would be his policy. If they differed, they argued until they
reached something on which they agreed.
• In the era of ijtihad, every Imam used to strive not to have divergent positions contrary to those of the
other fuqaha’ of his land so that he would not be considered aberrant in his thinking. Abu Hanifa was firm
in following that on which there was consensus between the earlier fuqaha’ of Kufa. Malik, likewise, put
the consensus of the people of Madina before single traditions.
• There are also traditions which confirm the evidentiary nature of consensus like the words of the
Prophet, “My Community will never agree on misguidance,” and “What the Muslims see as good is good
in the sight of Allah.”
Analogy
We have mentioned that if Abu Hanifa did not find a text in the Book, Sunna or fatwas of the Companions,
he exercised ijtihad and opinion to ascertain the different aspects to be examined in the question under review.
Sometimes he was guided by analogy and sometimes by istihsan – the best interests of people and lack of
harm in the deen. He used analogy unless doing do would lead to something unseemly and not in keeping with
people’s behaviour, in which case he would use istihsan. People’s behaviour was his guide in both istihsan
and analogy.
The analogy which Abu Hanifa mostly used was defined by scholars after him in a general definition: to
explain the ruling about a matter without a text by ruling it according to something whose ruling is known by
the Book, Sunna or consensus since both matters share the same underlying cause.
Abu Hanifa’s ijtihad and his method in understanding the hadiths, coupled with the environment in which
he lived, made him use a lot of analogy and ramify secondary rulings accordingly, because in his ijtihad, Abu
Hanifa did not stop at investigating the rulings of problems which had actually occurred but would extend his
reasoning to rulings in respect of problems which had not occurred. He would theorise in order to be prepared
for circumstances before they occurred so as to be ready to deal with them.
Thus Abu Hanifa’s method in understanding texts led to using a lot of analogy since it is not enough to
recognise simply what the rulings indicate. One must know the events which formed the context of the text
and how it was intended to benefit people and the reasons behind it, as well as any peculiarities which might
affect the rulings. It is only on this basis that analogy can be correct.
He used to ascertain the circumstances in which an ayat had been revealed. He studied those questions
whose legal reasons were mentioned in hadith until he was considered the best of those who explain hadiths,
because he did not confine himself to the outward sense but explained the intentions underlying the outward
sense and what the hadiths indicated. The fact that there were not a great number of hadiths to be found in
Iraq also compelled him to make more extensive use of analogy than he might otherwise have done.
Abu Hanifa divided texts into two categories: those dealing with worship in which case he did not
investigate the reasons behind the rulings because analogy was of no use in them, and those dealing with
matters of this world. In these texts he would attempt to infer the underlying reason which could then be
applied to other cases.
Istihsan (Discretion)
Abu Hanifa used istihsan a lot as we have noted previously. The great amount of the use of istihsan by
Abu Hanifa was the focus for the attack of those who criticised its worth in fiqh. Some fiercely attacked the
use of istihsan, and Abu Hanifa and his followers for using it, because they regarded it as allowing a ruling to