Mohammad Badawy – The Legendary Imam Abu Hanifa
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AI: Transcript ©
Good?
Should we start?
We begin the name of Allah
and we send peace and blessings upon the
prophet Muhammad
and his wives and family members and companions
and all those who follow their footsteps asking
Allah to make us amongst them. And
we praise
Allah and we seek his guidance and his
forgiveness.
However,
Allah chooses to guide, none can lead astray.
And whoever Allah chooses to lead astray, none
can guide. And we bear witness that he's
the only one worthy of our
worship and complete love and obedience
alone without any partners and that the prophet
Muhammad was
his final prophet and messenger
So what's
the what's the topic? What are you doing?
Should should I just go home?
I
mean
what was what was the topic? Who knows?
Yes, sir.
I heard prophets, Muslim people,
and that's it. You're a little bit far.
Say say it in, like, 4 words.
Go ahead.
Nice. Okay. He got it. Someone look that
up. Yes, Hamza.
He already got it, bro. What do you
have to say?
Oh, no. It's not me that detailed. I've
that'd be a little too much,
but,
it's called legends of Islamic history. What we
decided
to do over the next few weeks,
look at prominent figures in Islamic history,
people that we can learn lessons from,
people that are heroes.
You know, one time I was with,
I was in Islamic school, and a child
came from kindergarten.
And,
he had a workbook, you know, coloring book
that said art my heroes.
The title of the coloring book was my
heroes. Right?
And,
you open the book, it's like Abraham Lincoln,
Martin Luther King, and a bunch of other
people from American history. Right?
And,
these people have some merits, of course, but
for a Muslim child, my heroes
should be a completely different category.
Because
the people we look up to, the people
we want to follow, the people that we
want to be like in this world, and
more importantly, in the hereafter,
have different defining characteristics. Right? They have different
they're they're of a different category than everyone
else, and that's why they're our heroes. That's
why we want to be like them. Because
anyone else is a human being like me.
Right? A male or a female just like
me, who, they may have good qualities and
they have bad ones. And that's all human
beings.
But
there's a elite class of people that we
look up to
that we
know for sure
of their status as human beings. They're successful.
They are people of Jannah. They are people
who are, you know, who have fulfilled their
purpose in life. They are people who have
done it right. And those, 1st and foremost,
are the prophets. Right? The prophets of Allah,
who he hand chose,
handpicked to relay his message and the perfect
way of life to mankind.
And then after that is the companions.
The companions of the prophet Muhammad because again,
their faith, their success
has been attested to and stamped by Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and his messenger
Then after that, we have people who
didn't have their faith attested to the way
the prophets did or the companions did after
them and to a lesser degree. But they
followed these other 2 categories to the best
of their ability. That's what's apparent to us
as people coming later who are analyzing their
life.
So we won't be talking about the first
two categories. There's gonna be there's no discussion
of prophets
or of companions of the prophet Muhammad alaihi
wasalam.
And that's what I want to begin with,
that the most important thing, the most important
biography
is the biography of the prophet.
And that's all over the Quran, where Allah
subhanahu tells us the stories of Adam, Nuh,
Ibrahim, Shoaib, Salih, Hud. Also that we can
see that this is the perfection of humanity,
and this is these are the ultimate role
models. These these stories we should know, we
should memorize, we should teach to each other,
we should mention frequently the same other same
way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does in
the Quran.
And,
so that's the first category. The second category
was the companions of Muhammad
So,
in what we're going to do in the
next few weeks, inshallah, we won't be talking
about any prophets or any companions. And the
reason why not is because
the first reason is their stories
are, the especially the prophets are generally well
known. Right? There's, of course, a lot of
details that people don't know, but I encourage
you and your families to look it up
on your own stories of the prophets by
Ibn Kathir or Life of the Prophet series
by so many speakers out there that you,
you should revisit time and again to speak
to to to mention with your family. So
we won't be mentioning the prophets, 1, because
they're generally well known. And the companions, even
though they're not generally well known, many of
them or most of them, or even the
famous ones, their lives are not as well
known as they should be, they would generally
take longer than one sitting. We might be
doing 7, you know, because we have we're
together for the next 7 or 8 weeks,
inshallah, every Friday.
It'll probably take 7 or 8 just to
do, like, a.
And if I were to condense it if
we were to condense it together, then it'll
be short changing. We don't, you know, it
won't be fulfilling the purpose. So instead, what
we chose to do is
prominent figures throughout Islamic history besides the prophets
and besides the Because generally, their stories are
shorter. It's easy to get into one sitting,
and, they're generally unknown.
There's gonna be a lot of names that
you've heard before, maybe snapshots, maybe certain stories.
But in general, their lives are unknown. Their
contribution is unknown. Their time periods are unknown.
So for that reason, inshallah, this is what
we're going to be dealing in together.
So the best inspiration, the most encouraging again,
I know I rambled a little bit. But
the best thing inspiration, the most encouragement, the
strongest reminder you'll ever get is in the
stories of the prophets,
especially our own prophet, Muhammad
who we have,
perhaps very likely the most detailed biography of
any human ever available for us. And then
their companions, that's the best reminder. That's the
best encouragement.
Just know that before we begin into the
other figures that we're going to be doing.
So
and this is what Allah subhanahu tells us
himself. He says
And each story that we relate to you,
oh Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, from the
news of the messengers
is that by which we make firm your
heart. All of these stories we're telling you,
it's so your heart can become firm, steadfast.
And there has come to you in this,
in the Quran, meaning the truth and an
instruction and a reminder for the believers. And
he also says
There was certainly in their stories, meaning the
stories of the prophet.
Specific in this story of Yusuf that's being
mentioned here, a lesson for the people of
understanding. So this is the stories of the
prophets. We shouldn't sleep on them. We shouldn't,
you know,
neglect them. And I I felt that we
should mention
this disclaimer before we begin, that those stories
are the most important and you should revisit
them time and again.
So
with that being mentioned now, we will begin
with the,
first personality that we'll cover today.
And like many of the personalities, inshallah, that
we'll cover, we do not have a full
cover to cover biography. And some of them
that we do have full cover to cover
are generally available. We still will not be
mentioning it because, again, that will take too
long, and, that's not the purpose of what
we wanna do here. What what you should
be intending to leave here with is a
little bit of knowledge about this personality that
we'll cover,
and more importantly, the
star qualities that they have. You should be
going home after hearing them and wondering how
can I implement them?
How can I put that in my life?
How can I take one of these qualities
that this person has
and try to implement it in my life
where it becomes my habit, it becomes my
characteristic, it come becomes part of who I
am? Because that's what we're trying to gain
from these stories.
So the first personality that we're covered we're
covering inshallah is
Sound familiar?
Sounds familiar? Does?
Who who heard of a no man in
the Sabbath, ibn Zutah ibn Marzuban? And no
man, the son of Sabbath, the son of
Zutah, the son of Marzuban.
Not familiar?
Pretty sure everyone here knows him.
Yes, sir.
Well, that's not fair.
You you you you're familiar with that. I
want to give everyone else a chance. That's
cool. I appreciate it. It's like. It's Abu
Hanifa. This is Abu Hanifa's name. He's a
no man, ibn Saabit, ibn Zutta, ibn Marzuban,
and some people say Zutta and Marzuban are
the same person, his grandfather.
And, and in general, his name,
you'll find some
discrepancy if you look up in the history
books. They switch some names around or they
they might divide one name to 2 like
they did Zutar Marzuban. And the reason for
that is,
some say that his grandfather, Marzuban slash Zutar,
he changed his name. He abracized it. He
or found the Arabic equivalent or Arabic alternative
when he became Muslim.
And some say it was his father, Saibat,
who became Muslim.
And,
either way,
he was born in Islam. Right? This is
the point that whether it was his father
or his grandfather that became Muslim, he was
born into Islam. And they were from Kabul,
modern day Afghanistan.
May Allah,
rid of oppression and give victories to Muslims
there,
And,
he was born in the year 80 after
the hijrah. 80 years after the hijra.
What does what does that mean to you?
What what year did the prophet die?
Yes, sir.
14? No.
11 hija. Prophet died 11 years after the
hija. So
he was born 80 years after the hija.
So way after the death of the prophet
and the the scholars differed
whether,
whether he
whether to consider him a full or not.
The are the people who met the companions,
who witnessed the time of the companions,
and they differ on how many companions he
met. They go up to, like, 6, 7,
maybe a little bit more, but they for
sure agree that he met at least 1
anisid malic. And the reason why they differ
if he was a Tebir or not, the
people who believe he only met anisid malic
is because they believe he just saw him.
Like, he didn't get to sit with him
or study with him, so they felt hesitant
about including him in the generation of Tabi'in.
Just as we'll be mentioning that a lot,
to break it down once so we don't
have to do it again, what is his
hobby?
Because, you know, the field of personality I
mentioned, we'll be talking a lot about Tabi'in
Tabi'in. How do we make this difference? What's
his hobby?
Okay. So that's the general meaning of the
word sahab. Right? A friend, a companion. But
the the title of sahabi, the sahaba of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So you're
right. Sahabi is a companion, a friend. So
if I say Sahabi, that's my friend. Right?
My companion. But if I say
that has a different meaning. Yes, sir.
In his
lifetime and became Muslim
and did not return to kufr. That's generally
what they'll say. You'll find some other,
qualification. Someone who met the prophet while he
was still alive, like, in his lifetime, he
was not someone who never he is someone
who witnessed him and became Muslim in that
lifetime,
in the lifetime of the prophet and did
not become did not return to kuf after
Islam. Because there's some people who met him
became Muslim but returned to kuf
afterwards. Some of them came back, some of
them didn't. Some of them met him
and became Muslim, but not in his lifetime.
After his death, that his whole lifetime, they
were not Muslim. They became Muslim later. So
these people are not considered companions. That's a
companion. Anyone who sees a companion, who witnesses
the lifetime of a companion, is considered a
which means those who follow. And those who
never met the prophet
or the companions, but they met the they're
called
the those who followed the followers. So we
have these three categories, the sahaba,
the and the Why does this matter? Why
is this important at all?
Why do we care?
Because the prophet said that the quality of
the 3 generations
Excellent. The prophet
said The best generation is my generation. Meaning,
these people here, the sahaba. Allah hand shows
them in another narration to accompany his messenger
to be his supporters and to be his
helpers and to be the initial believers and
to lay down the sacrifice so that mean
you can be Muslim today 1400 years later
in a masjid in America. They did that.
That was through their effort by the will
of Allah
So they're the best of generations. Then
he said,
then the generation after,
then the generation after that, after the that
first generation. So these are the first two
generations, he said, that's
in order of preference with Allah. It's the
best generation, then the ones after, then the
ones after the and those after. So he's
from the It's agreed generally agreed upon that
he met at least and
there's narration that he met up to 7
or 8 other companions. Some of them are
disputed.
Nonetheless,
he
his his grandfather or his father moved from
Kabul to Kufa, which is in Iraq, Al
Kufa.
And there, he was born in the year
80 after the hijrah.
And, he resides there for the majority of
his life except for a few years where
he lived in Mecca until the year 150.
So how long did he live for? 80
to 150?
70. This is just like a wake up
test to make sure that, you know so
for 70 years,
So he was like I said, he was
born in Islam in Kufa, which is about
a 100 miles or so away from Iraq.
And, he was
he was initially
occupied with his trade, which was
cloth. He worked in cloth. He was a
tradesman of cloth. He'd buy cloth and he
would trade them. So this was the profession
of his grandfather and his father and he
heard that thereby. And initially, that's what he
busied his self with. He says that by
himself, I started taking knowledge very, very late.
When they start taking knowledge,
he was 22 years old.
So for him, he said that was just,
like, you know, pass me a lifetime. And
there's many narrations of some of the the
people the scholars, you'll see that they consider
this very late. They considered starting seek knowledge
the proper time was in childhood, right, when
the mind is still fresh, it's still empty,
it's not being crowded with any other knowledge.
So
there's more than one narration about him starting
to seek knowledge. He says about himself,
that he was busy with trade and spent
most of his time in the markets,
seeking very little knowledge, like, maybe
a lecture here or there he would. But
generally, he was busy in the market, and
that's what he used to do.
That's what he was preoccupied with with his
trade, his trade of cost. So he says
one time, when he was heading towards the
market, he ran past Ahmed al Shaabi, and
he's one of the, famous scholars of the
older Tabbein. Right? So Hanifa is late Tabbein.
This is one of the early Tabbein.
And he told him, where are you going?
What are you going to do? He says,
I'm going to the market for my trade.
I'm gonna work. So he tells him,
you know, you spend a lot of time
in the market
and very little time seeking knowledge.
So how about you go seek knowledge? He's
very direct about it. He already there he
already knew him, so he told him, instead
of going to the market so much, why
not instead you go to seek knowledge? Then
he told him this, he said, because I
see
I see in you alertness
and movement, enthusiasm meaning. You're an enthusiastic person
who's smart. That's what he always telling him.
Go seek knowledge.
So he's noticing Abu Khalifa's good qualities and
he's telling him you should invest those in
Islamic learning, the best investment of any type
of talent, because that's where your talent will
flourish the most, and you'll help people the
most, most likely. So this is what he
told him. So he says, from there,
I began to seek the circles of knowledge.
Subhanallah. That's what it was. One of the
scholars, the teacher told him, you're a smart
enthusiastic person. Go seek Islam of knowledge. That'd
be good. That's a good idea. And that
encouraged him. And he mentioned in another
narration that he used to learn the knowledge
of Kalam.
What is kalam? So kalam in general means
speech, but here it's being used to reference,
like, rhetoric
or philosophy.
These are all like loose translations. It's basically,
the rhetoric
that, you know, was imported from mostly, you
know, western thinking, like Greek and Roman thinking.
And there's a lot of, they used it
for debate. They used it in philosophy.
And it's in general, if you look at
translation's rhetoric, which I know doesn't say much,
but basically,
debate, philosophy, and these kind of things. So
he said I used to spend that time
spend a lot of time learning that stuff,
and, you know, that you'll find a lot
of,
quotes in Islamic history denouncing that type of
knowledge.
Because a lot of people started in it,
and then they ended up down the wrong
path. They kind of, you know,
ran with it too much, and they it
clashed with
the tenants of our Islamic faith. Some of
it does. So when they ran with it,
they ended up,
introducing it into our faith system, our belief
of aqidah, our belief of creed, and that
clashed with, you know, with with with what
we were taught to believe, with what Allah
revealed to us.
So for that reason, you'll find a lot
of scholars who,
denounce it,
and they,
they have a lot of disgrace for it.
But it's important to know that's not all
of one category.
There's a lot of it that is just
simple logic. Right? Simple arguments
that,
that is very present in Islamic learning. It's
very present in Islamic creed, very present in
Islamic and and how to derive rulings. So
not all of it is the same, but
nonetheless, he used to study it, the debate,
the rhetoric, so that he can debate
deviant groups. Like in in his time, the
Khwarej were very
apparent. They are very present. They are very
on the scene, causing atrocities,
killing people,
arguing, debating with others, converting people to their
cause, and they were a very extreme branch
that continues till today that's part of the
fitna of this Umma. So he would debate
with them and and,
you know, prove them wrong, show them the
holes in the arguments.
Despite not being a scholar yet, this is
what he would do. And one time when
he was in the Masjid al Kufa, a
woman came, and she saw him, so she
assumed he's, you know, a religious figure or
a sheikh or something. So she asked him
a question about divorce.
Complicated fifth question that he didn't know the
answer to, so he told her go ask
that man over there, the the real sheikh
of the masjid.
And that man was, Hammad
ibn Abi Suleyman. Hammad ibn Abi Suleyman also
one of the older tabi'il.
So she went to that man and she
asked him the question and he heard the
answer. And he was impressed by the way
Hammad answered.
He was impressed by
the knowledge of silk and his style and
his and his own, you know, scholarship by
of of, Al Hammad ibn Abhisulayman.
So he said, I need to learn this
stuff. This looks you know, it sounds very
impressive. It sounds very useful, and he was
very impressed by it. So he said, I
stuck with Hamed
until he died after that for the next
18 to 20 years.
And then one last narration he says about
himself, how he began to acknowledge that,
obviously, in in in tandem with all these
other events that he sat to himself one
day, and he you know, after studying a
little bit of kalam, the rhetoric, and the
debate, and he was a very good debater,
he wants to increase his own knowledge. So
he began to sift through the types of
knowledge that were available. He looked at Arabic
grammar. He looked at poetry. He looked at
kalam even further, and he felt that he
didn't like the fruit of these sciences. He
said then he he said about himself, they
are not the most useful. They're not the
most productive, and he some of them have
an evil end. The people who delve into
them too much, like the poets and the
people, like, we already mentioned, the people of
Kalem, they didn't they weren't the best of
people sometimes very often. So then he began
to look at Islamic sciences. He passed by
Hadith. He passed by tafsir. He passed by
qara'at,
And he's still after looking at all of
them, he says he felt that fiqh was
the most useful.
He says when I looked at the fiqh,
and more importantly, the fuqaha, the teachers of
fiqh, the scholars of Islamic knowledge, of Islamic
rulings, I was so impressed by their knowledge
and by their manners, the way they sat,
the way they talk, the way they were
patient. So he said, I need to become
like that.
Right? I need to become a scholar. I
need to learn silk. This is the,
best
investment of my time and, you know, my
I wanna make this my legacy. So that's
what he did, Rahmahullah.
And like we're saying earlier, his what was
the job? What was his profession?
He's a cloth trader. Right? So he would
trade in cloth and he inherited that business
from his father. And on top of that,
when his father died, he inherited his fortune.
So he inherited
200,000 dirham.
Dirham is a silver coin.
To bring it into perspective,
12 dirham is 1 dinar.
That helps. Right? It makes it perfectly clear.
One One dinar is a gold coin.
Still doesn't help. Right? This will help maybe.
3 dirham gets you a sheep, approximately.
3 to 5 dirham at that time gets
you a sheep. So he has 200,000.
How many sheep is that?
A lot. That's that's that's simplification, man. This
guy's going places. He's like, who cares? That's
a lot. That's what matters. He's right, though.
It's a lot of sheep. Right? 1000. So
that's roughly,
at least someone did the math?
68,000?
Wow. So that's a lot of sheep. You
know? How much is the sheep around here?
Since we're here, I mean, we wanted to
depends on its age. That's true. Right? $300.
So that's, like, a couple of $1,000,000. Right?
So he was he was rich.
And
he inherited 200,000 silver coins, 1,000,000 of dollars,
couple of 1,000,000 at least.
And he hears a narration
attributed to Ali
where he suggested it's not hadith. It's just
his own, you know, input, his own,
analysis.
He says that a Muslim never needs more
than 4,000 dirham to live.
Like, just life won't cost more than 4,000
dirham, the food and the drink and all
the groceries. This is his point of view.
So when you heard that, he takes 196,000
and he donates it to charity.
He said, Ali Abduhanu said I only need
4,000, I will live on 4,000.
And he donated the other 9 196,000
to, you know, widows and poor people to
feed the needy, to help other students of
knowledge, other scholars. And from then on, because
he continues his trade, he would live off
of 2 dirham
per month. It's not even enough for 1
sheep. Right? We said 1 is 3 to
5. So he'd live off of 200 dirhamdas
as continuous income, and out of that 200
k, he only kept 4,000.
So this shows you from the beginning, and
we'll get to some, you know, other religious
characteristic of his, his asceticism. He He was
an interest in wealth. Despite being a trader,
having a fortune, having inheritance,
this was not his you know, when he
found the fiqh, when he found the eir,
he completely
jumped into it. And that's the first lesson
that we see here. That
the the scholars say about Islamic
learning, if when you give it your all,
it'll give you some.
So what if you give it some? What
will you get?
Nothing.
Islamic learning needs your all. This is the
nature of it. Doesn't mean, oh, if you
can't become a full time, you know, student
of knowledge and go to the desert and
learn at the foot of the sheikh, don't
even bother. That's not what I mean. But
it just means from inside, the drive, that
intention has to be a 100%.
What's your time like? What's your finances like?
Your family situation? What's available? That will change
from person to person. Your own capabilities that
Allah gave you, that will change. But the
drive inside
is
the equal playing field. All of us are
the same. Who will have more drive? Has
nothing to do with where I'm from, what
language I speak, or my background, or what's
available to me.
The drive is something inside of you that
can earn you a lot more
than physical actions, than reading and flipping pages.
So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us
sincere in our drive for knowledge and our
intentions to seek this knowledge for his sake.
So
his drive was a 100%.
And there's another point I wanna stop on
here is that he used to continue his
trade even after he began to seek knowledge.
He gave it his all and, you know,
knowledge became his main thing, but he continued
his trade part time. Even though if you
read the descriptions of his day, which we'll
get to, you can't imagine when he'd have
the time to go to the market. But
he'd still continue it and sometimes he'd invest
in other people's business and whatnot
because he wanted to,
besides continuously spending on the poor, he wanted
to earn from his own hands. And this
is
a very Islamic concept. The prophet said, there's
many a hadith.
One
he said He said
a man doesn't earn any better earning than
what he earns with his own hands.
Meaning, he doesn't have to rely on others.
He doesn't have to rely on health or
a handout. He's earning with his own hands.
He didn't say he he didn't say anything
about the amount or the value, but he
said the best earnings you can earn is
that which you earn with your own hand.
Then he said, salallahu alaihi salam,
and whatever a man spends upon himself,
meaning that he needs, like food, drink, shelter,
or his wife, his family, or his children,
or his servants, except that will be counted
for him as a salakah, as a charity.
So some people, you know, they're not in
the position to give charity. They don't have
the finances to continuously give charity or give
him big amounts as you see others do.
Well, here he's telling us
just by spending on your needs,
just by spending on your family, your children,
even your servant, this will be counted as
a sadaqah with Allah
So for many of the righteous, this is
a purposeful practice to make sure that they
don't need to rely on anyone to avoid
any type of salary except what they themselves
earned. This gave them the freedom to preach
as they suffered. You know, no one was
able to twist their arm or or twist
their words with, you know, by dangling a
salary in front of them. And also, they
they believe in the hadith a lot, you
know, a lot stronger than people nowadays see
it, where they really wanted to be completely
free. They didn't want any type of influence
on their fatawa or their teaching.
They didn't
want to be
to to be answerable to any type of
organization
or any type of leader. Not out of
arrogance. Right? Not out of, their just desire
to be to be free. They wanted to
be sure that they're only preaching what they
thought is correct.
They don't want anyone to tell them, hey.
Come say this because
it fits some type of agenda or someone's
personal, you know,
goals. So they wanted to be free to
preach, as much as possible. And later on,
when there was, like, a type of union
between the clergy and the government, you know,
you'll find more scholars accepting a position, but
that's that's a whole other story. Especially in
the beginning, it was something looked down upon.
It's something that most scholars avoided. It was
something that they spoke very strongly about and
and until things changed later on.
So this is his beginning. This is the
his beginning, the beginning of his path.
And, it's also important to note that you
don't know what will set someone off.
Go back to the words of a Shabi.
He told him you're smart, and you're you're
attentive and you're you're enthusiastic.
Go seek knowledge.
You don't know what advice will set someone
down a very significant path, and the share
of the reward will come back to you.
So always be advising with good. Always be
trying to find a way to encourage people.
And it's up to you to find the
right situation, to not be forceful to do
in the correct manner, to make sure that
what you're doing is correct. You gotta do
all that, of course. But at the same
time, keep in mind that should be always
on our mind. I want to advise people.
I want to encourage them to pray or
to not curse or to seek knowledge. Whatever
it may be because that could trigger a
change
that trickles down
generations. How many people has Abu Hanifa influenced?
100 of 1,000,000 if not billions till today
to worship, to, you know,
seek knowledge,
to come closer to Allah through countless means,
through their wealth, through their Hajj, through their
Ramadan. And all of that, inshallah, we expect
is in the scales of a shabi who
told him once upon a time, you're smart
and you're enthusiastic. Go seek Islamic learning, and
that's what he did.
So
like we were saying earlier, he was most
famous
for two things. His silk,
his study of Islamic rulings,
salah, zakah, Hajj, Ramadan, all these things, and
his ability to debate. And he was perhaps
more famous for that because of his,
sharp intellect,
and he was quick witted. He was able
to answer people's questions. He was able to
make connections. He was able to think outside
of the box very quickly. So whenever people
ask him questions, whether in flip or otherwise,
he was quick on his feet. When people
try to corner him in certain situations, as
we'll see, he was able to slip away
because he was quick witted, and he was
very he was a very, strong intellectual. He
was very strong in debate. Imam Malik, who
was one of his students,
more so indirectly, by being a student of
his students, Abu Yusuf and, Muhammad al Shaybani,
he says, I never met such a man
as Abu Hanifa. He would be able to
convince you
that the pillar in front of you in
the masjid meaning wasn't stone, it was gold.
It's in front of you. Oh, man, can
I convince you that that's made out of
gold?
You sit next to it. Right? You just
be like, nope. You didn't even gotta look.
You you probably built it. Right? Or painted
it. So, so
he's he's saying about if you sat with
him, you'd see that he had that strong
of an ability to argue and to debate,
and,
his in fact was that quick and that
strong. He would convince you that it is
gold and then he would go back and
convince you that it's stone again. You would
give up. You say, fine. It's gold. I
have not I don't know what to argue
with you. It's gold. Then he'd go back
at it, and you'd go back to stone,
which you originally knew. Right? So the reason
why people would admit not because they don't
know the difference between gold and stone is
because they had nothing they didn't know how
to disprove
his his argument. That's how strong his arguments
were. Another example of his sharp wit and
his strong intellect and strong ability to to
debate others
is that,
and this, by the way, was the manner
of his teaching. He wouldn't teach as much
as in the traditional sense where he comes,
he reads from a book, or he issues
fataw and people take notes. He would have
more his gathering had many contemporaries just as
much as students. People who are pretty much
equal to him in level. People that he
himself narrated from as teachers in hadith and
other sciences, like Al Amesh
and
and,
as many others, like
Al Amish.
And, we mentioned already Muhammad al Hassan al
Shaybani Abu Yusuf, Duhuda, Tawe, Foleil ibn Ayad.
These are people that you will find in
his own writings or his own works that
he narrates from in other sciences, so they're
almost like his contemporaries as teachers.
So the and he would sit with them
and he would debate with them,
and he would raise an issue and everyone
would say their their piece, and then he
would say his view, and together, they would
come to that conclusion.
And, of course, mostly, they would his view
would be superior. You know, he he would
he was the teacher of the gathering in
his later life later in his life, but
this is his style of teaching. It was
not the traditional,
way that other scholars would do. So in
many times, it's narrated in his gathering that
he would bring an issue,
and everyone knows the ruling already.
This is haram, or this is mister hab,
or this is makru. And then he would
convince some of the other view of other
scholars. He would tell them, well, how about
the view of other scholars? They'll say, well,
we learned that incorrect. Then he would debate
with them proving that view.
Then they'd say, wait,
isn't your view the first view? He'd say,
yes. I just want to show you that
there's, you know, that views can go both
ways.
So they would actually end up being convinced,
but then he would tell them I'm still
part of I still have your view, which
is my original view. I didn't change it.
But he's just showing them that, you know,
especially in there's a lot of things that
are not as written as people teach them
or make them out to be. There's a
lot of leeway to where you put your
hands or how you move your finger or,
you know, the the method in which you
make recourse. So there's a lot of leeway
in the that you say. You know, in
in a lot of these actions,
there's a lot more leeway than we make
it out to be modern day. So he
would he wanted to show them that. It
was narrated in one of his gatherings in
the masjid and the Kufa that,
while he was sitting there teaching with the
student,
they entered one of the Khwarej. We mentioned
them already. Right? The Khwarej, they were very
prominent at that time, especially in Iraq where
he was. And they they made a habit
of, you know,
of what they always do, killing indiscriminately,
oppression,
kicking people out of Islam.
This is this is what they they, you
know, they made their mark doing. So they
would literally go into gatherings where they saw
scholars or they saw students and debate them.
And it's not like people nowadays where if
you if you lose the debate, they just
say, oh, you're you're, you know, you're not
smart or you're you're off the the the
menhij or you're not part of Islam, the
correct Islam, they walk away. No. Then sometimes
if you lost, they'd kill you. Like, it
was it was it's madness. Right? This was
how far gone they were in their deviant.
That if you refused,
to to follow their opinion, you argued against
it, they would deem you a kafir.
And because you're a kafir, your blood is
halal, and your blood is halal, so they
kill you and take your wealth. This was,
you know, shows you the fitna that they
that their their way of thinking,
bread in the ummah
from
then 1300 something years ago until today. May
Allah protect us.
So one of the Khwareji entered into one
of his gatherings, and he had his sword
with him. So they came already looking for
trouble. Alright. This shows you the kind of
personality they had, that they didn't come trying
to do dawah. They came already trying to
excommunicate people, and you see some people like
that today. When they begin to speak to
you,
it's an issue that you differ over. But
you some people, they begin the the the
debate or the argument or the discussion,
not wishing that you would become convinced of
what they see as true. But they're wishing
that you would make that mistake in their
mind that x's you, that throws you off,
or kicks you out, or makes you a
kaffar or whatever.
Right? And this is not the the way
of our prophet Muhammad. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells
him,
You're about to kill yourself. You're losing it.
You're choking over the fact that they are
not accepting your message. They're not accepting Islam.
Allah says we know and, also, Surah, your
your chest is constricting.
He saw it and felt like he couldn't
breathe because people weren't seeing the truth as
truth.
He couldn't he wasn't the the other side
of the spectrum where he can't wait to
excommunicate others. He can't wait to condemn them
to the hellfire. He can't wait to tell
them, you're wrong. I found, you know, your
your your pitfalls. That's not how he was
salallahu alaihi wasalam. That's not how dawah is.
But that's how these people did it. So
one of them entered the masjid,
one of their prominent members, and he had
a sword in his hand. And as soon
as he walked in, he goes to Abu
Hanifa and he tells him,
Tub.
Repent to Allah.
So Abu Hanifa says why? You know, like,
we're just sitting we're sitting in a masjid.
Right? Imagine, so you're you're praying your sunnah
and someone says Tub.
In general, Taba all the time is good.
Right? It's nothing to be offended about. But
the you know, it depends on how it
sets you. Right?
So the man comes and he tells him,
repent to Allah. So alhamani fasten, why? Why
are you why are you telling me this?
So the man told
him, you approved of
Taqim.
So this is this is like, at least,
maybe alhamifa, you know, it's way after he
began technology
holding his own gatherings, which he began to
hold around 40 years of age. So he
began seeking knowledge at 22, have his own
gatherings after 18 to 20 years of seeking
knowledge. So he's at least, you know, 40,
so you could say it's at least,
120
after the hijrah.
So the issue of takim, I'm not gonna
get into it, because it and it might
come again with with other,
historical figures that we speak about, but just
because it's a long story, it's speaking about
the fitna between the tahaba. There's a fitna
between the tahaba,
and majority of the people involved were non
tahaba anyway. That's an important fact to mention.
But the haba were involved on either side,
and the fitna reached to the point where
there was warfare and there was killing. Right?
This is a long story short. You know,
there were human beings at the end of
the day, and, the the the the most
the most stoking of the civil strife and
bringing it to blows was done by the
noncompanion. That's the fact. Right? So but the
bottom line is there was to have on
either side. In one of these battles that
occurred,
and on one side was Ma'awi and the
other side was Ali, and
when the they both didn't wish for bloodshed.
When bloodshed happened,
they quickly struggled to end it to stop
the people from fighting. And one of the
ways that they did that is they agreed
to arbitration.
We'll have an arbitrator sit between us, and
we'll come to a final decision
in which the matter that we're disputing over,
which is a long issue that we won't
get into, will be settled. That way, no
more bloodshed. So when they did that, camps
broke out from
army and from army, and they joined and
made one camp. And they said,
either you're correct or is correct.
If you're correct, then you must fight because
he's wrong, and the one who's correct fights
someone who's wrong. That's in the Quran. Right?
And Ali, if you're correct, if you see
that you're correct, then you must fight to
the death. There's no other option. This was
how rigid and limited their interpretation
of of the Quran was, and we'll see
how how limited it is coming up next,
you know. And and you never,
they never cease to surprise you with how
limited their understanding is and how literal and
how, incorrect it is. But the point is,
this is their understanding. If you're correct, you
must fight to the death. And if you're
correct, you must fight to the death. And
if you're both wrong, then you're both Catholic.
So it's a lose lose. Right? Someone has
to die. This is literally what their mentality
was.
And when, of course, Mu'ali and Ali
and the other companions are alive, they refuse
this logic. They said, no. This is stopping
the bloodshed. This is arbitration that will bring
us closer together. Reunite the ummah. Stop this
strife that's happening.
There's you know, it only makes perfect sense.
It's also in the Quran and the hadith,
but these people, of course, have limited understanding.
When they did that, the people, the Khwarej
of that time declared them as both groups.
You're both agreeing
to man made arbitration over the book of
Allah and the teaching of the messengers
then you're both not Muslims, and everyone who
agrees with you and approves of you will
not be a Muslim. And this became like
their measuring stick.
Even now, we were talking about
at least 120 Hijri, so the fitna was,
you know,
almost a century ago, they're still going to
be on telling them, what do you say
about this event? If You say the wrong
answer, you're a kafir.
That's how it was with them. And that's
how it is till today. They'll bring up
certain issues of the ummah, and they'll mention
it, and, you know, god help you if
you say the wrong answer. They won't be
carrying swords anymore, but they'll probably figure something
out. Right? This this is the the fitna
that we're dealing with. So that's basically what
happened. The man came in and said, repent
to Allah. Abba Hanifa says, why? He says,
because you said what that that the the
arbitration they did was fine. There's nothing wrong
with it.
So Abba Hanifa says, are you here to
kill me or to debate me? I see
that you have a sword. Right? You came
into the messaged with your sword, and you're
making this ruckus. Do you want to debate
or you just came to kill me? Because
I I'm already, right, kafir by your standard.
So the man said, no. I'm here to
debate you, to prove that you're wrong, that
takim was not allowed, and that they committed
kuf, and whoever agrees with it is kafir
as well. So Abba Hanifa says, great. You
want a debate? What if mean you don't
reach a conclusion or debate? Who will
pass judgment on who won?
The man said, I don't care. It doesn't
matter. So Abba Hanifa says, do you agree
for this guy? He's one of the people
that's sitting with them. He will pass judgment
on our debate if we hit a deadlock.
The man says, sure. So Abu Hanifa says
what? The debate is over.
You just agreed
for arbitration.
You guys follow?
Said you just agreed for arbitration by a
man.
When you your whole argument, you're coming to
argument, you're coming to kill me, actually. Because
I I said there's nothing wrong with arbitration.
And you're saying there is, but you just
agreed to arbitration yourself. It's a normal part
of life. Not every arbitration is gonna supersede
the Quran and Sunnah. It's such a limited
way of thinking. Alright? But this is this
is, like, that kind of people. So
the story ends there, but I assume the
guy, like, you know, scratched his head or
did something right or gave up or hopefully
repented from from,
from this path. But
that's the very thing you're telling me to
repent from.
Right? So your your understanding is incorrect. Another
situation was also with the Khwarej
is that they they,
they entered upon him in the masjid,
and, they asked him, who are you people?
They saw him sitting in the masjid, and
they said, who are you?
And he motioned to all the students to
remain quiet, not to answer, and he said,
or people who seek protection.
Why did he say this? Because there's an
end in the Quran
where Allah
says,
If there's a group of people of Mushakin,
this is after the conquest of Mecca and
Islam was superior. If a group of them
ask you for protection, they ask for they
they say, we want this,
we want to be Mujirun. We want protection.
You know, give us respite. Don't kick us
out. Don't take any action against us. After,
of course, Islam has conquered and Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala commanded all the people to accept
Islam at that point.
If they request that, then give him protection
and allow him to hear the words of
Allah and take him to a safe place.
Meaning, give him time. The people who in
didn't accept Islam at the conquest of Mecca
were allowed time.
Even though Islam was not an option at
that point, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said give
them months to decide. And if they decide
no, they have to leave, they can't remain
in Mecca. But the point was that they're
afforded protection until they
hear the words of Allah, meaning they hear
the message of Islam. But these people, they're
so literal. They're so limited in their interpretation.
They're so rigid and incorrect in the way
they approach the Quran, that when he said
this, that we're we're seeking protection, he said
no one touched them.
And then he commanded one of his soldiers,
one of his deputies, whatever,
recite to them the Quran because the verse
says, give them protection till they hear the
words of Allah.
And then he commanded after they did that,
4 or 5 of you take this whole
group, take them home, which is their safe
place as the ayah says. That way we
fulfill the ayah.
Shows you how rigid and blocky their understanding
is. That is not what the ayah is
talking about at all.
Has nothing to do with this whole situation.
It's all irrelevant. It's talking about the conquest
of Mecca and specific people.
But Al Khalifa knows what the verse is
talking about, but he knows how rigid and
backwards these people are, and their their their
blocking interpretation of the Quran and their incorrect
approach that aya has to begin with. So
he knew that this would this is what's
gonna happen. He said if we tell them
this, they'll be stuck. Because what they wanted
to do, by the way, is they want
they want everyone to answer either I'm Muslim
or I'm not. If you're not, well, you
just shot yourself in the foot. That gives
you that gives them the authority in their
eyes to oppress you. And if you are
Muslim,
they'll begin to quiz you with the stuff
that we talked about before.
Because once you say the wrong answer, they'll
be like, surprise. You're not Muslim, actually. Now
we can do whatever we want anyway. So
this was the agenda in the first place,
and he is the one who,
and he was able to get them out
of this, you know, damned if you do
damned if you don't argument that they're trying
to force him in. And, again, the whole
point of this was to see his strength
of argumentation. There's a lot of other examples
of his strength of debate and whatnot. To
keep it brief, we're gonna keep going, inshallah.
But the the point is he became a
huge scholar, especially of silq and debate, and
he also studied various other topics, hadith and
other sciences, but he was more known for
his silq. So he
he was known for his silq, and his
madhab
that's followed by so many people today since
then, is based on the the, the asul,
the sources of his madhab. How did he
arrive at the fiqh ruling?
How did he produce fiqh?
His main sources of the Quran, the ayat
of Allah, the ayat of the book of
Allah, the sunnah, the traditions of the prophet
Muhammad,
the hadith, ijma'ah, consensus, and he gave his
special,
attention to consensus of the companion.
He really regarded this very hardly because,
because of their status. Qiyas, which is analogy
or,
rational comparison, whatever you wanna call it. Istisan,
which is juristic preference, we'll get to in
a second. And Rav. Rav, which is custom.
So these are the sources of
all of his rulings.
And this is important to mention because
from his time, there are people saying that
Abu Hanifa doesn't know what he's doing or
that he is misguided.
And the scholars say people say this until
today and from then for 2 reasons. Either
ignorance, they don't know who he really was.
They don't know how he sought knowledge. They
don't know how he produced rulings. And because
of that ignorance, you know, man is the
enemy of what he doesn't know. He they
they miss they, accidentally, you know, spoke
ill about him or considered him not a
scholar or whatever until today.
And the other reason is
not ignorance, but out of desire. Their own
desires, whether to support their own method over
his or to promote their own person instead
of his, you know, their own personality, whatever
it may be. Or because they just didn't
like him, they had a personal issue with
him. These are all possibilities of why people
spoke evil about him, but either ignorance
or out of
following their own desires. There is no,
so the scholars say there is no
justified attack on his or his knowledge.
Uncertain opinions, you can disagree with them. But
to attack him as a person who say
he has no knowledge or he was misguided
or in his time the hadith were not
available, things like this, these are not
these are all incorrect
assumptions. These are all incorrect claims against him.
So this was his methodology of following rulings.
Why then people ask do you find the
hadith
which are very clearly saying something like raising
the hands, for example, in salah, that he
did not follow?
This is a longer topic within fiqh that
could be done another time, but
the short answer is that he had a
methodology of deriving ruling.
It wasn't just here the hadith make the
ruling. He did something that scholars call Istikra,
which is
wholesome reading, you know, comprehensive reading of the
topic. So for salah, for example, he read
all about the salah. He looked for all
the ayat about salah. He looked for all
the hadith about salah. He studied with whoever
he can reach about salah. You'll find narrations
that say he had 3 to 4000 teachers
in his lifetime.
So he didn't just, you know, me and
you have so much more available, but we
do a lot less. Right? We probably have
more than,
4,000 books available on on on Google and
whatnot, but
he went to these people physically and learned.
So when he learned everything about salah that
he could that was available to him, he
read all the hadith available to him. He
came to this ruling to this after looking
at it comprehensively
and passed the ruling that you don't raise
your hands, for example. I'm just giving you
one random example. So this is how he
derive his ruling. So for someone to say
he is clashing with Bukhari. He doesn't want
to go with the hadith. He doesn't wanna
follow the hadith. This is just unreasonable. It's
unjust claim against the hadith. He knew a
lot of the hadith that we know today.
He didn't grow up under Iraq. He grew
up in Baghdad, in Kufa. In, you know,
in Iraq, which was the bastion of knowledge
at the time. Hadith and everything.
But he had his own methodology
of approaching hadith. And one of them is
what I just told you. That's just one
of them. It's to cut out. Wholesome comprehensive
reading of the topic before passing a single
ruling. So there's no stand rule stand alone
ruling for him.
And this is the majority of the scholars.
They didn't issue stand alone rulings. And when
they did, you might find that they retracted
them later, like, Imam al Shafa. Because when
they looked at the topic at a whole
later, they changed their rulings. One more reason
that we'll mention why he had, why people
tried to attack him or differ with him,
is because
he also had a different methodology when it
comes to hadith.
He had different grading of a hadith when
it comes to the number of narrators
or when it comes to hadith that
contradict or clash with the Quran. They seem
to look like they're saying something different to
the Quran. He had a different approach of
taking this over this.
And one more that we'll mention of why
he had different rulings that people,
denounced or didn't like is because he also
had a different approach
to the kata of the sahaba.
This is where istikhen comes in, which is
juristic preference. He would say, I prefer the
the ruling of this sahaba over the ruling
of this sahaba when they differ. He didn't
do it because of the day of the
week or the temperature outside or how hungry
he was. They weren't based on how he
felt. It was based on his, again, comprehensive
looking at the topic, his own understanding, extensive,
you know,
scholar level understanding of the Quran and the
sunnah, that he would say, I choose the
fatwa of Umar or ilahaanu over the fatwa
of so and so. And he was very,
fond of the fattah of ibn Mas'ud.
Right? Ibn Mas'ud who was the teacher
of the teacher
of the teacher
of his teacher. Right? So his his teacher
that we mentioned so far was Hammad ibn
Abi Suleiman,
and his teacher was Ibrahim Al Nakai, and
his teacher was Al Kama, and his teacher
was Ibn Mas'ud.
And Ibn Mas'ud's teacher was
the prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam. Right?
He learned directly from the prophet Muhammad salallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
So for this reason, the things that we
mentioned his own approaches, his own methodology of
deriving suk, people did denounce him. People did
attack him, and like I mentioned, the main
two reasons being ignorance
or just following their desires, supporting their own
methodology.
And, one of the such story that shows
us
is, Abdullah ibn Mubarak, who is one of
his students in his contemporaries, he went to
visit another teacher, another contemporary of both of
them, Al Auzai
in Beirut. And this is where Al Auzai
was based. So when he visited him, he
told
them he told Abdullah Mubarak, who is this
innovator that has appeared in Kufa, who people
are calling Abu Hanifa. I'm hearing something about
an innovator and Abu Hanifa was making a
ruckus who's, he's misguiding people.
So Abdulhambar says I didn't answer. I didn't
know how to answer this question because obviously
he knows Abu Hanifa and he knows that
this is not just criticism,
this is not just, not just claim. So
he he doesn't answer him right away and
he says give me time. I'll give you
an answer. And he says I went home
for 3 days preparing
Abu Hanifa's Fatawa,
taking questions I know he answers, stuff that
I had written for him already, different views,
people asking questions, different, you know, situation with
him that I had recorded. And I wrote
them down on a small parchment or leather
or whatever, I took it to the masjid
after 3 days. And at this masjid, Al
Zayi was the the imam. So after he
had given the adhan,
I showed him the fatawa. And he signed
all the fatawa,
or he's saying whoever said them, he said,
annauman ibn Sabid.
So when the person asked this, Annoaman Ibn
Sabat said this, and Annoaman Ibn Sabat judged
this, and he ruled this in this situation.
Who's Annoaman Ibn Sabat?
Help me out, guys. Come on. I'll just
go home at this point. Right? It's Ibrahim
himself.
So
he reads the questions and says, oh, this
is very nice. When the time passes, time
for a comma. He begins the a comma
phrase and says, give them back to me.
I wanna keep looking at them. He's very
interested. And he begins to look at them
and he says, this man is a scholar.
This man is someone you should stick to,
and I really feel like his, you know,
I'm impressed by his knowledge. He said, I'm
impressed by his teaching. So Mubarak tells him,
this is the innovator you warned me about.
Right? This is who you warned me to
stay away from. So Al Agha says
at this point he himself says, I seek
I seek, I make tawba to Allah. I
ask him to forgive me for what I
said about him. And he says I'm jealous
of his knowledge and his intellect.
And this is the positive jealousy. I wish
I had this amount of intellect and this,
this amount of knowledge.
There's also a, another story of a person
attacking him. A man answered the messages,
and he he
he made a huge, you know, a scene.
He told, Abu Hanifa, what do you say
about this issue? And he already knows what
Abu Hanifa says. So Abu Hanifa says this
is the ruling. So he told him,
but the man who came in the masjid
says, Al Hassan,
ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet
he judged this in this ruling, which is
not what you're judging. So Abu Hanifa says,
after Al Hassan. Al Hassan was mistaken.
Right? Al Hassan, the grandson of the prophet
didn't have the correct ruling here.
So the man just loses it. He said,
you just said al Hasan, the grandson of
the prophet made a mistake,
and then he cursed him out, right, in
the masjid. He cursed he cursed his mother
too. It wasn't just a small issue. The
man was so riled up by this that
he did this in the masjid.
So the students got up to beat him
up, like, how dare you, you know, you're
coming to the masjid, you're cursing the the
scholar. But al Hanifa held them back, and
he repeated this what he said, he said,
Al Hasan made a mistake in this ruling,
but and who made the correct ruling, ibn
Mas'ud. Meaning, I'm not cursing out Al Hassan.
I'm not disrespecting him. I'm not saying he's
wrong. I'm following the opinion of another companion
who's much older, much older than Islam, much
maybe senior in his knowledge, very, you know,
by the test the the own testimony of
the prophet
So I'm not saying Al Hassan is wrong
or any of us is right. I'm saying
Al Hassan is wrong in my analysis, and
Ibn Masood is right. So and that was
it. That was the end. He didn't say
get this man out of here. How dare
you? So he was very humble and people,
as you can see, the point of this
was people attacked him out of ignorance, out
of, injustice. And people continue to do so
until today. And, Abu Hanifa doesn't know the
hadith. Abu Hanifa clashes with the hadith. Abu
Hanifa, you know, he he he used qiyyaz
too much, and he made rulings from his
mind. You will never see
anyone with any knowledge rate these claims.
Or if they have knowledge, you know, they
didn't ever look into his sera. They didn't
even look into his 5th ruling. They didn't
look into the history of the Hanafi Mezheb
or the teachings of this great man, this
great imam.
So there's a lot more stories here. You
know, the time is getting longer. I I
rambled a little bit too much about off
topic things, but they're all the same concept.
People attacking him unjustly.
Accusing him of making rulings that he never
made in the way that they said it.
Right? Accusing him of ignorance that he did
not have. One more, the man came in
and as soon as he entered the masjid,
it's not more about his, you know, being
attacked unjustly as more of his character and
his patience and his sincerity and his fear
of Allah,
which is the next topic that I will
mention in a few, you know, tidbits about
that, is it's he a man came into
the mission. He said as soon as he
comes in, he says, Yazindeep.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yazindeep. He calls him, oh, heretic. Person who's
exiting the the deen of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. A heretic is someone who speaks blasphemy.
Right? Tendents that are not part of our
faith. He calls he tells him Yazindeep,
and he tells him, you are from the
people of Badah. You're an innovator and you're
a heretic. Right? You're exiting this religion.
So,
Abu Khalifa, he again, he stops the people
from defending him and he tells him, Allah
knows
that none of this applies to me. I
don't innovate, I don't make up stuff, and
I don't speak blasphemy. I don't speak things
that are against us, that what Allah revealed
to us. Allah knows that this this description
that you've said do not fit me. And
he knows, and this is the important point,
that I never oppressed a single person
since I knew him.
Since I knew who?
Since I knew Allah
He thinks since I became aware
of Allah,
I became alif. I became someone who knows
who Allah is and the rights of Allah
and the characteristics of Allah and his name
and attributes.
Ever since then, I never wronged another human
being.
And it shows you the, you know, the
the,
the true effect of knowing who Allah is.
Someone who knows Allah doesn't wrong others, doesn't
oppress,
doesn't lie, doesn't cheat, doesn't steal. If you
see someone who does that and claim piety,
then he does not know Allah
despite his claims. And may Allah protect us
from that alone, I mean.
And then he continues to say, and Allah
knows that I hope in his reward
and fear his punishment.
And when he said the word punishment, the
word adab, he began to cry, and then
the man just sat watching him for a
bit till he he felt bad himself for
coming to attack him. So he told him,
grant me pardon. I'm sorry.
Just he saw that there's no way that
this man fits the description that I just
threw at him. I just accused him of
in the masjid,
and then he says grant me pardon. So
Abu Haniba says you're free to go.
And then
he says, I entered Al Kufa in my
travels and I asked about who has the
most knowledge of fiqh, Islamic rulings. And they
told me go to Abu Hanifa. So I
asked them, who will teach,
who knows the most insulid asceticism, staying away
from the dunya. Right? Staying away from the
delights and,
discipline. And they told him Abu Hanifa. So
I told them who has the most water,
cautious piety. Who's
most careful with their religion? They're afraid of,
you know, falling to mistakes. And he said,
so they told me go to Abu Hanifa.
He's the jack of all trades. That's where
you want to go if you want to
learn any of these things. Basically, the entirety
of this religion.
There's also a narration that a woman came
to him.
I remember we said he was he used
to trade in silk. So she wants to
sell him silk. He's just trading cloth. So
she wants to sell him some silk, and
she presented him a roll of it. And
he told her, how much are you selling
this for? So she said, for 100 dirham.
He said, I'm a cloth seller. This is
my trade. This is my expertise. It's worth
way more than that.
Can do you ever do that when you're
buying? Do you ever say, why don't we
make it 200 instead of 150? You know
what? It looks a little good. Let's do
250.
Right? Do you ever try that? Try it.
Let me know how how it goes. Right?
You'll probably they'll probably kick you out. They
won't even agree
to say stop stop, you know, stop making
a game of things. So he kept telling
her it's worth more until she reached 400
and she said that's it. You're it looks
like you're playing games at this point. Either
buy or don't. Right? Don't don't make a
fool of me. So he told her, bring
the man to roll it up. I'll take
it, and he paid her 500.
Alright. He kept going higher higher. And she
settled that force. That's it. Stop playing. He
said, fine. Sorry. I'll take it. But then
he paid 500 because he wished to do
a send to her.
And like we said, he gave out his
all of his inheritance for the sake of
the needy, and he would do the same
thing with salary keeping only 2 dirham per
month. What he'll do with the rest is
he would fulfill the needs of the scholars
and the other students of knowledge.
Remember, we said that he met Hamad ibn
Abi Suleiman, when he was 18 years old
and began to seek knowledge with him for
the next 20,
years or or more till he was 40.
And Hamad's sister herself says,
when Abu Hanifa began became became a student
of Hamad, he would not leave his doorstep.
He's just constantly waiting for Fata'a, waiting to
hear people asking questions. But not only that,
he would go out and buy our groceries,
and buy us food and drink,
and fulfill whatever needs we had. He wouldn't
let the sheikh fulfill any of his own
need. So this was his characteristic, and he
would do that for all the other scholars,
all the students, whatever income he'd get. He'd
spend it. When everyone's needs are fulfilled, everyone
was fed, everyone was closed, no one need
any money, he would just distribute it amongst
them as a hand down. Tell them, if
you need something, here it is. And then
he would tell them,
as he's giving them this money,
he would tell them,
spend on your needs, see what you need
with this money.
Don't praise anyone except Allah. Don't thank me.
Don't tell people this happened. Don't tell people
how great I am. Do not thank anyone
except
I'm not giving you
of my money anything. This isn't mine. I'm
giving you from the bounty of Allah that
he gave me
to give you. Basically, this is the bounty
of Allah over me amongst you. He gave
me more wealth than you guys. So I'm
just redistributing that. That's basically what he's saying.
So I why would you praise me? I'm
redistributing
Allah's wealth that he gave me
to you.
So
to wrap it up, inshallah, in the next
few minutes,
and this is gonna be a part of
every single it took longer than I said.
I would. Right?
How Hello, Usdan. Right? You just love hearing
yourself speak. Is that what it is? Maybe.
But,
the
this is gonna be a part of every
single speaker that every single,
figure that we mentioned his trial.
Every single one of them was tried with
a major trial.
And
the reason that is is because
why? Why why is that
the case? That every single great figure we'll
find here that we'll mention in these next
few weeks went through some severe trials in
their life, in their deen and in their
dunya. Why is that?
Why do you think that's the case?
Because we're all being tested. Right? This this
is there's no one there's no exception to
this rule. We're all being tested. Why are
their trials so great though, is because they're
great people.
You know, one person, he gave that good
example. Once he's talking about the that we
alluded to earlier,
that if you are walking
if me and you are walking, and then
our journey of life in our deen,
insha'Allah, we hope our slip ups will be
small, because we're small people. But the sahaba
are
huge. So their slip ups as human beings
will be a little bit bigger or much
bigger. But nonetheless, they are huger in their
stat in their status and their good, so
Allah will forgive them nonetheless. So likewise, these
people were were giants in Islam.
What Abu Hanifa presented to the history of
Fiqh, the,
foundation
of Fiqh is something that no one will
ever reach. Imam Shafi'i says,
Every single person who ever studied fiqh, every
single scholar is a dependent
of Abu Hanifa.
He's just building on what Abu Hanifa put
down. This was, Imam Shaha'i said because no
one
wrote down silk
before Abu Hanifa in the way that he
did it. Put into books or into,
compilations.
No one
introduced the science the way that he did
at his time. Right? Because he's of the
1st generation after the Kaaba.
So anyway,
the trials will be a part of every
story story, and he had two main trials.
So the first of them is and he
like we said, he lived from 80 to
150 after the hijra, and that was a
very,
important time period. What happened in that time
period? Who knows? What happened from 80 to
150?
What happened to the Muslim Ummah at that
time?
Who who's saying? Where is it?
You you give this guy something.
So the the the Khalifa switched from the
Umayyads to the Abbasid.
So there was a revolt.
Again, these these are
stories that will take a lot of time
to tell, but the point is there was
a revolt, and one system of governance changed
to another. So they they went from the
Umayyad caliphate, which was after the,
the Khalifa
of of Abu Bakr, Umar Osman Ali, and
Al Hassan. It went to now the Umayyad
up until 130
or so. 32, you could check the the
exact number. And then from a 132 onwards
to the next,
couple 100 years was the
the Abbasid.
So the the last Umayyad
governor of Al Kufa.
So this is the end of their period
towards, you know, the the last 20 years
of his life. That's when he switched over
to the Abbasid. So the last Umayyad governor
now for the Umayyad overthrown,
he hears about Abu Hanifa. Now he's getting
famous. He's getting huge. So he tells him,
you will be basically the grand mufti.
You will sign off on everything that we
do. You'll be the Islamic signature, and nothing
will go without you saying so. So Abu
Hanifa told him,
no. Right? I will not take this position.
Remember, he wants to earn from his own
hands. He didn't want anyone to influence his
fatawah. There's numerous hadith about staying away from
the, the authority, especially when they're oppressive, especially
when they're doing wrong. And the the Umayyads
at that time,
had a very bad reputation.
They had a horrible reputation. They're engaged in
a lot of dunam, against the prophet family
themselves and whatnot. So Abu Hanifa, of course,
was not a fan of them at all,
especially at this point, and he refused. So,
Yazid ibn Umar,
who was the the last Umayyad
governor of, Kufa,
he imprisoned him, and he had him beat,
and he tried to force him to get
to accept his position. But then after some
time, he said, you know what? Whatever. Let
him go. And as soon as he let
him go,
before he could put him on house arrest
or anything after that, after a few days,
he ran away to Mecca and he lived
there for the next 5 years until the
Umayyads were overthrown and the Abbasids took power.
So I said, you know, I'm a avoid
this whole situation. This guy is obviously gonna
come back and try to force me to
take this position. I do not want it.
I'm not interested in being the top authority.
I'm that's not why I'm seeking knowledge, and
he ran away to Mecca for a few
years. Over there, a lot of students followed
him. He had other students. He benefited from
the, you know, the other,
schools of thought that were forming at the
time,
and he lived there for 6 years. When
the Abbasids took power, he returns to Kufa
now. And now we come to his second
trial.
What happens when he gets to Kufa?
The Abbasid ruler tells him to come the
grand Muslim.
So he thought, okay, the only is a
god, I can go back to Kufa now.
He go back he goes back to Kufa,
the same thing happens. Exactly. And this was
now it's not being done by the governor,
but by the Khalifa himself, the top authority,
and that was Abu Jafar al Mansur. Alright.
So he was one of the first, Abbasid
caliph, and he told him he had heard
of his knowledge. And at first, he befriended
him. He used to send him gifts. He
used to try to basically bribe him right,
earn his favor, come close to him, because
he at this point, he's very famous. He
heard of his knowledge. He heard of his
ability.
And he just ignored all these things. And
then the gifts would come to them. He'd
either reject them or he would redistribute them
amongst the needy. So after some time,
he noticed Abu Hanifa was keeping his distance,
so he
calls for him directly.
And he tells him, you will be the
grand mufti.
You will be called al Khuda, which is
basically the grand mufti. You'll be the number
one judge. You'll be the official judge of
this area and of, basically, you know, more
or less the grand mufti of the entire
empire, the entire country.
So Abu Hanifa says no. So al Mansur
tells him why. He tells him
I'm not good enough for it. I don't
fit this job. I can't do it. Right?
And al Mansur knows if she if Hanifa
can't do who can, who's a bigger faqid,
who knows more filth. He's the biggest scholar
around. So he tells him, that's not true.
You're a liar.
You are fit for this job. So Hanifa
says, may Allah
have mercy.
If you are right and I'm a liar,
how can you appoint a liar?
You want a liar to be the grand
muslim? You said it yourself that he's a
liar. And if you're wrong,
that that's why he said, may Allah forgive
the the enemy in the beginning. You always
have to butter him up a little before
he say he's wrong. He said, if you're
wrong though, and I'm not a liar, then
I already told you I can't do it.
Remember we said he's a great debater. Right?
He's a great he's a master. He's he's
quick witted. He's quick on his feet. So
he tells him, either you're right and I'm
a liar, why would you appoint a liar
to be the grand Islamic figure of the
Ummah? And if I'm telling the truth, then
take me at my word. I told you
I cannot do it. Alright. But Al Mansoor
is not going to be convinced by this.
He, you know, he, at this point he
lost his temper and he swore, wallahi, you'll
be the grand Muslim. So what does the
Mahliva do?
Wallahi, I will not. Right? That's that's what
you do when people swear. Right? You just
swear right back. So,
so Al Mansoor says, I will not break
this oath, you're going to jail. So he
throws him to prison. And the disputed narration,
some say he hadn't beat,
whipped, and it's possible that he did. And,
some say he died in this imprisonment. Said
some say, no. He died after his release,
but he was on house arrest until his
death anyway because he refused to to
to back down. I will not be the
grand mufi. I will not have my arm
twisted or my fatawa twisted or used for
injustice. There's another narration, which is also disputed,
but he may have said this as well,
where he doesn't want fatawa
to be he's like, I'm going to be
signing off on the sword that's coming down
on people. Because by this time, the the
rulers are like that. Right? They're killing people
left and right. They're pressing left and right,
which is, you know, foreign concept. Right? Rulers
don't do that anymore.
So the,
this was his 2nd fitna, and he died
under house arrest. And when he was told,
why don't you just back down? Why don't
you just break your oath, pay the kafara,
and take it? Because you're being forced. So
he said, why should I do that when
Amir Muomeini is much more able than I
am to pay a kafara? Right? He's much
richer than me. Why don't he pay the
kafara? Right? So you could see how he
was never phased by by other people's arguments.
He always had something to say. So he
said, me pay the kafara. He's he's the
he's the Khalifa. Right? If anyone should pay
kefara to him, he's more able to. So
I don't see why I should.
During his house arrest,
one of his enemies, his opponent,
said on this day, today, I'm going to
kill Abu Hanifa. I'm gonna get him killed.
So he
in one of the the
situations where he was being called from his
house and they're going back and forth with
the Khalifa to take this position he was
refusing,
in one of these gatherings,
this man came,
and he was, again, his enemy, his opponent.
And he tells him, oh, Abu Hanifa, I
have a very important question.
We're being commanded by our leaders, the Khalifa
and others,
to kill people,
to strike the next of people that we
have no idea about. We don't know who
they are.
Right? The Khalifa was commanding a lot of
wars. Right? And this like we said, this
is from the time of the Umayyads. There's
a lot of infighting between the Muslim Ummah.
There's a lot of factions and whatnot. So
this man is coming saying the rulers, the
people in charge of us, they're saying this
in front of the Khalifa and his advisers.
He's saying they command us to kill people
we know nothing about.
What did you want Abhinav Bah Hanifa to
say? He wants Abhinav to say this is
done. We shouldn't listen to them. That's oppression.
You know, and he wants them to be
very harsh. Because if he says that in
front of the ruler, the ruler, of course,
is gonna say, jazakullah for the advice, and
I'm gonna change my ways. Right? No. No.
He's gonna chop his head off. Right? He's
gonna kill him. You don't have
the authority or the audacity to speak like
that in front of any ruler. That was
the attitude they have, and some still have
till today. So he tells him, what do
we do now when the emir this is
what the emir is commanding us. He wants
Abu Hanifa to shoot himself in the foot
by giving a fatwa denouncing this and getting
into trouble.
So Abu Hanifa turns the table around on
him and he tells him
that Amir,
is he commanding you with falsehood or with
truth?
So what does this man is stuck now.
He says falsehood, now he's the one who's
gonna be killed. He can't say in front
of the Amir, he's commanding us with falsehood.
He's he's not on the Haqq. And if
he says his commanding is on the Haqq,
which is obviously why he said to protect
himself. So when he said that, Abba Hanifa
told him, if he commands you with the
Haqq, follow it and don't ask any questions.
So he and he says later when the
students asked him about this this, situation,
he told
them, this man came and he tried to
retie me, but I took the rope and
I bound his hand. Right? Basically, I stopped
him from accomplishing his goal, which was to
get, Bohanifa in trouble. There's endless examples of
his quick wit, of his fiqh, and his,
you know, ability to answer fiqh questions without
needing to go back to the sources that
Quran Hadith, without needing to, you know, check
his notes. And,
there's more than one narrations of other contemporary
like Al Zari, who didn't like him, who
denounced him at first. But upon seeing his
ability to answer questions, upon seeing the way
he thought when there was no,
ayer hadith. There's many situations where there's no
direct ayer hadith, but he was so quick,
he was so knowledgeable, he was so he
was such intellectual that he was able to
connect them to the ayer and the hadith
using his own qiyas, his own analogy, that
as soon as they seen this, they automatically
disbelieve
all the hearsay that they heard about him.
They said I don't need him to hear
I don't need to hear him say to
defend his position, to defend himself. This is
a real scholar. There's no man who can
answer these questions who's so confident, who's so,
connected to the sources
except our true scholar. So
like I was saying in the beginning, it's
not a cover to cover,
biography. It's more of a highlight of this
man and his greatness,
especially being the first of the 4, Mahdahib,
and
a senior scholar in isikh and Islamic history.
If I was to summarize the points, number
1, it is,
the the highlighting of earning through your own
hands. If you're ever able to earn through
your own hands, make sure you prefer that.
Make sure you focus on that. Make sure
you make that an intention and watch Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala bless and increase it. Number
2 is that, well, we said that you
don't know what will set someone off in
their role time. And with every figure, we'll
try to do this. Mention 3 or 4,
4, 5 points that we'll get from their
story. You don't know what will set someone
down, their their path towards the end towards
righteousness, so always be giving advice.
The third was,
that man is an enemy to what he's
ignorant of. Right? And now that I know
these other scholars, they denounced him without even
knowing him, just by things that they heard.
So don't believe everything that you hear. Give
people the benefit of doubt, especially people of
knowledge, especially people, Muslims in general.
Number 4, and the last one is that
you should
be, afraid of taking a position. Shouldn't be
eager for it. There's many hadith that teach
us this that, you know, have this this
meaning directly.
And indirectly, they mentioned this meaning that it's
without, you know, without keeping in mind the
responsibility,
the seriousness of the task, the accountability,
the qualifications,
taking a position could be a disaster for
a person's dunya and their deen. There's a
little bit here more about who some of
his teachers were, some of his students, and
some of his works, I think we overstayed.
So
And, if there are any questions, we can
take them after the salah.
And,
for your attentiveness. Sorry if it it dragged
down a little bit.