The Characteristics of Imam Abu Hanifa

Imam Abu Hanifa was imprisoned twice by the khalifs at his time. The empire at his time was the Umayyad and the leader of this party’s name was Yazid. As Imam Abu Hanifa was a master in jurisprudence, Yazid offered Imam Abu Hanifa the chance to become a judge and Imam Abu Hanifa refused. Why did he refuse? Judges play a dirty game; they can be bias in their decisions with behind the scene discussions. Imam Abu Hanifa saw it as more of a burden than a job.

Yazid became angry and tried to force Imam Abu Hanifa to become a governor, Abu Hanifa continued to refuse the job which resulted with him being imprisoned for months. Due to his popularity as a scholar, his fame and knowledge saw him released from prison.

After the Umayyad Empire collapsed a new empire rose called the Abbasid Empire. The Abbasid Empire also offered Imam Abu Hanifa a job as a judge but once again Imam Abu Hanifa refused and therefore was imprisoned. He was tortured and poisoned which resulted in his death. He was buried in Baghdad and his funeral was done 6 different times with over 50 thousand attendants. (80 A.H -150 A.H)

Imam Abu Hanifa was a very rich and honest man. He had no love for the dunya or wealth. He was a very humble man and he paid his students to learn from him. Imam Abu Hanfia had very high Taqwa and was always conscious of Allah (SWT). Imam Abu Hanifa used to cry when reading the Qur’an. He gave charity regularly and his main student was Imam Abu Yusuf.

A lot of people do not approve of the teachings of Imam Abu Hanifa despite his knowledge as there isn’t much information about him studying Hadiths. They say he was an expert in analogy and opinion and that’s why people say he lacked in Hadith studies. In fact Imam Abu Hanifa made a book on Hadith called ‘Kitabul-Athar’ and Imam Abu Hanifa’s main teacher; Hammad Ibn Sulieman taught Hadith as well as Fiqh to Imam Abu Hanifa. Imam Abu Hanifa’s student named Makki Ibn Ibrahim narrates some Hadiths which are mentioned in Sahih Bukhari, this shows us that Imam Abu Hanifa also learnt and taught Hadiths.  

And Allah knows best.