أبا حنيفة

Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Sarakhsī related to us. He said: My father related to us. He said: Bishr ibn Yaḥyā related to us, from Salm ibn Sālim, who said: I heard Khārija say: I visited Muḥammad ibn ʿUlātha when he was judge of Baghdad. He said: “Two men testified before me. I inquired about their religious outlook privately and publicly. They were praised and described as righteous, good and devout, so I intended to judge on their testimony. The person against whom I intended to rule said: You would judge on their testimony, though they claim that wine, gambling and sacrificial stones are Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿUthmān! I asked them: Is that what you say? They answered: Yes. I asked: Why? They said: Because they were wrongdoers in assuming the caliphate. I therefore investigated their case and suspended acceptance of their testimony.” He said to me: “When you reach Kufa, ask about this for me.” When I reached Kufa, I asked Ibn Shubruma, who said: “I do not know.” I asked Sufyān, who said: “I do not know.” I asked Ibn Abī Laylā, who said: “This is one of the cloth merchant’s questions”—meaning Abū Ḥanīfa. So I asked Abū Ḥanīfa. He replied: “Ask those two about the wine, gambling, sacrificial stones and divining arrows in the Book of God, Blessed and Most High: Are they forbidden? If they say yes, their testimony is accepted, for their error lies in interpretation.”

Muḥammad ibn al-Layth ibn Saʿīd related to us. He said: Zayd ibn Tamīm related to us. He said: Muṣʿab ibn Khārija related to us, saying: I heard my father say: Everyone who sat with Abū Ḥanīfa for a few days recognized his superiority over others.

Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-Kalābādhī [and] Uḥayd ibn ʿUmar ibn Hārūn related to us. They said: Ḥibbān ibn Mūsā related to us. He said: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, from Abū Sufyān al-Nasāʾī, Concerning writing a divorce in the air: Abū Ḥanīfa and Sufyān did not regard it as a divorce when a man wrote in the air.

Abū Saʿīd Uḥayd ibn ʿUmar and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥāfiẓ related to us. They said: Muṭahhar ibn al-Ḥakam related to us. He said: I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid say: I heard my father say: I asked Abū Ḥanīfa about ʿUmar’s report concerning a missing person. He replied: “This is a tale of Khurāfa.” I was told from Muṭahhar ibn al-Ḥakam, who said: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, from his father, who said: I asked Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūba about a man who owned two slave women who were sisters. If he had intercourse with one, could he approach the other? He replied: “Al-Ḥasan used to say: He must not approach her as long as the one with whom he had intercourse remains with him.” Al-Ḥusayn said: That is also the position of Abū Ḥanīfa and Sufyān al-Thawrī. Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr said: I asked al-Ḥasan ibn Saʿīd, a grandson of ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid: “Does al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid transmit from Abū Ḥanīfa?” He replied: “He transmitted a great deal from him in the Book of Judges.”

“A tale of Khurāfa” is an expression for a fabulous story; no authenticity ruling is added beyond the attributed words.

Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Marwazī related to us. He said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to me. He said: Rāfiʿ ibn Ashras related to us. He said: A question arose for al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid, and he found no one in Merv who could resolve it for him. He wrote to towns throughout Khurasan, but no one knew it. He therefore set out for Iraq to resolve that question. Reaching Kufa, he visited Sufyān al-Thawrī, with whom he had companionship and friendship, and asked him. Sufyān thought for a long while, then said: “I do not know, Ḥusayn.” He replied: “You say, I do not know, when you are an imam?” He said: “Ḥusayn! It is a mark of a man’s intelligence to say of something he does not know: I do not know. What I do not know, Ḥusayn, is greater than what I know.” He visited him for days, asking about the question. Each time he said: “I do not know,” until he gave up hope of him. Then he visited Abū Ḥanīfa and asked him. He answered without reflection, as though the answer had been in his sleeve, may God have mercy on him. He asked him for the evidence, and he gave him clear proofs until al-Ḥusayn understood. He returned to Sufyān and said nothing about the question. Sufyān asked: “Ḥusayn, what became of the question?” He replied: “I have received an answer.” He asked: “Whom did you ask?” He replied: “Abū Ḥanīfa.” He asked: “What answer did he give?” He told him. He asked: “Did you ask him for the evidence?” He replied: “Yes.” He asked: “What evidence did he give?” He mentioned it. Sufyān said: “Ḥusayn! The answer is as he gave it, and the evidence is as he presented it.” He replied: “Until now you have been telling me, I do not know, and now you say what you say!” He replied: “Ḥusayn, there are many like us in Abū Ḥanīfa’s waistband, may God have mercy on them all.”

My father related to us. He said: Asbāṭ ibn al-Yasaʿ related to us. He said: Muḥammad ibn Muzāḥim al-Marwazī informed me. He said: Ibrāhīm ibn Rustam informed us. He said: al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad informed us. He said: I asked Abū Ḥanīfa, may God have mercy on him: “Who are the people of the community?” He replied: “Those who give precedence to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, love ʿAlī and ʿUthmān, wipe over leather socks, do not forbid jarrī fish, do not declare anyone an unbeliever for a sin, pray over deceased people who face the qibla, believe in predestination, its good and its evil, pray behind every righteous and sinful person, and utter nothing concerning God.”

Jarrī is the fish named in the source, commonly identified as an eel or scaleless fish; the wording is retained without selecting a species.

I was told from Ibn al-Naḍr, who said: Muḥammad ibn Ziyād related to us. He said: Ṣāliḥ ibn Mūsā al-Aḥmasī related to me. He said: ʿUmāra, judge of Sarakhs, informed me. He said: I heard Abū Ḥanīfa say, Concerning an intoxicated man who apostatized from Islam: “I deem it preferable that his wife become separated from him.”