ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mālik ibn Sulaymān al-Harawī

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Naḍr al-Harawī related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mālik ibn Sulaymān al-Harawī related to us: [My father informed us:] He said: I heard Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiya say: I was with Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—while al-Abyaḍ ibn al-Agharr was discussing a question with him through analogy, turning it over between them. A man whom I thought to be from Medina shouted from one side of the mosque, ‘What are these analogies? Leave them! The first to use analogy was Iblīs.’ Abū Ḥanīfa turned to him and said, ‘Man, you have put these words in the wrong place. Iblīs rejected God’s command. God, Blessed and Most High, said, “When We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam,’ they prostrated, except Iblīs: he refused, grew arrogant, and was among the unbelievers,” and, “He said, ‘Shall I prostrate before one You created from clay?’” He grew arrogant and rejected God Most High’s command. Whoever rejects God’s command is an unbeliever. In this analogy we are engaged in, we seek to follow God’s command, Blessed and Most High, because we refer it to a foundation God, Glorified and Most High, established [in the Book], or a practice laid down by God’s Messenger—God bless him and his family and grant him peace—or the agreement of the Companions and Successors. We strive in this until we refer it to God’s Book, Mighty and Majestic, the Sunna of God’s Messenger—God bless him and grant him peace—and the statements of the leading Companions and Successors. We do not depart from God’s command; practice rests on the Book, Sunna, and consensus. In referring to the Book, Sunna, and consensus, we also follow God’s command, Mighty and Majestic. God Most High said, “You who believe, obey God, obey the Messenger, and those in authority among you,” through His words, “and the Last Day.” We thus revolve around following, acting on what God Most High commands. Iblīs opposed God’s command and rejected it. How can the two be alike?’ The man said, ‘I was mistaken, Abū Ḥanīfa, and I repent. May God illuminate your heart as you have illuminated mine.’

The Qurʾānic quotations are 2:34, 17:61, and the cited portion of 4:59. The abbreviated portion of 4:59 is not expanded.