Life and works of the Four Imams

Imam Abu Hanifah:

Abu Hanifah Nouman Bin Thabit was born at Kufain Iraq, in 80 of Hijrah of A.D, 699 during the Bani Umayyad period. He started his literary career by learning Ilm-ul-kalam of scholastics. His tutor Hammad bin Abi Sulaiman tought him Islamic jurisprudence.Later he learnt the Traditions from the eminent personalties such as Al-Shai'bi. Abu hanifah was also a pupil of Imam Ja'far.

Work:
Gifted as he was with exceptional talents, he very soon mastered the subjects he learned and was in a short time reckoned as an expert in the line of Fiqh(Jurisprudence). Hanafi school of thought, therefore, was subsequently recognized as the upholders of private judgments. Abu Hanifah compared to other Imams relied more on his power of reasoning. He was in favor of formulating independent views as he maintained that human beings are endowed with the faculty of mind which they have a right to use in arriving at legal conclusions. Since his school of thought emerged in Iraq, a place away from Madinah, the ancient seat of learning, complexities of life and new situations had influenced the learning of the scholars and this, to a large extent, is the reason, that the Hanafi school is popular as the upholder of private judgment as against the Shafe'i school of thought called, the upholder of Traditions or Ahl-e-Hadees.


Abu Hanifah wrote no books, but he lectured to and discussed juristic problems with a number of brilliant followers who tool it upon themselves to commit to writing and to implement the master's views.

He was the first to have introduced Fiqh as a science. He was the one who extended the concept of Ijma to all ages and nt just confined it to the period of the companions and their successors.

Particular Life:
Abu Hanifah, in his practical life, was a business man but later thirst for knowledge compelled him to learn jurisprudence and the science of Traditions. About his approach towards Traditions it is said that he was very discreet in accepting them.


Juristic Equity: (Istehsan)
As regards his legal acumen and depth of knowledge, mention must be made of theories he formulated in jurisprudence, particularly the theory or the principle of Istehsan known as juristic Equity, a principle similar to Analogy, but not identifiable with it. Juristic Equity later became one of the recognized sources of Islamic Law.


Imam-e-Azam:
Abu Hanifah, because of his exceptional achievements in the legal field was given the title of Imam-e-Aaazm(the greatest Imam).



In the last stages of Bani Umayyad, Ibn-e-Habaireh, the governor of Iraq had offered him the office of Chief justice, which Abu HAnifah declined. It is said that due to this refusal he was subjected to ill-treatment.


Disciples:
Abu Hanifah left behind several disciples, some of whom subsequently became very popular. They were Abu Yousaf, Zafar bin Hazeel bin Qais, Muhammad bin Hassan bin Fuqahd Shibani and Hassan bin zaid Luloi. Two of them Abu Yousaf and Imam Muhammad were outstanding personalities.

Followers:
The followers of this school spread in Egypt, Lebanon, Tunis, Turkey, Afghanistan, Turkestan, the Indian subcontinent and China. It is estimated that two third of the Muslim population of the world are Hanafis.

Abu Hanifah was basically a jurist and his school of legal thought gained more and more prominence after his life. This school ultimately became the most popular of all. Amongst the recognized works on the Hanafi school was Al-Hadayah written by Burhanudin. Another reason this school became popular was the acceptance of it by the Abbasides Caliphs for court matters.

Imam Malik

Malik bin Anas asbahi Al Arabi was born in 95 of Hijrah at Madinah, and established his school called"Madanese school". In fact this school had already taken root much before Imam Malik's period. It was founded when Umar, his son Abdullah bin Umar, Zaid bin Thabit and Hazrat Aisha were contemporaries. Later on, after the migration to Madinah of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) Madinah became the seat of learning for Traditions. Imam Malik was both a jurist and a traditionist. He was so well versed in Traditions that he was considered as authority on it and was approached for his Fatawas. He was tutor to Imam Shafe'i, who was impressed by his knowledge and personality. Imam Shafe'i called him"the glittering star of the science of Traditions." He was so frank in his opinions, bold in his expressions and rigid in his belief and strong in faith that he was a fearless speaker.

When Caliph Haroon Al Rasheed, the greatest man of the age, wrote asking Malik to come to Baghdad so that the Caliph's sons might learn from him, Malik answered. "Knowledge does not ravel but is traveled to!"

It is stated that he declared a fatwah that forced conversion to Islam is undesirable, rather unislamic. The result was that the governor of Madinah at the time Ja'far bin Suleman, punished him with flogging. In his studentship he was taught jurisprudence by Rai Abdur rehman.

Disciples:
Amongst his disciples are Imam Muhammad bin Hasan Shaibani and Imam Shafe'i.

His Work:
Imam Malik's work, Mawatta, is an authoritative work on Traditions. It was regarded so authoritative that according to Imam Shafe'i, Mawatta Malik ranks next to the Qur'an as far as any book after Qur'an is concerned. It contains 300 Traditions. Being in a better position than Imam Abu Hanifah to be acquainted with the laws as laid down by the companions and their successors, he incorporated them to a large extent in his system. He was much in favour of usages and customs of Madinah.


Doctrine of public good
He introduced the doctrine of " Public good" almost similar to that of Imam Abu Hanifah's "juristic equity" (istehsan. He also added istidlal, yet another source of Islamic Law.

Death:
Imam Malik was flogged to death by Abu Ja'afer Al Mansoor in A.H 179 or A.c 795.


Followers:
[COLOR="Navy Blue"]The North African extended the dominion of Maliki Law to all the territories of west Africa. Islamic Spain had known no other school of law during its seven centuries of history. [/COLOR]

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