Abu Hanifa

Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān al-Taymī al-Kūfī (Arabic: أَبُو حَنِيفَة ٱلنُّعْمَان بْن ثَابِت بْن زُوطَا بْن مَرْزُبَان ٱلتَّيْمِيّ ٱلْكُوفِيّ; September 699–767 CE / Rajab 80–150 AH) was a Sunni Muslim scholar, theologian, jurist, ascetic, and eponym of the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence, which remains the most widely practiced to this day. His school predominates in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran (until the sixteenth century), Turkey, the Balkans, Russia, Circassia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and some parts of the Arab world.

Born to a Muslim family in Kufa, Abu Hanifa traveled to the Hejaz region of Arabia in his youth, where he studied in the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Named by al-Dhahabi as "one of the geniuses of the sons of Adam" who "combined jurisprudence, worship, scrupulousness, and generosity", he reportedly studied under some 4,000 scholars in his search for knowledge, and, according to some historians, also met some companions of Muhammad.

As his career as a theologian and jurist progressed, he became known for favoring the use of reason in his jurisprudential rulings, and even in his theology. His school grew after his death, and the majority of its followers would also come to follow the Maturidi theological school. He left behind two major students, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani, who would later become celebrated jurists in their own right.

He is often reverently referred to in Sunni tradition with the titles the Greatest Imam (al-Imām al-Aʿẓam), Lamp of the Imams (Sirāj al-Aʾimma), and Shaykh of Islam (Shaykh al-Islām).