Hanafi school

The Hanafi school (Arabic: ٱلْحَنَفِيَّة, romanized: al-Ḥanafiyya) or Hanafism is the oldest of the four major Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence (fiqh). It was established by the 8th century Kufan scholar Abu Hanifa, a tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by two of his disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. It is considered one of the most widely accepted legal schools of thought (maddhab) amongst Sunni Muslim community and is called the Madhhab of Jurists (maddhab ahl al-ray). Many Hanafi Muslims follow the Maturidi school of theology (Aqidah, Arabic: عقيدة).

The importance of this madhhab lies in the fact that it encompasses not only the rulings and sayings of Abu Hanifa, but also the rulings and sayings of the judicial council he established. Abu Hanifa was the first to formally solve cases and organize them into chapters. He was followed by Malik ibn Anas in arranging Al-Muwatta. Since the Sahaba and the successors of the Sahaba did not put attention in establishing the science of Sharia or codifying it in chapters or organized books, but rather relied on the strength of their memorization for transmitting knowledge, Abu Hanifa feared that the next generation of the Muslim community would not understand Sharia laws well. His books consisted of Taharah (purification), Salat (prayer), other acts of Ibadah (worship), Muwamalah (public treatment), then Mawarith (inheritance).

Under the patronage of the Abbasids, the Hanafi school flourished in Iraq and spread throughout the Islamic world, firmly establishing itself in Muslim Spain, Greater Khorasan and Transoxiana by the 9th century, where it acquired the support of rulers including Delhi Sultanate, Khwarazmian Empire, Kazakh Sultanate and the local Samanid rulers. Turkic expansion introduced the school to the Indian subcontinent and Anatolia, and it was adopted as the chief legal school of the Ottoman and Mughal Empire. In the modern Republic of Turkey, the Hanafi jurisprudence is enshrined in Diyanet, the directorate for religious affairs, through the constitution (art. 136).

The Hanafi school is the largest of the four traditional Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, followed by approximately 30% of Sunni Muslims worldwide. It is the main school of jurisprudence in the Balkans, Turkey, Egypt, the Levant, Central Asia and South Asia, in addition to parts of Russia and China. The other primary Sunni schools are the Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools.