Abu Hanifa
and Uncreatedness Of Qur'an ('Shaukani' Website)
by Sh. G. F. Haddad
Q. Did Imam Abu Hanifa (radyallahu ʿanh) believe the Qur'an was created?
A.
La hawla wa-la quwwata illa billah. People should stay away from the above website [*] as it is riddled with confusion and incoherence. That particular page says:
As far as what is in the Ibana regarding his saying about the createdness of the Quran we find that Imam Al Ashari did not make it up it is available in the explanation of Fiqh Al Akbar by Mulla Ali Qari so those who say the book slanders Imam Abu Hanifa are not correct because the saying recorded in Al Ibana is recorded in Al Muhadith Mulla Ali Qari's [a great Hanafi scholar] work and is transmitted by one of Imam Abu Hanifa' students.
Not to mention grammar, the above paragraph is remarkable for the falsehoods it contains:
1. A slander of Imam al-Ashʿari, whom no one even accused of "making up" anything, rather, it is the Hanbali anthropomorphists of Baghdad who have been accused of tampering with the Ibana, as documented in the Maqalat of al-Kawthari and Shaykh Wahbi Ghawji's book on the Ibana - of which the site's writer clearly has no idea.
2. A slander of Imam Abu Hanifa, who in the Fiqh al-Akbar says verbatim: "and the Qur'an is uncreated" (wal-Qur'an ghayru makhluq).
3. A slander of al-Qari, who in his commentary states that Imam Abu Hanifa said the same in his Wasiyya and proceeds to quote it ("We confirm that the Qur'an is the Speech of Allah Most High... and the Speech of Allah Most High is uncreated, and whoever says it is created is a disbeliever"), then he quotes Imam Abu Yusuf as saying: "I agreed with Abu Hanifa that the Qur'an is uncreated, and that whoever says it is created is a disbeliever." Then he cites al-Pazdawi as saying that the same is authentically related from Muhammad ibn al-Hasan.
Then al-Qari says: "The Shaykhs mentioned, may Allah have mercy on them, that he [Abu Hanifa] said: 'The Qur'an is the uncreated Speech of Allah,' and that it should not be [merely] said: 'the Qur'an is uncreated,' lest the mind jump to the conclusion that the actual forms of the sounds and letters are without beginning, the way some ignorant Hanbalis have done."
Observe the difference between what I quoted and what the fitna-mongering website claimed, which it then coated over with the syrupy protestations
So we love him regardless but the truth is more beloved to us that is what the Imams taught us to hold the truth above men. We are not men like them but they taught us that if they were wrong to discard their opinion and go with the truth.
(Be not surprised, then, if we call your own misguidance for what it is.)
Then he said:
In an edited version of al Ibana in my possession the editor claims the saying was attributed to Imam Abu Hanifa by his son. So even that proves there not to be a conspiracy against the Imam as some suggest or tampering with the book.
and that is an inane conclusion piled on top of a lie, since no such saying was authentically attributed to Imam Abu Hanifa by his son. Rather, it is his grandson ʿUmar ibn Hammad ibn Abi Hanifa who is related to say: "The Qur'an is created and that is my view and the view of my fathers," whereupon Bishr ibn al-Walid said to him: "It may be your view but it is certainly not the view of your fathers." Abu Zahra mentioned this. (Abu Hanifa p. 161)
Rather, it is definitely a Muʿtazili forgery on the one hand (as Abu Zahra states) and an anti-Hanafi conspiracy including the anthropomorphist Hanbalis of Baghdad on the other, the same people who stuffed ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal's book al-Sunna with similar enormities.
In fact, Abu Zahra very clearly says in the beginning of his section on the issue of the createdness of the Qur'an that "we hesitate to accept the narrations attributing such an opinion to Abu Hanifa because they come to us through adversaries who were interested in discrediting him and because there are other narrations which contradict them which are likelier to be acceptable, as they come through trustworthy narrators who have not been accused of lying" (Abu Zahra, Abu Hanifa p. 160).
It is nothing short of hypocrisy to pass over the above passage in a discussion which ostensibly cites Abu Zahra and ostensibly pretends to address the issues of tampering and false attributions to Imam Abu Hanifa.
Then he said:
As regards what is in the Ibana what is "atributted" to Imam Abu Hanifa [r] it is not a slander on the Imam it is a claim that the Imam believed something and then went back on his belief and came into the opinion of the Sunnah.
That claim is also a slander for promoting which you will be called to account, since Abu Zahra does not even mention it in his book, nor does any reliable scholar who wrote on Imam Abu Hanifa. It is enough lies for someone to relate everything he hears, what to say of someone who relates everything that crosses his mind!
In any case Al Ibana is considered by scholars in Aqeeda as the work work of Imam Al Ashari [r]. I referred to one of the top scholars in Ilm Al Kalam here in Egypt to see if they accepted the work as authentically his and he said the work is his.
The argument is not whether the Ibana is the work of al-Ashʿari; the argument is whether the present text of the Ibana is his in its entirety.
In any event Imam Abu Hanifa is an Imam in this Ummah [r] abd out of the four Imams is ranked as the first then comes Malik then Shafi then Ahmad. When I studied FIqh with one of my teachers he said the adab of the student of fiqh is to rank the four Imams as such. After all it is known Imam ABu Hanifa was one of the first Imams and most scholars hold he was a Tabi tabi [from the Salaf].
Change teachers. The near-totality of the scholars hold Abu Hanifa was a Tabiʿi.
He also said:
We know some details but nothing exact from which to draw from so that we can accurately say the Imam [r] said this or said. Most of what we know comes by second hand transmission and that is unfortunate.
We put to rest that Wahhabi myth by discussing the chains of transmission for Abu Hanifa's works in ʿAqida in the article on ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Khumayyis.
May Allah Most High instill in those new "Azhari" brothers and "translators" fear concerning His rights over them, and stop them from attributing to the Imams statements or paraphrases on His Divine Attributes which they neither said nor meant. We belong to Allah and unto Him is our return.
GF Haddad
[2007]
* The respective website shaukani.wordpress.com is no longer available,, x L 20120706 .
