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Abu-Hanifah (or Aboanifa)

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Abu-Hanifah (Or Aboanifa)

surnamed Alnuman, perhaps the most famous of all the doctors of orthodox Mussulmans, was the son of Thabet, and was born at Cusa, A.D. 700. He was especially distinguished in matters of the law, and held the first place among the four chiefs of particular sects, who may be followed implicitly in their decisions upon points of right. The caliph Almansur had him imprisoned at Bagdad for refusing to subscribe to the opinion of absolute and determined predestination, which the Mussulmans term cadha. Abu-Joseph, sovereign judge and chancellor of the empire under caliph Hadi, brought the doctrine of Abu-Hanifah into such reputation that, in order to be a good Mussulman, it was necessary to be a Hanifite. He died, nevertheless, in prison at Bagdad. His principal writings are, The Mesnad (i.e. The Support), in which he establishes all the points of Mussulmanism on the authority of the Koran and of tradition: Filkelam, a treatise on scholastic theology: — and Moallem' (i.e. Master), a catechism.