Stop hating on Hanafees!

[Nadeem R]

btw...the title is just to draw attention

Bismillah! I've seen a phenomenon where it appears that students are coming to a conclusion that the Hanafee opinion on matters is shallow and lacking the depth that the Shaffee madhab or Ahlul Hadith hold, therefore, I wanted to comment on this briefly.

I'd like to look at an example to illustrate this point. When we look at the Arkaan of Salaah, we find that the Hanafee madhab has 6 while the other top schools have 14. One may feel that the Ahnaf are lacking in their Salah, and are missing a key factor of "tranquility" being a rukn. However, upon inspection of one of my books of Hanafee fiqh, I found that in actuality, the 14 arkaan are included in the Hanafee fiqh, but are simply categorized as Wajib. Moreso, if one looks a the style of the Hanafee's they show this effort to have tranquility and focus in the Salah in their own way:



not moving feet to touch
not making more than a handful of movements in Salaah overall
not waving the finger for Tashahahud
etc.
I wanted to raise this simple point to show that there is much to be appreciated from all the schools. In fact, when I looked at a Shafee book of Fiqh that I have, I found that it had 17 arkan. There are 3 added arkan for complete stillness in 3 additional positions (rising from ruku, sitting between sujuood, etc).

There is much more to discuss on this, however, I'd like to see what other students feel about this particular topic.

Someone's gotta stand up for the Ahnaf!

If I said anything to offend anyone, please forgive me.

WallahuAlim!

[Nadeem R]

I think if we refer back to Code of Scholars, Evolution of Fiqh we would have greater appreciation for the Ahnaf who lives outside of the Muslim lands. There was much less fitnah for the people of Hijaz (Shafees) as compared to the Hanafees of Iraq.

Here is another example, which I could be wrong about in my interpretation.

For Qualities of the Imam, the Shafee's list handsomeness, the Hanafee's list age. I think this also reflects the different environments they were in. Amidst turmoil, the Ahnaf have to look towards seniority as those are the people who are experienced and trustworthy, meanwhile the Shafee have the luxury of choosing the most beautiful among them to lead Salaah!

wallahuAlim...the fiqh of both schools are amazing when you step back and look at them.

[notacouch]

From my understanding part of this issue and others is a mix of lack of proper understanding of taqlid, how to go about it today, and some knowledge of the fuqaha, particularly the primary madhabs. Blind following was a historical issue and remains one today. We here in our generation are to some degree removed from both cultural tradition as well as being nested in an environment where a following is predominant. Yet we might still hear of divisions, where one group is told to stay away from another or has some sort of problem. But back "home" you could be pulled by the arm to stay away from others. We ourselves still see cultural "artifacts" and are always curious to verify whether or not they have a place in Islam. We might even see similar divisions and wonder why they exist or how to reconcile them.


One of the things we might see while learning perhaps even embedded in the writing of an author is a sort of... "thing" against a school or the schools of thought because of the failure of their followers to... follow them properly and for the conflicts such forms of following may yield. We on the other hand live in a time/place where it may not be very clear how to do so. More over we follow scholars whose paradigm is something like, "I follow such and such by default (until/unless) [...]." I don't think this is a paradigm that we can follow. One of the reasons is that it makes no sense to follow one madhab and say follow another in a key issue that really you are not in a position to make ijtihad on. It is like saying that there was something wrong with either the methodology or the resulting opinion of the very imam or school you subscribe to. What I have seen is that people will take this and instead of increasing in their respect, admiration, appreciation, for the systems already in place, they gradually harbor some sort of disdain for it, their scholars, and the people that follow it.


For example I have personally seen someone who when they think of Al Maghrib I. students (not Tayybah, elsewhere) they associate with them blind following of the AMI instructors. As a result they make gross assumptions and have disrespect for the ulema without even realizing it. They are not even aware of this tone, expression, a whole range of sudden disdain. They'll say they love/respect the ulema. Ironically, if you dig deeper they might also say something like either they follow Islam in their own way (their own madhab?!) or... (I forget the other point I was going to make... perhaps I'll return to it--it probably would have led into the next 2 paragraphs).


There's a Qur'aniyyoon a friend and I've been debating with on/off on reddit. Turns out someone there knows him in real life. He's married, has a beard, wife has hijab, he goes to the masjid, and follows the Sunnis in everything. /facepalm.

On a lesser note sometimes we will prefer an opinion over another based on the simplified reasoning or background revealed to us. For example someone told me about a hadith regarding the raising of the hands was mutawatir. They had no knowledge of the Hanafi standing and the default thinking is, "Perhaps it didn't reach them." If it weren't the default I fear the thinking would be much more worse. The implication given in that context, that conversation is not only is the Hanafi madhab wrong, but their methodology as well. This is simply incorrect. It is a serious problem.


In sum I think it all goes back to the first talk we had in IlmFest 2009. Sh. ibn Faqih got up there and spoke to us about the missing element in society. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. To get to that point I think some education is required. There's a good, short book I can recommend regarding taqlid, The Legal Status of Following a Madhab by Mufti Taqi Usmani, you can find it online. Asides from that we should learn about the Imams, learn about how trustworthiness factors into the transmission of hadith, appreciation of what hadith really are, and trustworthiness when it comes to subscribing to one's opinion in Islam. Then (or before all that) at least for us we can read and apply a book on the etiquettes of students of knowledge. With working knowledge of all that, a will to apply it... I think it would necessitate utmost respect, which in effect will be simultaneously healing and sealing past and contemporary issues.


wAllaahu Alim...