IMAM ABU HANIFA’S TEACHERS

Abstract

UDK 929 Ebu Hanifa
           37.014.52:28

Kufah, the city where Abu Hanifa was born and received most of his education was at the time one of the greatest, along with Mecca, Medina and Basrah, centers of development of Islamic studies. During the period of khalifa Ali ibn Abi Talib, Kufah was the capital of the Caliphate. Over a thousand sahabies, including the 24 participants of the battle of Bedr inhabited Kufah. Their presence alone brought about the rise in interest in studying and understanding the tenants of faith among the citizens of Kufah. Most of the sahabies were transmitters of the Tradition of the Messenger s.w.s., or were a model of living his Sunnah thus passing it on to the next generation of Muslims – tabi’ins. From this generation, who listened to the Hadith and witnessed its practical living directly from the sahabies, Abu Hanifa received his learning. Historical sources note that there was hardly any muhaddis living in Kufa at the time that Abu Hanifa did not quote a Hadith from. As a result of this and because Abu Hanifa also stayed in Mecca and in Medina where he attended lectures and learned from the most eminent scholars in the region, some authors state that the number of the teachers of Abu Hanifa reaches 4000. Since it is impossible to account for all the teachers of Abu Hanifa, in this article we will only mention those who were amongst renowned imams of the time in the fields of fiqh, hadith, Tafseer and qiraat. We here bring details on the following teachers: Hammad bin Abi Sulayman, Amir Ash-Sha’bi, ‘Ata' ibn Abi Rabah, Katadeh ibn Di’ameh Al-Basri, Amir ibn Dinar, Ibn Shihab az-Zuhri, Sulayman b. Mihran Al-A’mash, Abu Jafer Muhammad b. Ali b. Al-Husain, ‘Ikrime Abu Abdullah,  Seleme b. Kuhail b. Husayn Al-Hadramiyy, Al-Hakem b. ‘Utejbeh, Nafi’ Abu Abdullah el-Medeni, Abu Az-Zubejr el-Meki Muhamed bin Muslim, Hisham ibn ‘Urva ibn Az-Zubejr and Abdur - Rahman ibn Hurmuz Al-A’raj.