The Hanafi schoolTemplate:Efn or Hanafism is the largest school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four principal schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (Template:Circa), who systemised the use of reasoning (Template:Transliteration). Hanafi legal theory primarily derives law from the Quran, the sayings and practices of Muhammad (Template:Transliteration), scholarly consensus (Template:Transliteration) and analogical reasoning (Template:Transliteration), but also considers juristic discretion (Template:Transliteration) and local customs (Template:Transliteration). It is distinctive in its greater usage of Template:Transliteration than other schools.
The school spread throughout the Muslim world under the patronage of various Islamic empires, including the Abbasids and Seljuks. The region of Transoxiana emerged as a centre of classical Hanafi scholarship between the 10th and 12th centuries, which gave rise to the Maturidi school of theology. The Ottoman Empire adopted Hanafism as its official school of law and influenced the legal thought of the school, eventually codifying it as the Template:Transliteration in the 1870s.
Followers of the Hanafi school are called Hanafis, who are estimated to number around 800 million worldwide. As such, it accounts for approximately 45% of all Muslims and remains the largest Islamic school, being predominant in the Balkans, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey, the Levant, and South Asia.
History
The Hanafi school emerged from the legal tradition of Kufa in Iraq, in which its eponym Abu Hanifa (Template:Died in) resided.Template:Sfn Iraqi jurists were known for their use of independent reasoning (Template:Transliteration) in deriving law.Template:Sfn Kufa, alongside Medina and Basra, was a centre of legal activity at the beginning of the second Hijri century. Its prominent jurists included Amir al-Sha'bi, Ibrahim al-Nakha'i and Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman.Template:Sfn The opinions of Abu Hanifa and the earlier Kufan jurists closely correspond,Template:Sfn particularly those of al-Nakha'i.Template:Sfn Abu Hanifa's legal doctrine, as conveyed to his students, was predominantly derived from his own instructors, chiefly Hammad.Template:Sfn Abu Hanifa attended Hammad's study circle for approximately 20 years and inherited it upon Hammad's death.Template:Sfn
Formative period
Abu Hanifa and his students were responsible for systemising the use of Template:Transliteration,Template:Sfn of which Abu Hanifa was its "unrivalled master".Template:Sfn According to his contemporary Shu'ba ibn Ayyash, Abu Hanifa was the "most systematic jurist of his time".Template:Sfn His legal thought was distinct for its treatment of hypothetical scenarios, which he held would help prepare for disastrous circumstances. It was also distinct for its method of analogical reasoning (Template:Transliteration). Abu Hanifa would identify the normative, underlying principles of the law from the Quran, hadith and practices of Muhammad's companions, and applied these to solve unprecedented legal cases.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration and adherence to analogical consistency were defining characteristics of early Hanafis,Template:Sfn who employed juristic discretion (Template:Transliteration) to depart from the results of Template:Transliteration when deemed appropriate.Template:Sfn As Template:Transliteration enabled the treatment of multiple legal cases from a single case, it facilitated the systematic compilation of legal literature.Template:Sfn
There is no record of legal treatises authored by Abu Hanifa.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His teachings were transmitted by his disciples Abu Yusuf (Template:Died in) and Muhammad al-Shaybani (Template:Died in), the last of whom was the most prolific.Template:Sfn Later Hanafis termed the corpus of al-Shaybani as the "Template:Transliteration" and ascribed it an authoritative status.Template:Sfn The students of Abu Hanifa established study circles in Baghdad, an emerging hub of cultural activity and the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate.Template:Sfn The school won the support of the centralising Abbasid state, which sought to unify the legal system.Template:Sfn The Abbasids' preference for appointing Hanafi judges assisted in spreading the school. Abu Yusuf served as a judge in Baghdad; the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (Template:Reign) later appointed him as the chief judge. By the time of al-Shaybani's death, the school had spread to Egypt and Balkh in Tokharistan.Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration dialectics involved the interlocutors exploring a series of hypothetical legal cases to delineate the limits of legal assumptions.Template:Sfn In practice, it led Hanafis to favour widely accepted hadith, particularly those which enshrined general principles that were applicable to other cases.Template:Sfn When the widespread collection of hadith led to the circulation of reports that contradicted Hanafi positions, the Hanafis prioritised those that were acted upon by the Iraqi legal tradition.Template:Sfn Reports supported by Iraqi juristic practice were deemed more authoritative than those which were not.Template:Sfn Abu Yusuf and al-Shaybani separately authored works named Kitab al-Athar (Template:Literal translation), which sought to ground Hanafi teachings in the precedent of the early Kufan jurists and the Kufan companions of Muhammad, notably Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud and Ali.Template:Sfn Abu Hanifa himself is known to have used hadith; in Abu Yusuf's Ikhtilaf Abi Ḥanifa wa-Ibn Abi Layla, which lists cases where Abu Hanifa differed with his contemporary Ibn Abi Layla, Abu Hanifa is quoted as citing a hadith in around 10% of the cases presented, but cites narrations attributed to Muhammad's companions more often.Template:Sfn
In contemporary external sources, members of the nascent school were described as the Template:Transliteration ("companions of Abu Hanifa") and the Template:Transliteration ("companions of Template:Transliteration").Template:Sfn Early Hanafi doctrine was attacked by the traditionists,Template:Efn who accused Hanafis of preferring their Template:Transliteration to hadith.Template:Sfn The traditionists primarily found objectionable the Hanafi practice of sometimes favouring Template:Transliteration over hadith that were not widely transmitted (Template:Transliteration).Template:Sfn The identification of Hanafis with the Template:Transliteration in contradistinction to the traditionist Template:Transliteration strengthened during the resurgence of the latter following the Mihna.Template:Sfn Al-Shafi'i (Template:Born in), too, critiqued the Hanafis' treatment of hadith and their claim that their positions reflected those of the Kufan companions of Muhammad.Template:Sfn He further argued that Template:Transliteration was subjective, which later led to classical Hanafi legal theorists articulating it as being completely dependent on the primary sources of law.Template:Sfn
Classical period
During the 9th century, the Hanafi school transitioned from a "personal school" centered around individual jurists and their study circles to a distinct legal community with a collectively recognised doctrine and authoritative figures.Template:Sfn By the end of the century, the school resembled a professional body with a doctrine that was systematically transmitted from teachers to students, maturing into its classical form.Template:Sfn Hanafis began to write commentaries on earlier works; until the 12th century, these were mostly on the works of al-Shaybani.Template:Sfn Al-Quduri (Template:Died in)'s legal primer Template:Transliteration was the classical school's first work of the Template:Transliteration genre and the most authoritative after that of al-Shaybani.Template:Sfn
Criticism from the traditionists led to the Hanafis grounding their positions in hadith over the 9th century.Template:Sfn Some Hanafis moved towards using the traditionists' method of hadith criticism to justify the school's positions, such as the Egyptian jurist al-Tahawi (Template:Died in).Template:Sfn Nonetheless, the classical legal theorists focused on formulating a Hanafi approach to hadith criticism that emphasised a hadith's acceptance by early jurists, with transmitter analysis taking a secondary role.Template:Sfn
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During the 9th century, the Hanafi school also emerged as the prevailing school in Transoxiana and Tokharistan.Template:Sfn The school was introduced to Transoxiana by the students of Abu Hanifa and al-Shaybani, but became prevalent under the Samanids, during whose rule Hanafi scholars received official favour.Template:Sfn The Transoxianan Hanafi tradition was highly influential in defining the doctrine of the later school.Template:Sfn Works authored by Transoxianan jurists and accorded a high status in later Hanafi tradition include:
- The jurisprudential work of al-Sarakhsi (Template:Died in), known as Template:Transliteration,Template:Sfn as well as his legal commentary Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn
- The Template:Transliteration of Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani (Template:Died in), which is considered the most authoritative representation of the early classical school.Template:Sfn
- Template:Transliteration, a large legal commentary by Ala al-Din al-Kasani (Template:Died in).Template:Sfn
The intellectual descendants of al-Sarakhsi and his teacher, Abd al-Aziz ibn Ahmad al-Halwani (Template:Died in), eventually became the primary branch of the Transoxianan tradition. For 300 years after al-Sarakhsi, the Halwani-Sarakhsi branch constituted almost all of the major jurists engaged in rule-formulationTemplate:Efn (Template:Transliteration) within the school, and dominated the process. The process contributed to the stabilisation of the school's laws.Template:Sfn The branch also popularised the doctrine of the Template:Transliteration: that the opinions transmitted from the school's founders command the highest level of authority within the school.Template:Sfn
In the 10th century, the Hanafi theologian Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (Template:Died in) developed a Template:Transliteration tradition that crystallised into the Maturidi school of theology,Template:Sfn which had descended directly from the theological views of the earliest Hanafis.Template:Sfn Due to philosophical differences, the Transoxianan Maturidis disagreed with the Mu'tazilite strain of Iraqi Hanafis on several technical points of legal theory, but saw limited success in expunging the Mu'tazilite influence.Template:Sfn
The Oghuz Turks who founded the Seljuk Empire became attached to the Transoxianan Hanafi tradition. The Seljuks favoured these eastern Hanafis and appointed them to various official positions in their new territories, encouraging their migration out of Central Asia.Template:Sfn During the Seljuk expansion of the 11th and 12th centuries, the Hanafi and Maturidi schools spread westward into Syria, Anatolia and western Persia.Template:Sfn In Syria and Iraq, the Central Asian scholars brought with them an increased emphasis on the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Hanafi migration out of Central Asia accelerated during the Mongol invasions, which ravaged the region.Template:Sfn
Mamluk period
During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mamluk Sultanate saw an influx of Hanafi scholars from Anatolia and Central Asia. Discussions of Islamic logic and Template:Transliteration in the Mamluk jurisprudential literature reflect the influence of Central Asian scholars.Template:Sfn
Criticism of the Hanafi approach to hadith prompted Mamluk Hanafi scholars to treat the subject in more detail.Template:Sfn In his legal commentary Template:Transliteration, the Mamluk jurist Ibn al-Humam (Template:Died in) engages with the traditionists' approach to hadith criticism,Template:Sfn and attempts to navigate the associated legal consequences.Template:Sfn His approach to hadith influenced later Egyptian and Syrian Hanafi scholars.Template:Sfn This "Egyptian school" of Hanafi hadith criticism referenced hadith from the hadith collections instead of Hanafi legal works, and employed the traditionists' terminology to assess their authenticity.Template:Sfn
Mamluk jurists faced difficulties in interpreting the plurality of legal opinions that had accrued in the school. In his work Template:Transliteration, the Mamluk jurist Template:Interlanguage link (Template:Died in) developed and detailed the process of rule-determination,Template:Efn clarifying the role of precedent and enabling other jurists to engage in the process themselves, and thus determine the applicable legal ruling for a given case. It marked a shift in the material consulted by muftis from the primary literature of the school to its secondary literature, comprising legal commentaries and compendia which contained rulings.Template:Sfn
Ottoman era
The Ottoman Empire adopted the Hanafi school as their official legal school.Template:Sfn The Ottomans established an extensive network of madrasas to train jurists, with the most prestigious located in the capital Constantinople.Template:Sfn By the 16th century, the Şeyḫülislâm emerged as the chief imperial religious and judicial authority.Template:Sfn The Şeyḫülislâm was appointed by the sultan and presided over the imperial canon,Template:Sfn a collection of legal texts that the imperial religious hierarchy was required to consult.Template:Sfn Many jurists from Arab provinces of the empire were critical of the imperial canon, partly because of its inclusion of later works which they judged as contradicting the preferred opinions (Template:Transliteration) of the school.Template:Sfn The sultans influenced the formation of the imperial religious hierarchy by appointing muftis directly and through the Şeyḫülislâm, delineating the range of legal opinions in the Ottoman Hanafi tradition.Template:Sfn Members of the imperial religious hierarchy were described as "Template:Transliteration".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Intellectual genealogies (Template:Transliteration) authored by the imperial religious hierarchy aimed to demarcate the institution, situate themselves and their endorsed works in the broader Hanafi tradition and construct an unbroken intellectual chain to Abu Hanifa.Template:Sfn
Hanafi law co-existed with the Template:Transliteration (dynastic law), decrees and edicts promulgated by the sultans. The Template:Transliteration often reaffirmed religious laws; in other cases, it authorised actions that the jurists opposed, such as torture.Template:Sfn The Şeyḫülislâm would sometimes request sultanic edicts to require the imperial religious hierarchy to enforce particular rulings of the school.Template:Sfn The Maʿrūḍāt of the Şeyḫülislâm Ebussuud Efendi (Template:Died in), a collection of fatwas endorsed by Suleiman I, contained sultanic edicts and was frequently referenced in later Hanafi works which considered its opinions binding.Template:Sfn Late Hanafis believed that judges could act as deputies of the sultan who could thus regulate, inter alia, the legal opinions judges could reference, such as in the case of inter-school disputes.Template:Sfn In the 17th and 18th centuries, Hanafi jurists began to incorporate sultanic edicts into authoritative legal works.Template:Sfn
Ibrahim al-Halabi (Template:Died in)'s legal manual Template:Transliteration was among the most popular in the empire and was the subject of over 70 commentaries.Template:Sfn By the 19th century, it had become the standard legal textbook.Template:Sfn Other popular Ottoman manuals were the Template:Transliteration of Molla Hüsrev (Template:Died in) and al-Durr al-Mukhtar of Haskafi.Template:Sfn The Template:Transliteration of the late Arab Ottoman jurist Ibn Abidin (Template:Died in) is considered an authoritative and representative work of the late Hanafi tradition.Template:Sfn It lists most opinions within the school and their level of authoritativeness, incorporating most primary Hanafi sources produced until its writing.Template:Sfn It employs legal devices such as necessity (Template:Transliteration) to depart from the canonical Template:Transliteration where necessary to ensure the continued relevancy of the school, and references sultanic edicts to revise the school's opinions.Template:Sfn
Between 1869 and 1877, the Ottomans promulgated the Template:Transliteration, a codification of Hanafi jurisprudence.Template:Sfn The Template:Transliteration was drafted by a committee led by the jurist Ahmed Cevdet Pasha,Template:Sfn who had successfully argued against the implementation of the Napoleonic Code.Template:Sfn It drew from the Hanafi literature on legal maxims (Template:Transliteration) and to a great degree favoured the opinions of the late Hanafi tradition.Template:Sfn Many of its articles were fully or partially derived from al-Halabi's Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn However, the Template:Transliteration also marked the state's assumption of control over jurisprudence, which had previously been the purview of the decentralized juristic community.Template:Sfn
Indian subcontinent
The Hanafi school spread to India from Transoxiana and eastern Persia.Template:Sfn To consolidate control over his realm, the Mughal emperor Awrangzib (Template:Reign) ordered the compilation of Hanafi Template:Transliteration. Completed between 1664 and 1672, the resulting Template:Transliteration selected legal opinions from earlier Hanafi legal works and is modelled after the Template:Transliteration of al-Marghinani.Template:Sfn
During the colonization of India, the East India Company sought to create a "complete digest of Hindu and Mussulman law" to eliminate legal pluralism. The resulting Anglo-Muhammadan law was based in part on a translation of al-Marghinani's Template:Transliteration, which was chosen for its brevity and its belonging to the Hanafi school, which most Indian Muslims followed. Consequently, the Template:Transliteration was effectively codified and severed from the Hanafi commentarial tradition under which it was traditionally interpreted.Template:Sfn
In the 19th century, the Barelvi and Deobandi movements emerged in India.Template:Sfn Their legal views included strict adherence (Template:Transliteration) to a legal school in contradistinction to the Ahl-i Hadith movement,Template:Sfn and emphasised the importance of hadith.Template:Sfn The Deobandi acceptance of Ibn al-Humam's approach to hadith criticism culminated in the Template:Transliteration of Deobandi scholar Zafar Ahmad Usmani (Template:Died in),Template:Sfn a work that attempts to justify Hanafi positions using hadith.Template:Sfn
Demographics
Today, the Hanafi school is the largest Islamic school of law, numbering more than 800 million and constituting around 45% of all Muslims.Template:Sfn It is the predominant school in the former Ottoman territories, including Albania, Azerbaijan,Template:Sfn Bosnia, Turkey, and much of the Levant.Template:Sfn It is also predominant amongst Pomaks in parts of Bulgaria and Crimea amongst Crimean Tatars.Template:Sfn The South Asian Muslim populations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and, in Myanmar (amongst Rohingya Muslims), adheres to the Hanafi school.Template:Sfn Egypt is a mix of the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi’i schools.Template:Sfn
The Eurasian regions of Caucasus specifically Western: (Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia) and also in Eastern (Dagestan amongst Nogais) are also mainly Hanafi.Template:Sfn The Russian Muslim minority in Tatarstan amongst Volga Tatars, Bashkortostan amongst Bashkirs are Hanafis.Template:Sfn Northern Cypriot Muslims predominantly follow the Hanafi school.Template:Sfn Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, practice Hanafi jurisprudence; so do the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, China, and the Muslim Baloch minority in southeastern Iran.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Missionary activates of the Tablighi Jamaat have promoted the Hanafi school throughout Africa, especially in Somalia,Template:Sfn and South Africa.Template:Sfn It is one of two dominant schools of thought practiced among Muslims in the United States, the other one being Shafi'i.Template:Sfn
The Ottoman Mecelle was repealed by most post-Ottoman states over the first half of the 20th century. Parts remained in force in Jordan and Israel until the 1970s.Template:Sfn Where it is dominant, the Hanafi school is followed in religious observance and, in some regions, continues to govern Muslim family law.Template:Sfn
Legal theory
The legal theory (Template:Transliteration) of the Hanafi school recognises the following sources of law, listed in order of epistemic authority: the Quran, the practices and sayings of Muhammad (Template:Transliteration) as documented in the hadith, consensus of opinion (Template:Transliteration), Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration and local customs (Template:Transliteration).Template:Sfn Texts with equal epistemic authority may modify each other; if they are of differing levels, the text with the weaker epistemic authority is rejected in favour of the stronger one.Template:Sfn
Quran
The Quran is the primary source of Hanafi law. In Hanafi legal theory, it is considered acceptable to adduce non-canonical Quranic readings related by the companions of Muhammad as legal evidence, but they are not treated as part of the Quranic text.Template:Sfn For example, classical Hanafi jurists are known to have cited the non-Uthmanic reading of Ibn Mas'ud but treated it akin to an exegetical gloss.Template:Sfn
Hadith
The Hanafis categorise hadith as mass-transmitted (Template:Transliteration), famous (Template:Transliteration) or solitary (Template:Transliteration) depending on the nature of their chain of transmission (Template:Transliteration):Template:Sfn
- A Template:Transliteration hadith is transmitted by such a large number of people on each level of its Template:Transliteration that it is impossible for it to have been forged.Template:Sfn It imparts epistemically certain knowledge about the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn
- A Template:Transliteration hadith is transmitted by a limited number of people at the first level of its Template:Transliteration but was widely acted upon by jurists, beginning with their first generations.Template:Sfn It imparts epistemically near-certain knowledge about the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn
- An Template:Transliteration hadith, also known as a "singular report" (Template:Transliteration), is one which is neither Template:Transliteration nor Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn
Only Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration hadith may abrogate a Quranic verse, whether by replacing, qualifying or restricting its understanding.Template:Sfn An Template:Transliteration hadith cannot be adduced in legal discussions of "great importance" as Hanafis assume that God would have ensured the reliable transmission of critical religious knowledge; nor can it be used if its early transmitters did not act upon it, as Hanafis assume that their inaction indicates that it is not part of the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration refers to the consensus of opinion. Template:Transliteration may be explicit, with all mujtahids agreeing verbally or through actions, or tacit, where some express an opinion while others remain silent. In the Hanafi view, tacit Template:Transliteration can only establish a concession (Template:Transliteration) rather than a strict rule (Template:Transliteration).Template:Sfn The Hanafis believe that the companions of Muhammad reached Template:Transliteration on some matters, and some Hanafis regard agreement between Abu Bakr and Umar, the first two Rashidun caliphs, as being Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration, also referred to analogical reasoning, involves extending a ruling on an original case (Template:Transliteration) to a subsidiary case (Template:`far) where both cases share an effective cause (Template:`illah).Template:Sfn For example, because of the prohibition of usury, it is forbidden to exchange wheat and other commodities for each other unless the transaction is immediate and the amount of both goods are equal. Hanafis extend this prohibition to apples through Template:Transliteration, as they identify the underlying Template:`illah as the exchange of a measurable commodity, and apples are measurable.Template:Sfn
Compared to the other Sunni and Shia schools of law, Hanafis use Template:Transliteration more extensively and grant it greater authority.Template:Sfn However, it is deemed a last resort only to be used when no ruling can be derived from the Quran, Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Hanafis view Template:Transliteration as a means of revealing pre-existing implicit rulings within the law rather than as a source of new rulings.Template:Sfn Because the law is viewed as coherent and internally consistent, a valid Template:Transliteration must accord with the internal rationality of the law.Template:Sfn
If a ruling derived from Template:Transliteration conflicts with that from an ahad hadith, the Hanafis disagree on which takes precedence. One group argues that the Template:Transliteration hadith always takes precedence, while a second group, led by Isa ibn Aban (Template:Died in), opine that it only takes precedence if transmitted by a companion of Muhammad known to be a jurist.Template:Sfn In general, the early classical school always followed hadith transmitted by jurist-companions regardless of its correspondence with Template:Transliteration, but followed hadith transmitted by non-jurist companions only if it corresponded with a possible Template:Transliteration, and thus accorded with the internal rationale of the law.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn By the Ottoman period, however, the distinction had become less popular and non-jurist companions were largely treated the same as jurist companions.Template:Sfn
The Hanafis require the original case to not directly state the Template:`illah. The Template:`illah must be deduced by other means.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn If the Template:`illah is stated, then the ruling is applied to other cases via the "indication of the text" (dalalat al-nass), not Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration is an exercise in linguistic interpretation rather than analogical reasoning.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Template:Transliteration refers to juristic discretion. The Hanafi jurist al-Sarakhsi (Template:Died in) describes it as a means through which a jurist can depart from a ruling derived through Template:Transliteration to ameliorate hardship, where the new ruling is typically supported by a superior proof, such as the Quran, Template:Transliteration, necessity (Template:Transliteration) or an alternative Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn For example, by way of necessity, the Hanafi jurists allow a son to buy food or medicine for his ill father from the father's property without his prior permission.Template:Sfn Hanafi Template:Transliteration based on necessity is, however, less broad than Maliki Template:Transliteration based on public welfare (Template:Transliteration).Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration emerged out of concerns among Hanafis that unrestrained Template:Transliteration could lead to results that were absurd or contradicted the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn The earliest Hanafis, including Abu Hanifa and al-Shaybani, more frequently used Template:Transliteration justified by subjective and pragmatic reasoning rather than on evidential grounds.Template:Sfn Their use of Template:Transliteration sought to change the scope or outcome of a ruling due to its potential effects. More often than not, they deployed Template:Transliteration in a way that cannot be considered as ameliorating hardship, such as establishing the liability of a group of thieves involved in theft even if only one of them carried the stolen goods.Template:Sfn Subjective Template:Transliteration declined due to attacks from al-Shafi'i, and Hanafi legal theorists would systemise it into the form eventually espoused by al-Sarakhsi,Template:Sfn attempting to incorporate elements of subjectivity into the definition of necessity.Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration refers to customary practices. The Hanafis consider it as an ancillary source of law that is subordinate to the primary sources of law.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration is divided into two types: general (Template:Transliteration) and special (Template:Transliteration). A general Template:Transliteration refers to a customary practice that is widely accepted among a people regardless of the time period. As part of Template:Transliteration, the Hanafis permit favouring general Template:Transliteration over a ruling derived through Template:Transliteration. A special Template:Transliteration is more local and is upheld by a particular location or profession. Most Hanafis agree that special Template:Transliteration cannot qualify the general meaning of a textual evidence (Template:Transliteration), and that a ruling derived from Template:Transliteration takes precedence over special Template:Transliteration, although there is some disagreement on this.Template:Sfn Turkish academic Ali Bardakoğlu suggests that the emphasis given to Template:Transliteration in Hanafi legal theory can partly explain the spread of the school among disparate non-Arab groups.Template:Sfn
List of Hanafite scholars
References
Notes
Citations
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