Chapter 6

Hanafi taxonomy:

1. Maqbul (accepted)

2. Munqata’ (rejected)

a. Zahir (explicit) [mursal]

i. The irsal of a Companion
ii. The irsal of someone from the second and third generations
iii. The irsal of an upright narrator in every age
iv. The irsal from one route and a continuous isnad from another route

b. Batin (implicit)
i. Is due to the narration opposing stronger principles
ii. Is due to a deficiency or defect in the narrator

Conditions of a Zahir/mursal report according to Hanafi scholars:

1. The transmitter must be from the first three generations

2. The transmitter must be a trustworthy scholar whose knowledge, piety, qualifications, competence, and
reliability are unquestionable
3. The transmitter reports from the Prophet using definitive words of attribution like “the Prophet said…”, and not
vague attributions like “from the Prophet…”

*** All three conditions must be fulfilled, otherwise it will not be accepted

Batin causes:

1. The khabar wahid contradicting some other stronger principle

i. It opposes the Qur’an
ii. It opposes the Sunna Mutawatira
iii. It opposes universal principles
iv. It opposes the intellect or rational postulates
v. It opposes Ijma’
vi. It opposes actions of senior Companions
vii. It opposes something widespread
viii. It cannot be something contradicted by its own narrator
ix. It cannot be discarded as a proof by a Companion
x. It has to be transmitted via retention in the memory
xi. It cannot oppose sensory data

2. A defect or a problem in the transmitter

i. The transmitter is unknown
ii. The transmitter is fasiq
iii. The transmiiter is mentally challenged
iv. The transmitter is a Mubtadi’
  Rejecting a Prophetic report is not a rejection of the Prophet himself or his authority, and neither is it in any way
an accusation of failing on his part as a Prophet
 The Hanafis only reject a Khabar Wahid when it directly conflicts with stronger principles that relate to
obligatory, mandatory, and fixed and foundational matters in the religion. This does not apply to the class of
meritorious acts, the recommended acts, and the merely permissible acts.
 All scholars and specialists act according to some reports and reject others based on their hermeneutical system;
only their motivations and rationales differ. Abu Hanifa and his adherents were no exception in this.
 No one can claim to act by all the Hadiths. Each person acts by some of them and leaves some. This is because
he considers them weak, contrary to Qur’anic texts or a well-known report, or because it is rare, defective,
abrogated, or interpreted with a meaning which common people do not know, and similar reasons.

The major factors behind the additional stringency in accepting ahad reports are because:

1. The transmitter of the report could have been mistaken and could have erred in what he heard and
transmitted
2. The report was related in meaning and not verbatim, which entails important information could have been
missed out or omitted. This would result in a report base don the understanding of the transmitter and not
the actual words of the Prophet
3. The transmitter of the report could have made additions or interpolations into the textual segment thus
mixing words of the Prophet with transmitted additions
4. The possibility of deliberate fabrications of a report

Reasons why the Khabar Wahid is set aside by Hanafi scholars which conflicts with what they consider to be stronger
principles:

1. The Khabar Wahid must not oppose the Qur’an: If a Khabar Wahid contradicts a clear directive, principle, or
doctrine of the Qur’an and there is no way of reconciling it with the Qur’an, it is rejected. This is because the
Qur’an is definitive whereas the Khabar Wahid is non-definitive, and the non-definitive can never take
precedence over the definitive. If a Khabar Wahid opposes the generality of the Qur'an or its manifest text, it is
not accepted. However, the Hanafis do permit a Khabar Wahid to qualify mandatory, recommended, disliked,
and permissible matters. They have no objection in an ambivalent segment of the Qur'an being made clarified
by legal content in a Khabar Wahid.

Examples:
a. “A man will not be asked as to why he hit his wife”
b. Combining prayers

2. The Khabar Wahid must not oppose the established Sunnah (thabita=mutawatira=mashhura=ma’rufa)

Examples:
Restricting the period of time allowed for wiping over the footgear.

3. The Khabar Wahid must not oppose universal Islamic principles: If a Khabar Wahid contradicts a universal
principle derived from the sources of Islam, then that report is not accepted. This condition is termed by the
 Hanafi scholars as “qiyas al-usul”. Qiyas al-usul” in this context are the agreed upon universal principles that are
extracted from the definitive sources and well-known sunna.
4. The Khabar Wahid must not oppose consensus: If the Khabar Wahid contradicts consensus of all the scholars
then such a situation must indicate that the ruling in the ahad report is either abrogated or has no firm basis. ‘Isa
b. Aban: it is shadhdh if the people relate a report but act contrary to it.

Examples:
“If he forced her, then she is free and he has to give her owner a similar slave as a replacement. If she obeyed
him in that, then she belongs to him, and he has to give her owner a similar slave as a replacement.”

5. The Khabar Wahid must not oppose rational principles: The Hanafis regard rational and logical principles to be
definitive truths and proofs. This is because the intellect is one of the remarkable signs and gifts from Allah.

6. The Khabar Wahid must not be opposed by some of the senior companions: ‘Isa b. Aban is said to be the one
who originally espoused the principle and Hanafi scholars followed him in that.

Examples:
a. ‘Ubada b. al-Samit: “For illicit sexual relations between unmarried virgins, the penalty is 100 lashes and exile
for a year” Ali opposes this.
b. Ibn Abbas: “The Messenger of Allah joined the Zuhr and ‘Asr Prayers as well as the maghrib and ‘Isha Prayers
when there was no fear, no travelling, nor rain.” Umar opposes this.

7. The Khabar Wahid must not be something about a widespread ruling or practice (‘Umum al-Balwa): Hanafi
scholars state that if a Khabar wahid contains a ruling or matter that would otherwise concern the entire
community, it must be problematic.

Examples:
a. Whoever touches his private part, let him perform wudu’.”
b. “A man came to the Prophet and asked: Messenger of Allah, what do you say regarding a man who meets a
woman he does not know but does whatever a man does with his wife except have intercourse with her?
The Prophet commanded: Perform wudu’ and then pray.”
c. The iqama in the dual form
d. Repeatedly raising the Prayer.
e. The permissibility of nabidh made from other than grapes. Majority consider it impermissible, but Hanafis
disagree.

Other legal cases the Hanafis challenged based on the ‘Umum al-Balwa principle:
i. Combining prayers while traveling
ii. The legality of the prayer for rain
iii. The legality of Zakat on the wealth of a discerning minor
iv. The legality of one person’s testimony for sighting the new moon of the month of Ramadan
v. The illegality of prayer over a martyr in the battle field
vi. The illegality of hunting or cutting down trees in Madina

8. The Khabar Wahid must not be something its narrator acts or speaks contrary to

Examples:
“If a dog drinks from one of your vessels, wash it seven times”
 9. The narrator of the Khabar Wahid must retain the contents in his memory from reception until delivery: Abu
Hanifa stipulated a very stringent condition for accepting a Hadith which is that the transmitter must retain in
his memory what he relates from reception to delivery without forgetting what he transmits. This means he had
to have heard it from the mouth of the Muhaddith narrating the Hadith. Thus, memorization must precede
transmission as this was the surest way to eliminate any doubts or mistakes in the transmission route. This is the
sole reason for why very little narrations have actually come down from Abu Hanifa. The other reason was tht
he was not preoccupied with attending hadith circles to simply memorize or transmit them. Rather, he was
involved in Fiqh circles to deduce rulings from legal discussions and so he was restricted his use and transmission
of Hadiths to whatever related to legal rulings.

10. The Khabar Wahid must not be something relinquished as proof by the companions: If the Companions of the
Prophet disagreed over a ruling and discarded reliance on a particular report for proof of that ruling, this must
be an indication of either the report’s abrogation or its unreliability.

Example:
Blood money for accidental murder

Chapter 7

Abu Hanifa considered the opinion of a companion as authoritative. There is disagreement among Hanafi scholars over
whether or not the opinion of a companion of the Prophet is automatically taken as binding legal proof. Al-Karkhi and al-
Dabbusi only consider the opinion of a companion binding if it is a matter not amenable to Qiyas. Majority of the Hanafi
jurists, however, considered it binding but stipulated certain conditions:

a. The companion’s opinion is not opposed by the opinion of another companion

b. The companion’s opinion is not contrary to something that is otherwise known to be so common place and
widespread (‘Umum al-Balwa)

Two additional areas related to the opinion of the companion are whether or not their exegesis or interpretive position
(ta’wil) is binding.

Possibilities:

a. The interpretation of a companion is not binding on anyone because only the text is authoritative and an
automatic proof, not someone’s interpretation of it
b. One interpretation is equal to any other interpretation and so it cannot take precedence over a text, which is the
basis of proof
c. The companion’s interpretation is binding and a proof because the interpretation would only be made if there
was some need to make it based on special indications.