Imām Abū Ja’far al-Tahāwi: His Life & Works

By A.K.M Ayyub Ali, M.A, Ph.D

Abu Ja’far Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Salamah al‑Azdi, al‑Hajri, al‑Tahawi, was born at Tahā, a village in upper Egypt. His forefathers came from the Yemen to Egypt and settled there after it had come under the Muslim rule. There is a considerable difference of opinion as to the year of his birth. The years 229/843, 230/ 844, 238/852 and 239/853 are mentioned by different biographers. Al‑Sam’ani asserts that he was born in 229/843 and this is correct. He died in Egypt in 321/933. [1]

Al‑Tahawi was mainly interested in Hadith and Fiqh, and was regarded as one of the greatest Muhaddithīn and fuqaha’ of his time. According to Abu Ishāq al‑Shīrāzi, he was the last leader of Hanafi Fiqh in Egypt.[2] He began to study Shāfi’i Law under his maternal uncle Abu Ibrahim Ismail al‑Muzani (d. 264/878), the most celebrated pupil of Imam al‑Shāfi’i, and then leaving his school he took up the study of Hanafi Law under al‑Shaikh Abu Jafar Ahmad b. Abi `Imran (d. 285/898), who became the Chief Qādi of Egypt in 270/883. Different versions are given by his biographers of his conversion to Hanafi school, but the most probable reason seems to be that the system of Imam Abu Hanifah appealed to his critical insight more than that of Imam Shāfi`i.

Al‑Tahawi went to Syria in 268/882 for further studies in Hanafi Law and became a pupil of Qādi Abu Khazim `Abd al‑Hamid b. Ja’far, the then Chief Justice of Syria. [3] He learnt hadith from a large number of Shaikhs especially from those who visited Egypt at his time, and had also many pupils of distinc­tion. [4]

He is a distinguished author of many important works of which the following may be mentioned here:

1. Sharh Ma’āni al‑Āthār
2. Mushkil al­-Āthār
3. Ahkām al‑Qur’ān
4. Ikhtilāf al‑Ulama’
5. al‑Nawādir al‑Fiqhiyyah
6. Kitāb al‑Shurut al‑Kabīr
7. al‑Shurut al‑Awsat
8. Sharh al‑Jāmi` al‑Saghīr
9. Sharh al‑Jāmi’ al‑Kabīr
10. al‑Mukhtasar
11. Manāqib Abi Hanīfah
12. Tārīkh al‑Kabīr
13. al‑Radd `ala Kitāb al‑Mudallisīn
14. al‑Radd `ala Abi `Ubaid
15. al‑Radd `ala `Īsa b. Abān
16. Hukm `Aradi Makkah, etc.

His original contribution to Hadith literature, so far as we can estimate, is that he introduced a new system of collecting legal traditions, developed a new method of interpreting and harmonizing the conflicting traditions, and adopted a new criterion for criticizing them. His predecessors and contem­poraries, the authors of al‑Sihah al‑Sittah (the Six Canonical Compilations) collecting traditions according to their own standards and principles, left out a large number of genuine traditions. Al‑Tahawi made a strenuous effort to collect all the genuine legal traditions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, narrated by different authorities on a particular subject, together with the opinions of the Companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, their Successors and the distinguished jurisprudents. He then scrutinized traditions (ahādith) and showed by evidence which of them were authentic, strong, weak, unknown, or such as might be supposed to have been repealed. Thus, his collection provided for the scholars an un­precedented opportunity to judge for themselves the merits or demerits of a particular tradition. The criterion for judging the genuineness of a tradition, according to the Traditionists in general, was the isnād (chain of the nar­rators), and so they paid greater attention to the scrutiny of the isnād than to the scrutiny of the text (matn) of a tradition. But al‑Tahawi, while scrutiniz­ing a tradition, took into consideration the matn as well as the isnād of the tradition. He also aimed at a harmonizing interpretation in case of conflicting traditions.

Al‑Tahawi, like al‑Māturīdī, was a follower of Imam Abu Hanīfah (d. 150/ 767) in jurisprudence as well as in theology. He wrote a little treatise on theology named Bayān al‑Sunnah wa al‑Jamā’ah, generally known as al­-Aqīdat al‑Tahāwiyyah. [5] In the introduction to this treatise he says he will give therein an account of the beliefs of the Ahl al‑Sunnah wa al‑Jamā’ah according to the views of Imam Abu Hanīfah, Abu Yūsuf, and Muhammad al‑Shaybāni ‑ ­the well‑known jurisprudents of the community. So the importance of his creed lies in the fact that it corroborates the views of Imam Abu Hanīfah, the founder of the school, that have come down to us from different sources. Al‑Tahawi made no attempt to explain the views of the Imam or to solve the old theological problems by advancing any new arguments. His sole aim was to give a summary of the views of the Imam and to show indirectly that they were in conformity with the traditional views of the orthodox school.

The difference between him and al‑Māturīdī – the two celebrated authorities – on the views of the Imam is quite evident. Al‑Māturīdī was a thorough dialectician and his main endeavour was to find out a philosophical basis for the views of the leader and to support these views by scholastic reasoning, and thereby bring them closer to the views of the rationalists. Al‑Tahawi, as a true traditionist, did not favour, as will be seen, any rational discussion or speculative thinking on the articles of faith, but preferred to believe and accept them without questioning. There is no reference in his creed to the critical examination of the method, sources, and means of knowledge, or the foundation on which his theological system is built. So his system may be termed as dogmatic, while that of al‑Māturīdī as critical. The critical method followed by al‑Tahawi in Hadith is quite lacking in theology. Thus, though both of them belong to the same school and uphold faithfully the doctrines of their master, they differ from each other in temperament, attitude, and trends of thought.

In order to indicate the characteristics of the system of al‑Tahawi and to make an estimate of his contributions to theology, we propose to give in the following pages an outline of the views of Imam Abu Hanīfah along with the views of both al‑Tahawi and al‑Māturīdī on some of the most important theological problems that arose in Muslim theology.

Imam Abu Hanīfah directed his movement against the Khārijites, Qādarites, Mu’tazilites, Shiites, Jabrites, the extreme Murji’ites, and the Hashwiyyah, the last being a group of the orthodox people who under the influence of the converted Jews, Christians, and Magians fell into gross anthropomorphism, and ascribed to God all the characteristics of a created being. [6] He was the first theologian among the fuqaha’ who adopted the principles and method of reasoning and applied them to a critical examination of the articles of faith and the laws of the Shari’ah. That is why he and his followers were called by the Traditionists “the People of Reason and Opinion” (ashāb al‑ra’i wa al‑qiyās). This rational spirit and philosophical attitude were more consistently main­tained by al‑Māturīdī than by al‑Tahawi. Their views on the nature of faith, attributes of God, beatific vision, divine decree, and human freedom may be mentioned here to indicate the distinctive features of their methods.

 

——————————

Footnotes:

[1] Al‑Sam’ani, al‑Ansab, Leiden, 1912, fol. 368;
ibn Qutlubugha, Taj al‑Tarajim, ed. G. Flugel, Leipzig, 1862, p. 6;
ibn al‑Nadim, al‑Fihrist, Cairo, 1348/1929, p. 292; 
`Abd al‑Qadir al‑Qarashi, al‑Jawahir al‑Mud’iyyah, Hyderabad, 1332/1913, Vol. I, pp. 102‑05;
Jalal al‑Din, al‑Suynti, Husn al‑Muhaddrah, Vol. I, p. 147;
ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al‑A’yan,Vol. I, p. 19;
al‑Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al‑Hufaz, Hyderabad, 1334/1915, Vol. III, p. 28;
`Abd al‑Hayy Lakhnawi,al‑Fawa’id al‑Bahiyyah, Cairo, 1324/1906, pp. 31‑34.

[2] Al‑Dhahabi, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 28; al‑Suyuti, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 147.

[3] Cf. authorities cited above.

[4] Muhammad Zahid al‑Kauthari, al‑Hawi, Cairo, 1368/ 1948, pp. 6‑11; al‑Qarashi, op. cit.; Lisan al‑Mizan.

[5] The `Aqidah was published in Halab in 1344/1925. Several commentaries were written on this creed (cf. Kashf al‑Zunun, Istanbul, II, 1143) one of which named Kitab Sharh al‑Tahawiyyah fi al‑`Aqidat al‑Salafiyyah was published at Makkah in 1349/1930, and was ascribed to Sadr al‑Din ‘Ali b. Muhammad al‑Adhra’yi.

[6] It was `Abd Allah ibn Saba, a convert from Judaism, who introduced and propagated anthropomorphic ideas among the Muslims during the caliphate of ‘Ali. The foreign influence is traceable at the background of all sorts of ideas of tashbih, tajsim, and hulul (cf., al. Shahrastani, al‑Baghdadi). The anthropomorphic expressions in the Qur’an were never understood by the Prophet or his Com­panions in the strict literal sense.

 

Extracted from Tahāwism