the Hanafi fiqh (Hanafi school of Islamic law) 


Introduction 
The Ḥanafi madhhab (fiqh) or school of religious law is named after Abu Ḥanifa al-Nuʿman b. Thabit. (1) Abu Hanifa was theologian and religious lawyer. He died in 150/767 at the age of 70, and was born about the year 80/699. (2) He is the second generation of Muslims, known as at-Tabi’i.  The Hanafi school is the oldest one among four well known schools. Al-Nu’man b. Thabit was one of the most eminent scholar among representatives of opinion (ahl ar-ra’) and therefor, the Hanafi school is considered more liberal than the other three schools of law. He did not write his thought, nor did he write his methods. He used to come with new case and presented it to his students asking for their opinions. Only after detailed and deep discussion of his students he would come in and explained his own opinion. It was his students who wrote and brought us precious knowledge of Abu Hanifa’s fiqh; Abu Yusuf, Zafar ibn Hudhayl, Muhammad ibn al‐Hassan ash‐Shaybani and others. 

Methodology 
Abu Hanifa lived far from Makkah and Madinah (he lived in Iraq) and he was compelled to introduce new way of solving many new situations. Without direct access to the tradition of Makkah and time distance from the Prophet, he faced new challenges and questions.  He focused his fiqh on practice more than on textual legal theory. He tried to confront human reality which led him to give pragmatic answers. (3) On the basis of his answers, scholars of the Hanafi fiqh introduced inductive method in solving problems not known in Prophet’s generation. His approach, and later of his school, was critical and questioning, sometimes even daring. Abu Hanifa introduce, as a new source of Islamic law, qiyas (analogy) as methodology to derive new norms and standards. Because of this he was accused of neglecting the primary sources (Quran and sunnah) in favour of qiyas. 

Sources of Hanafi figh 
Abu Hanifa and scholars of Hanafi fiqh take the Quran and the Prophet’s practice as the primary sources of Islamic law. If these two sources do not bid an answer, Abu Hanifa accepts consensus (ijma) of the Companions (sahaba) as the third source of Shari’a law or even individual opinion of sahaba as the next source. Qiyas (analogy) has great importance as a source in the Hanafi fiqh. It gives scholars some ‘autonomy’ to find new answers for new situations and gives them opportunity for own ijtihad. 
Hanafi school uses secondary source, known as istihsan. Istihsan is taking in consideration human interests and social context. And the last source of the Hanafi fiqh is al- ‘Urf (custom) which has similar meaning to the istihsan; taking into account the environment and custom of the time and the place. 

Hanafi fiqh is the most followed aroung the world. (4) It was the longest time in official service of the Islamic state (Khalifate during Ottoman empire). It gives contemporary and rare opportunity for further development of today’s fiqh and Islamic reform which is at most necessity. 

1.	Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs
2.	Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs
3.	Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation. Tariq Ramadan. 2008.
4.	https://veil.unc.edu/religions/islam/law/