Page 63 - The Importance of the Ahl Al-Sunnah

ADNAN OKTAR

them. As a result, his reputation began to spread.
His knowledge, intelligence, virtue, and taqwa were very
great. Nobility in his teaching and the ease and perfection in his
school have met with the favor of all Muslims.
Back then there was a huge need for knowledge concerning
fiqh, so al-Imam al-A`zam abandoned commerce and devoted
himself to studying jurisprudential matters. At the same time,
he continued his study of the Qur’an and the Sunnah and
began deriving rulings from them. He also began researching
the hadiths and examining those matters over which the
Companions disagreed.
During his thirty years in the madrassah, he taught more
than 4,000 students, among them such future mujtahids (a
scholar who derives legal rulings) as Abu Yusuf, Muhammad
ibn al-Hasan, and Hasan ibn Ziyad.
He told his students that their knowledge would be based on
solid foundations as long as they adhered to the following basic
tenets:
1) Attend a knowledge circle and assembly, whenever one is
held, and understand its general line.
2) Spend time with people of knowledge and have contact
with all of the intellectual movements of the age.
3) Stay with the teacher instructing in important matters.
After spending time with several Islamic scholars, he
attached himself to Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman, one of the
greatest scholars of that time. Following his death, all eyes
turned in Abu Hanifah’s direction.
The governor of Iraq, Yazid ibn Amr, offered him the post of
qadi (religious judge) to sever his influence over the public.
When Abu Hanifah rejected this proposition, he was tortured

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