ʿĀbid
ʿĀbid is known through the narration of Ibn al-Mubārak: Ibn al-Mubārak says: “Abū Ḥanīfa possessed muruwwa (aptitude for every virtue) and performed much night prayer.” Ḥammād b. Sulaymān says: “He would spend the entire night in prayer.” (This was towards the end of his life.) In another narration, it is said that he would spend half the night in worship (this was in his early years). One day, while walking in the street, he heard someone pointing to the Imām and saying: ‘This man spends the whole night in worship.’ After hearing this, he spent the entire night in worship and said: ‘I am ashamed before Allah to be described with a worship I have not performed.’
As for his asceticism (zuhd): It is narrated from Rabīʿ b. ʿĀṣim: “(The governor of Kūfa) Yazīd b. ʿUmar b. Hubayra sent me to Abū Ḥanīfa to deliver to him the treasury (bayt al-māl). I brought Abū Ḥanīfa, but since he did not accept this duty, he was struck with twenty lashes.” See how, even at the cost of being whipped, he did not accept leadership. Ḥakam b. Hishām al-Thaqafī says: “When the governor, who had heard that Abū Ḥanīfa was a man who avoided much fitna, said to him: ‘You will be the treasurer; if you do not accept, you will be flogged on your back,’ Abū Ḥanīfa preferred their punishment over the punishment of Allah Most High and did not accept this duty.” It is also narrated that, in the presence of Ibn al-Mubārak, Abū Ḥanīfa was mentioned (in a somewhat negative way); Ibn al-Mubārak said: ‘How can you speak against a man to whom the whole world was presented and yet he turned away from it?’ According to what Muḥammad, son of Shujāʿ, narrated from some of his companions, it was reported to Abū Ḥanīfa in Kūfa that the Commander of the Faithful (Amīr al-Muʾminīn) Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr would send him a gift of ten thousand dirhams. Abū Ḥanīfa was not pleased with this. On the day the gift was to arrive, after performing the morning prayer, he covered his head and spoke to no one. The servant of Ḥasan, son of Qaḥṭaba, came to him with the gift, but Abū Ḥanīfa did not speak to him. Those around him said: ‘This is his state; he speaks only occasionally.’ When the man asked, ‘What should we do?’ they said: ‘Tie it in this cloth and put it in the corner.’ Afterwards, Abū Ḥanīfa advised his son: ‘My son, when I die, after you have buried me, take this leather to Ḥasan, son of Qaḥṭaba, and say: “This is the trust you left with Abū Ḥanīfa.”’ (When his son fulfilled his will) Ḥasan said: ‘May Allah have mercy on your father; he was very scrupulous regarding his religion.’
It is also narrated that: “When he was invited by the Caliph to be chief judge of Baghdad, he said: ‘I am not qualified for judgeship, nor is it right for you to give me this duty.’ When asked, ‘Why did you say this?’ he replied: ‘If I am a truthful man, this duty does not suit me; if I am a liar, liars cannot be judges.’”
As for his path to the Hereafter, his knowledge of religious sciences, and his maʿrifa (experiential knowledge) of Allah Most High: “His turning away from the world and his extreme fear of Allah Most High are clear evidence of this.” Ibn Jurayj said: “I learned from you people of Kūfa that Abū Ḥanīfa Nuʿmān b. Thābit had extreme fear of Allah Most High.” Shurayk al-Nahāʾī also said: “Abū Ḥanīfa was a man of constant contemplation and prolonged silence, speaking little with people.” These qualities are the clearest evidence of his inner knowledge and his engagement with important matters of religion. Whoever adheres to silence and does not incline toward the world possesses the entirety of knowledge. What we have mentioned is a brief account of the three Imāms.
Imām Aḥmad and Imām al-Thawrī
As for Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal and Sufyān al-Thawrī (may Allah have mercy on them): Those who follow them are few, and the followers of Sufyān al-Thawrī are even fewer. However, their avoidance of the unlawful, their turning away from the world, their waraʿ (scrupulousness) and zuhd (asceticism) are more renowned. Since this book is filled with their deeds and words, there is no need to go into detail here. At this point, look at the character and states of these three Imāms – and consider: Are these words, these deeds, this state, and turning away from the world and turning solely to Allah possible only through the subsidiary legal issues of fiqh such as salam, ijāra, ẓihār, ilāʾ, liʿān, and the like? Or can another kind of knowledge yield such a result? Look at these and consider whether the scholars who say ‘We follow them’ are truthful or not.
THIRD CHAPTER
CONCERNING THE SCIENCES WHICH, THOUGH NOT ACCEPTABLE, ARE REGARDED AS ACCEPTABLE BY THE COMMON PEOPLE. ALSO, ON WHICH ASPECTS SOME SCIENCES ARE BLAMEWORTHY, AND HOW THE MEANINGS OF CERTAIN NAMES OF SCIENCES SUCH AS FIQH, KNOWLEDGE, TAWHID (the oneness of God), REMINDER, AND WISDOM HAVE CHANGED, AND WHICH AND HOW MUCH OF THE SACRED SCIENCES ARE ACCEPTABLE OR BLAMEWORTHY.
THE REASON FOR THE CONDEMNATION OF BLAMEWORTHY SCIENCES
If you ask, “Since knowing and recognizing things as they are is itself one of the attributes of Allah Most High, how can knowledge be blameworthy?” know that knowledge is not blameworthy in itself, but it is blameworthy for people due to one of three reasons. Let us explain these:
1 — It is blameworthy if it harms its possessor or others. Like the sciences of magic (siḥr) and talismans. Magic is real. The Qur’an has informed us of this; indeed, it is even used as a means to separate a husband and wife who are very close. Even the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was bewitched and became ill. Upon the information given by Jibrīl (Gabriel), the means of magic was found under a stone at the bottom of a well. (Al-Bukhārī and Muslim narrated this from ʿĀʾisha.)
Magic is a kind of knowledge that is derived from calculating the rising places of the stars and knowing the properties of substances. From those substances, an effigy of the person to be bewitched is made, the specific hour of the stars’ rising is awaited, gross and vile words contrary to the sharia (the sacred law) are uttered, help is sought from Satan, and as a result of all these, by the divine custom, strange states appear in the bewitched person. Although learning these as sciences is not evil in itself, they serve no purpose other than harming people. Everything that leads to evil is itself evil, so this knowledge is also blameworthy. Even showing the location of a good man to a tyrant who wants to kill him, and expressing what one knows as it is, is a kind of knowledge, but since it leads to harm, it is blameworthy. In such a case, lying is obligatory.
2 — It is often blameworthy because it harms its possessor. Like the science of astrology (ʿilm al-nujūm). This science is not blameworthy in itself, for it is of two kinds. One part is calculation. The Qur’an states that the sun and the moon move by calculation:
“The sun and the moon (move) by precise calculation.” (Qur’an 55:5)
Again, Allah Most High says:
“And We have decreed for the moon phases, until it returns like the old date stalk.” (Qur’an 36:39)
Another part is judgment (aḥkām). Its summary is to infer causes for events. This is like a physician’s finding evidence for illness by feeling the pulse; it means knowing the custom of Allah Most High regarding His creation. However, the sharia has also condemned this. As the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“When destiny is mentioned, remain silent; when the stars are mentioned, remain silent; when the Companions (ṣaḥāba) are mentioned, remain silent.”
He also said:
“After me, I fear three things for my community: the oppression of their leaders, belief in the stars, and denial of destiny.” (72)
ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “Learn enough of astrology to guide you by land and sea; abandon the rest.” His prohibition of this science is for three reasons:
First: Because this science is very harmful to people. When it is said that these things happen as a result of the movement of the stars, they imagine that the stars are deities effective in these matters. They magnify them inwardly, become attached to them, attribute good and evil to them, and forget Allah. For those whose iman (faith) is weak, they look to means. However, the true scholar knows that the moon, sun, and stars are subjugated by the command of Allah Most High. The gaze of those with weak creed at the sunlight after sunrise is like an ant on a piece of paper seeing the black lines and saying, ‘The pen writes these,’ because it cannot lift its head to see the fingers above, the hand, the will that moves them, then the scribe, then the hand, power, and will created by a Creator. Most people can only see the most superficial and nearest cause. They are incapable of ascending further to see the Creator of causes. This is one reason for the prohibition of astrology.
Second: Because the judgments derived from the stars are nothing but conjecture, neither certain nor even probable for most people. To judge by this is to judge by ignorance. Therefore, its being blameworthy is not because it is knowledge, but because it is ignorance. This science was a miracle of Idrīs (Enoch, peace be upon him). (After his death) this science declined and ended. The occurrence of some of the predictions of astrologers is coincidental; for while the astrologer may be aware of some causes, the events that follow these causes depend on many other conditions whose inner realities are beyond human power to comprehend. If Allah Most High has decreed the other causes as well, the astrologer’s prediction comes true; if not, the astrologer errs. This is like: when a person sees the sky darken and clouds hanging from high mountains, he may predict rain based on this outward appearance; but often, contrary to his prediction, the sun shines, the clouds disperse and disappear. Sometimes the sun shines in one place while it rains in another. Thus, clouds alone are not sufficient for rain; there are many other causes, but we do not understand them.
(72) Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, from Abū Mihjan.
Similarly, sailors, based on the winds they know, think they are safe; yet there are many hidden causes of winds they do not know. Sometimes their predictions are correct and they find safety, and sometimes they err. For this reason, even those with strong iman are sometimes prohibited from the science of astrology.
Third: Because there is no clear benefit in this science. Knowing it neither corrects nor changes destiny. It is a waste of the most precious capital, human life. To squander the precious capital of one’s life is the greatest loss.
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The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), when he saw a large crowd gathered around a man, asked:
— What is that? They said:
— A great scholar (ʿallāma).
The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) asked:
— What does he know? When they replied:
— Poetry and the genealogies of the Arabs, he said:
— Just as there is no harm in his ignorance, there is no benefit in his knowledge. (73)
In another hadith, it is stated:
“Knowledge is either a decisive verse (āya muḥkama), an established sunnah, or a just obligation.” (74)
It is understood that delving into astrology and similar sciences is useless, plunging into ignorance and engaging in dangerous pursuits. For everyone will meet their decreed end and it is impossible to avoid it. Medicine is the opposite, for it is needed and its many proofs are known. Even dream interpretation is not like this. Although interpretation is conjectural, it has value as being one of the forty-six parts of prophethood, and some can know it. (75)
3 — It is blameworthy for a person to engage in sciences from which he cannot independently understand and benefit. Such as dealing with the subtle and difficult aspects of sciences without learning their apparent and easily understood parts, or speaking of divine mysteries. Although theologians and philosophers have spoken of divine mysteries, they could not fully comprehend their reality, nor did they attain independence in this matter. Only the Prophets and the walī (friends of God) understand such mysteries. Therefore, what is necessary is to prevent people from this and refer them to the sharia, where there are proofs to convince the believers. Many people have been harmed by the sciences they have delved into. Had they not studied those sciences, their position in religion would have been better. Just as some meats and sweets harm a nursing child, so too some sciences are harmful to some people. There are many people for whom, in certain circumstances, ignorance is more beneficial. A man once complained to a physician that his wife did not bear children. The physician felt her pulse and said: ‘It is good that she does not, for this woman will die within forty days.’ Upon hearing this, the woman was seized with great fear and grief; she divided her property, made her will, and spent forty days in mourning, eating and drinking nothing. When forty days passed and she did not die, her husband informed the physician. The physician said:
— Now have relations, she will bear a child. The man asked:
— How is that? The physician replied:
— Because the woman was very fat, fat had blocked the entrance to the womb. I knew that nothing but fear of death would make her lose weight, so I frightened her with death. Now she has lost weight, the fat has melted, and there is no longer an obstacle to childbirth. This story warns you that knowing some sciences can be harmful for some people, and also explains the meaning of the hadith of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him):
‘We seek refuge in Allah from knowledge that is of no benefit.’ (76)
(75) Although there is a hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on this matter, in fact, the first six months of the twenty-three-year period of prophethood passed with dreams. This constitutes one forty-sixth of prophethood.
(76) Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, from Jābir.
This story also explains the meaning of the hadith. Take heed from this story and do not occupy yourself with knowledge forbidden by the sharia; suffice yourself with following the sunnah of the Companions (ṣaḥāba, may Allah be pleased with them); safety lies therein.