Abu Hanifa

Abu Hanifa); he is also known by the titles Shaykh al-Islam ('Shaykh of Islam'), '''al-Imam al-A'zam''' ('the Greatest Imam'), and '''Siraj al-A'imma''' ('Lamp of the Imams').}} }} (5 September 699 CE – 18 June 767 CE) was a Muslim scholar, ascetic and eponym of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence, which is by far the most widely followed in the modern day. His school predominates in Central Asia, Turkey, the Levant, Egypt, Russia, the Balkans and the Indian subcontinent.

He is best known for favoring the use of reason in his jurisprudential rulings, and even in his theology. He was named by al-Dhahabi as "one of the geniuses of the sons of Adam" who "combined jurisprudence, worship, scrupulousness, and generosity". In his lifetime, he was enormously popular among the massive slave underclass in Kufa, but made many enemies among Arabist traditionalists, especially for his promotion of reason over hadith and his ruling that Persian could be used in prayer.

For many centuries, his school had limited popularity in the Arab world. During the Iranian Intermezzo, the school gained enormous popularity in the Samanid Empire of Central Asia, where it would continue to dominate as the Turko-Persian tradition emerged. The Ottoman Empire, emerging out of this Turko-Persian milleu, would be the first to bring the Hanafi school to its dominant status in the Muslim world, which it holds to this day.

He left behind two major students, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani, who would later become celebrated jurists in their own right. Provided by Wikipedia