Better known as `Imam-e-`Adham' (The Greatest Imam), or by his kunyah `Abu Hanifah', Nu'man ibn Thabit was born in the city of Kufa (modern day Iraq) in the year 80 A.H (689 A.D). Born into a family of tradesmen, the Imam's family were of Persian origin as well as descending from the noble Prophet's (saw) Companion Salman al-Farsi (ra). Imam Abu Hanifah's father, Thabit, had met in Kufa Imam `Ali Ibn Abi Talib (ra) who made dua for him and his progeny, and some say that Abu Hanifah was a result of this dua.
Kufa at the time of the Imam's birth was a great center of knowledge and learning, with many of the noble Prophet's (saw) Companions (ra) having taken residence there. Due to the presence of these venerable people who had engendered so much interest in hadith and riwayat that practically every house in Kufa had become a center of these disciples and their disciplines.
At first, Imam Abu Hanifah was not a student of knowledge.� However, by coincidence, while one day passing by the house of Sha'bi (an acclaimed "Great Scholar among the Successors (rh)"), Abu Hanifah was called in by the shaykh who mistook him for a student.� "Where are you going young man?" asked Sha'bi.� Abu Hanifah named the merchant he was going to see.� "I meant to ask," asked Sha'bi, "Whose classes you attend?"�� "Nobody's," replied the Imam regretfully.� "I see signs of intelligence in you," began Sha'bi,"you should sit in the company of learned men."�
It was after this encounter that the young Imam began his quest for knowledge. Imam Abu Hanifah acquired knowledge from over four thousand people. His teachers included many prestigious men of the time whose sanad went back to a number of Companions (ra). He himself was blessed with the meeting of the Companions: Anas ibn Malik, Abdullah ibn Afwa and Sahl ibn Sa'ad (ra), thus gaining him the rank of being a Tabi'i (Successor to the Companions).
Amongst Imam Abu Hanifah's shayukh was Hammad ibn Sulayman, he joined his circle at the age of 22, having already become a well-known debater and studied with this shaykh until the latter's death, whereupon he took over his majlis (circle) at the age of forty. Shu'ba, a leading muhaddith who knew-by-heart two thousand traditions was also a teacher of Imam Abu Hanifah. Shu'ba was greatly attached to Imam Abu Hanifah saying: "Just as I know that the sun is bright, I know that learning and Abu Hanifah are doubles of each other."
Although this great Imam lost his father before he had come of age, but his mother lived for a long time, and the Imam looked after her with great affection and regard. She was of a superstitious nature and, like most women, had much faith in religious preachers and storytellers, especially in 'Amr b. Dharr, a well-known preacher of Kufah. Whenever she had a religious question to be answered, she would tell the Imam to go to 'Amr and get the answer from him, the Imam would faithfully carry out her behest, much to the embarrassment of 'Amr, who would exclaim, " How dare I open my mouth before you?" The Imam would reply, "Such is my mother's command." It sometimes happened that 'Amr did not know the answer to a question. He would then request the Imam to tell him the answer so that he could repeat it in front of him -- in which case, it would become his answer. Now and again the old lady would insist on questioning 'Amr personally and would go to him mounted on a mule, with Abu Hanifah walking by her side. On arriving at 'Amr's house she would put her question to him personally and hear the answer with her own ears; only then would she be satisfied. Once she posed a problem to the Imam and asked him for the answer, but when he gave it, she turned it down, saying, "No, you are no authority. I shall accept your answer only if Zurqah confirms it." (Zurqah was a preacher.) The Imam took her to Zurqah and explained the problem to him. "Why don't you answer it yourself?" said Zurqah. "You know far more than I do." The Imam then told him what answer he had given. Zurqah said that the answer was correct. That satisfied the old lady and she returned home. When Ibn Hubairah having sent for Imam Abu Hanifah, asked him to accept the post of MirMunshi and on the latter's refusal ordered him to be whipped daily until he relented, the Imam's mother was still living. Hearing of what was happening, she was greatly grieved Whenever the Imam recalled this episode in later life, he would say: "It was not so my pain as the thought of the grief it was causing my mother that I found hard to hear.
The Imam was very tender-hearted and was greatly disturbed by other people's pain and sorrow. One day, while he was teaching in a mosque, somebody came with the news that a certain man had fallen from the roof of his house. He cried out aloud, left the class, ran barefoot to the man's house and attended to him. Until the man had fully recovered, the Imam visited him every morning. But, distressed as he was by other people's sufferings, he bore his own with an equanimity which astonished people. Through all the persecution to which he was subjected by the Caliph and his officers he never wavered for a moment. Patience and steadfastness were inborn in him.
One day, while he was lecturing in the Jami' mosque, surrounded by students and devotees, a snake fell into his lap from the ceiling. Everybody except him ran out of the mosque. As for him, he kept sitting calmly as if nothing had happened. A similar story is told of Imam Malik and forms one of the famous incidents of his life.
Abu Hanifah was a man of few words and never took part in idle talk. In his classroom he would sit quietly, letting his pupils freely debate among themselves, and would speak only when the discussion had become long and drawn-out without any conclusion being reached. He would then give his decision, which would satisfy all present.
He always avoided speaking ill of people behind their backs and would often thank God for saving his tongue from being contaminated with this evil. One day a man said to him: "Sir, people go about saying so many bad things about you, but one has never heard an ill word from your lips." The Imam observed: "This is God's grace. He grants it to whomever He likes." On somebody telling Sufyan Thauri that be had never heard Abu Hanifah slander anybody, Sufyan said: "Abu Hanifah is not such a fool as to ruin all his good deeds."
He thought it wrong to swear and always abstained from it. In order to enforce this upon himself he had taken a vow that every time he committed the error he would pay a voluntary penalty of one dirham. Once he did commit it inadvertently. Thereupon he raised the penalty to one dinar.
His piety and devotion knew no bounds. Praying was a delight to him and he used to engage in it with great gusto and sincerity, and he was famous for this. Dhahabi writes: "Accounts of his piety and devotion have reached a degree of tawatur (i.e. an unbroken chain of uncontradicted narrations)." While saying his prayers or reading the Qur'an, he would be so overcome with feeling that he would start weeping and go on doing so for hours. Ibrahim Basri relates that one morning while he was saying his prayers together with the Imam, the latter recited the ayat: "I do not think that God is forgetful of the conduct of the iniquitous" and in reciting it wept so much that his whole body shook with sobs. Za'idah relates that having an important question to consult the Imam about he joined the 'isha' prayers with him and waited for him to finish his nafls. But the Imam, when in reciting from the Qur'an he reached the ayat: "Waqana 'adhab al-samum" (Save us from the torture of Hell's hot wind), went on repeating it until the morning. On another occasion he spent the whole night repeating the ayat: "Judgment Day is the sinners' promised hour and it is a difficult and unpleasant hour," and weeping while he repeated it.
Yazid b. Kumait, a contemporary of the Imam and famous for his piety, relates that he joined the Imam in an 'isha' prayer during which the Imam leading the prayers recited the ayat 'idhazulzilat ." After the other people had departed, he found the Inam still sitting and heaving deep sighs. Yazid did not want to disturb the Imam, so he also went away, leaving the Imam sitting. When he went to the mosque on the following morning, he found the Imam sitting, looking very sad, holding his beard in his hands and saying tearfully, 'O Thou Who wilt reward even the smallest virtue and punish even the smallest sin, save Thy slave Nu'man from Hell-fire."
One day while walking in the street, the Imam inadvertently stepped on a small boy's foot. The boy cried,'You don't seem to fear God." On hearing these words the Imam fainted. Mus'ir b. Kudam, who was with him, stopped him from falling and attended to him. As soon as he came to, Mus'ir said, "Why were you so perturbed by a small boy's casual remark?" The Imam replied: "Who knows this was not an admonition from the Unknown!"
One day when the Imam arrived at his shop, his servant put out some lengths of cloth and by way of a good augury said, "May God grant us Paradise!" The Imam started weeping and wept so much that his whole mantle became wet. Then he told the servant to close shop and went out, covering his face with his handkerchief. When be came to the shop on the following day, he said to the servant, "Who are we to wish for Paradise? It will be enough if God spares us His wrath." 'Umar Faruq used to say similarly, "If on Judgment Day I am neither punished nor rewarded, I shall be quite happy."
One day, when he was explaining a point, one of the men present said, "You should always have the fear of God in your heart when you give a fatwa." The Imam was so deeply affected by this remark that he went pale. Turning to the man, he said, "May God reward you for your good deeds, brother! If I were not sure that God will punish me for deliberately withholding the benefit of my knowledge from others, I would never give a fatwa." Faced with a question to which he did not know the answer, he used to get disturbed and ask himself whether he had committed some sin, of which this was the punishment. He would then perform his ablution, say his prayers and beg God's forgiveness. Somebody having reported this to Fudail b. 'Iyad, a famous Sufi, he wept and said "Abu Hanifah did not have many sins to repent for. That was why he thought thus. But those who are drowned in sin have innumerable calamities sent down upon them and yet do not realise that these are warnings from God."
The Imam's daily routine was as follows. After the morning prayer be would take his class in the mosque and then reply to references for fatwas, which came from near and far. That was followed by a session for Fiqh compilation, in which his leading disciples took part. Decisions reached unanimously were recorded. After saying his zuhr prayer, the Imam would go home and, if it was summer, have a siesta. The 'asr prayer was followed by another session of teaching, after which the Imam would go round the city meeting friends, visiting the sick, condoling the bereaved and helping the poor. After the maghrib prayer there was a third teaching session, which continued till the 'isha' prayer. Having said his 'isha' prayer, the Imam would start his private devotions, often continuing them throughout the night. During winter, he often slept in the mosque until the 'isha' prayer, after which he would spend the whole night in performing the tahajjud prayer, reciting chosen passages from the Qur'an and repeating devotional formulas. Sometimes he performed these in his shop.
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