In his weekly program on Alhurra’s digital platforms, writer and journalist Ibrahim Essa discusses the persecution of thinkers and reformers within the field of religion, recalling the ordeal of Imam Abu Hanifa al-Nu‘man, whom he describes as “a symbol of religious enlightenment in the face of rigidity and fanaticism.”
Essa explains how Abu Hanifa’s use of independent reasoning made him the target of defamation and hostility from his rivals, despite his towering status in Islamic jurisprudence as the founder of one of the largest schools of jurisprudence in the Muslim world.
The following is an edited summary of the episode for readability.
The Ancient Battle
From the very beginning of Islamic history, the real battle has been between obscurantism and enlightenment, a struggle as old as the religious disputes over politics. In truth, it was a political story from the very start.
The struggle for power unleashed waves of division and conflict, and then jurists cloaked this struggle in a religious mantle that gave it legitimacy.
When the First Fitna, the early Islamic civil war, broke out after the assassination of Caliph Uthman ibn Affan in 656 CE, the disagreement was not about a hadith or a verse, but about who had the right to rule and how to hold Uthman’s killers accountable.
Out of that political turmoil, factions emerged and multiplied. Thus, appeared those who would later be known as the Shiites, the supporters of Ali ibn Abi Talib. At that time, there was no Shiite sect in the doctrinal or jurisprudential sense; it was a political movement backing Ali.
As the struggle for power intensified, each side sought to dress its political stance in religious legitimacy. Political rivalry turned into sectarian division, jurisprudential disputes, and theological debates whose echoes are still felt today.
Reason vs. Tradition
Once the gates of debate were flung open, it was only natural for one group to seek reason, moderation, enlightenment, and renewal, in contrast with another group drawn to rigidity, closure, and the suppression of thought. Thus began the ancient conflict between reason and transmission.
One camp said, “We listen to what our predecessors said, believe it, and act upon it as it is.” These were the people of transmission, who called themselves “the people of the Sunna.”
The other camp, the people of reason and independent thought, said, “We listen and read, but we use our intellect in what we hear and see.” From here arose the School of Reason, which held that independent reasoning (ijtihad) was a legitimate right.
The School of Reason was not a rebellion against the text but an attempt to activate the mind. Yet it was met with accusations from the very start, inevitably so, because it dared to think. And here lies the essence of the struggle between obscurantism and enlightenment.
Obscurantism treats the human being as if blind, needing someone to lead him by the hand or give him a stick to find his way. That stick is the sheikh or the mufti, whom one is forbidden to bypass or question.
Enlightenment, on the other hand, believes that within every person lies an eye that sees and an insight that perceives, and that each person can walk their own path. Throughout history, this enlightened thought has faced hostility, anger, accusation, defamation, and persecution.
The Scholar Targeted by Hatred
To understand the roots of persecution against enlightened jurisprudence, there is no clearer example than Imam Abu Hanifa al-Nu‘man, known as “the Great Imam.”
Yet even his disciples did not always remain loyal to him. Some altered his school of thought under pressure from fierce rivalries and attacks by other schools such as the Shafi‘i and Hanbali.
But in the end, despite all the campaigns against him, Abu Hanifa remained the Great Imam, the emblem of reason and enlightenment in Islamic jurisprudence.
What Abu Hanifa endured, the accusations and persecution, invites reflection. Sometimes, I say: no one should be disturbed by attacks against them. If Abu Hanifa himself, with all his knowledge, leadership, and stature, suffered curses and accusations, what can those who came after him expect?
Ibn Abidin, one of the great Hanafi jurists, described Abu Hanifa’s ordeal in painful words:
“When the virtues of Imam Abu Hanifa became widely known and his merits spread throughout the Muslim world, envy resurfaced and critics turned against him, until they impugned his reasoning and his creed.”
Notice his phrase “the old custom” – meaning that attacking enlightened minds has long been a habitual practice, not an exceptional event.
It went beyond words to humiliation. The historian al-Khatib al-Baghdadi wrote in The History of Baghdad that Abu Hanifa was twice forced to repent for heresy. Imagine that – an imam of Islam brought before a tribunal and told, “Recite the declaration of faith.” What kind of inquisitorial trials were these?
His opponents did not stop there. Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the son of Imam Ahmad, said that his father trusted none of his students unless they despised Abu Hanifa. He even quoted his father as saying that “a man is rewarded for hating Abu Hanifa and his companions.”
Hatred thus became an act of devotion, and hostility a supposed way to draw closer to God.
Malik ibn Anas was also quoted as saying: “No one has been born in Islam more harmful to its people than Abu Hanifa.” The statement reflects how deep the divisions among the schools were at that time, when jurisprudential disagreement turned into doctrinal warfare, and a jurist was attacked merely for using his intellect.
From Yesterday’s Inquisitions to Today’s Platforms
Has the scene changed today? Not really. And since that is the case, why the outrage over attacks on enlightened writers and thinkers? Why the anger over campaigns that accuse them of “blasphemy,” “heresy,” or “leaving Islam”? Sometimes they are even charged with “serving Western colonial or Crusader interests.”
Why be upset, if Abu Hanifa himself, the Great Imam, was once described as someone whose hatred is a virtuous act for which one earns divine reward? And who said that? Ibn Hanbal himself.
So what should today’s thinkers expect? Naturally, they will be attacked, persecuted, and defamed.
You ask me: Why are enlightened jurists and rational reformers persecuted in our time? I tell you: because that is how history works. They are persecuted by religious institutions, hunted by extremist groups, and slandered by state authorities. Then come the armies of preachers and clerics on social media, pouring accusations, fabrications, excommunication, and treason upon them.
So what’s new? If Abu Hanifa himself was maligned by great jurists like Malik ibn Anas and Ibn Hanbal, is it not natural for those who follow his path to face similar accusations? When you see an enlightened writer or thinker attacked today, don’t feel sorry for them, it also happened to Abu Hanifa before them.
If you hear that a thinker is being vilified and attacked from all sides, tell them he reminds you of Abu Hanifa, the Great Imam, and that we are all, in a sense, his intellectual heirs.
Abu Hanifa was once described as “the most harmful figure ever born to Islam.” Imagine that!
And yet, we are asked to be upset about the attacks launched against us today?
No, say what you will.
