Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi

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Imam Abu Ja`far Al-Tahawi (August 24, 853- October 29, 933) known as Tahawi after his birthplace in Egypt, was a classical Islamic scholar and was considered an authority on hadith and fiqh. He is said to represent the creed of both Ashari and Maturidis, especially the latter, as he also followed the Hanafi school of Islamic Law.

Contents 1 Life and Works 2 Later Commentaries 3 Scholarly Works 4 Notes

[edit] Life and Works

He lived at a time when both the direct and indirect disciples of the four Imams of law were teaching and practicing,^[1] and Imam Tahawi studied with all the living authorities of the day. Imam Al-Kawthari relates that the consensus of scholars that Tahawi allied in himself completion in the two knowledges of hadith and fiqh, a consensus that included, among others, al-`Ayni and Al-Dhahabi, with Ibn Taymiyya being alone in the opinion that Tahawi was not very knowledgeable in hadith. This is contradicted by Ibn Kathir who says in his notice on Tahawi in al-Bidaya wa al-nihaya: "He is one of the trustworthy narrators of established reliability, and one of the massive memorizers of hadith."

Tahawi began his studies with his uncle Ismail ibn Yahya al-Muzani, a leading disciple of Imam Shafi'i. However, Tahawi was drawn to the works of Imam Abu Hanifa, which led him to devote his attention to studying the Hanafi fiqh and eventually joining the Hanafi madhab. He stands out not only as a prominent follower of Imam Abu-Hanifa but also one of the leading scholars of Hanafi jurisprudence. His scholarly works, Sharh ma`ani al-athar and Mushkil al-athar are regarded as indispensable for teaching students of fiqh.

Aqeedatut-Tahaawiyyah (The Creed of Tahawi), though small in size, is a basic text listing what a Muslim must know and believe and inwardly comprehend. There is consensus (Ijma') among the Companions (Sahaba), the Successors (Tabi'een) and the leading Islamic authorities such as the four Imams and their authoritative followers on the doctrines enumerated in this work, which are entirely derived from the Quran and the confirmed hadith. Being a text on Islamic doctrine, this work sums up the arguments set forth in those two sources to define sound belief, and likewise, the arguments advanced in refuting the views of sects that have deviated from the Sunna.

Regarding the sects mentioned in Aqeedatut-Tahaawiyyah, veiled references are made to sects such as the Mu`tazili, the Jahmiyya, the Karramiyya, the Qadiriyya, and the Jabriyyah. It also contains allusions to other views considered unorthodox and deviant from Sunni Islam. There is an explicit reference in the work to the controversy on the creation of the Qu'ran (also known as the mihna ordeal) in the times of the Abbasid caliph Abu Jafar Al-Ma'mun (ruled from 813 - 833) and others.^[2]

[edit] Later Commentaries

Aqeedatut-Tahaawiyyah was annotated by numerous later Islamic scholars, most notably Muhammad ibn Abu al-‘Izz (d. 1390). The late Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abd al-`Aziz ibn `Abd Allah Ibn Baaz’s also wrote a commentary on the al-Aqeedah

[edit] Scholarly Works

1. Aqeedatut-Tahaawiyyah - contains the fundamentals of Tawheed and the essentials of Islamic monotheism, derived entirely from the Qur'an and the Saheeh of the Sunnah. It important to understand that it contains the major and most important issues of Tawheed, as well as some issues that are not related to Tawheed or Aqeedah, but to fiqh.
2. Sharh ma`ani al-athar - This is the famous work by the Imam in which he rigorously studies all of the texts relating to each branch of fiqh and the positions of the Imams of the maddhabs with respect to those rulings.
3. Mushkil al-athar
4. Ikhtilaf al-‘Ulama

[edit] Notes

Prose contains specific citations in source text which may be viewed in edit mode.