Hanif

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Glossary of Islamic terms

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Ḥanīf (Arabic حنيف, plural ḥunafā' حنفاء) is an Arabic term that refers to pre-Islamic non-Jewish or non-Christian Arabian monotheists.[1] More specifically, in Islamic thought it refers to the Arabs during the (pre-Islamic) period known as the Jāhiliyya or "Ignorance", who were seen to have rejected Shirk (polytheism) and retained some or all of the true tenets of the monotheist religion of Ibrahim (Abraham)[1] that, according to Islamic view, has preceded Judaism and Christianity.[2]

Contents

[edit] Etymology and History of the term

The term is from the Arabic root ḥ-n-f meaning "to incline, to decline" (Lane 1893) from the Syriac root of the same meaning. The ḥanīfiyyah is the law of Abraham; the verb taḥannafa means "to turn away from (idolatry)", with a secondary and subsequent meaning of "to become circumcised". In the verse 3:27 of the Quran it has also been translated as "upright person" and outside the Quran as "to incline towards a right state or tendency".[2] It appears to have been used earlier by Jews and Christians in reference to 'pagans' and applied to followers of an old Hellenized Syro-Arabian religion and used to taunt early Muslims.[3]

[edit] In the Quran

The term hanif is used 12 times in the Quran; eight times in reference to Ibrahim, who is the only person to have been explicitly identified with the term.[4] Ibrahim is mentioned in the Qur'an as a Hanif, being a prophet predating the Judaic and Christian traditions, who turned away from polytheism and pantheism for monotheism.[2]

“ "Ibrahim was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a 'Hanif', a Muslim, one who is not among the idol-worshipers." Qur'an 3:67 - Shakir ”

[edit] By Muslims

The term has been used synonymously with the term Muslim in reference to a historical Islam, extending upon the belief of Islam being a restoration of the pure monotheistic religion of Abraham - this pure religion Muslims considered to have become corrupted in the Jewish and Christian traditions- by stating that they followed the "...religion of Ibrahim, the hanif, the Muslim..."[3] It has been theorized by Watt that the verbal term Islam; arising from the participle form of Muslim (meaning: surrendered to God); may have only arisen as an identifying descriptor for the religion in the late Medinan period.[3]

Muslim scholars took the term hanif and its abstract noun haniffiya in two senses: as a synonym for historical Islam in the sense of the revealed to Muhammad and practiced by Muslims, and the other as natural state of monotheism of which Ibrāħīm was a significant but not the sole practitioner.[2]

[edit] Muslim views

At the time before the Prophet Muhammad received his first revelations of Islam, the city of Mecca was mainly polytheistic. Many Muslim traditions point to a small group of Meccan men and women that detested the use of the Kaˤaba by the polytheists and kept their practice of religion monotheistic as was taught by earlier prophets in the region. Muslims believe that one of these was Ibrāħīm (Abraham), who is also believed to have built the Kaˤaba.

According to Islamic belief, these people regularly spent some of their time away from the polytheist environment and made many retreats to nearby hills to pray. One such hill was Hira which is believed to be the location where Muhammad received his revelations from the Archangel Gabriel (Jibreel) which were later recorded as the Qur'an.

The only ḥanīf mentioned by name in the Qur'ān is Ibrāħīm. Other Islamic sources such as the sīrat, ahādīth, and tafsīr go into further detail on the ħunafā. They are said to be Arabs who held to the "pure" religion of Ibrāħīm and were not seduced into polytheism. This includes the followers of Ibrāħīm and of his sons Ismā'īl (Ishmael) and Isħāq (Isaac).

Muslims are far from unanimous as to who was a ħanīf and how many ħunafā there were.

[edit] List of hanifs

[citation needed]

The four friends in Mecca from Ibn Ishaq's account:

Hanif opponents of Islam from Ibn Ishaq's account:

  • Abu Amir Abd Amr ibn Sayfi: a leader of the tribe of Aws at Medina and builder of the "Mosque of the Schism" mentioned in the Quranic verse 9:107 and later allied with the Quraysh then moved to Taif and onto Syria after subsequent Muslim conquests.[2]
  • Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat[2]

[edit] Non-Muslim views

The hanafiyya are seen as the followers of the religion of Abraham who venerated the Kaaba and differed with the Quraysh and having differed over the "association" of the Lord of the sacred precinct in Mecca with other gods.[2] Some of the "devotional practices" of Islam attributed to them include the veneration of the Kaaba, the pilgrimages of the Hajj and umra, the standing at Arafat and Muzdalifa and the sacrificing of camels.[5]

The hanīfiyya have been the subject of academic controversy and accounts of natural "Arab" monotheist have not been universally accepted by Western scholars, with some instances being generally ascribed to special pleading, such as for Waraqa,[2] while G.R. Hawting rejects the Muslim explanations believing that they are later distortions.[citation needed]

[edit] As a name

Ḥanīf, capitalized, can also be a common Arabic proper name used for its more literary and poetic definition, "true believer" or "righteous one". The name is used throughout the Muslim world including non-Arabic speaking cultures.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Hans, pg.29
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Peters, pg 122-124
  3. ^ a b c Watt, pg 117-119
  4. ^ Kaltner, pg 87-91
  5. ^ Peters, pg 106

[edit] References