world’s greatest intellectuals and jurists.
Abu Hanifah went to Mecca to perform the sacred hajj (pilgrimage) and enrolled at the school of Ata ibn Abu Rabah, who was considered to be one of the giants of Islamic learning and wisdom at the time.
In the year 720, when Abu Hanifah was twenty-one, he left Mecca for Medina where he learned Hadith from Sulaiman and Salim ibn Abdullah. Sulaiman was an aide of ummul Mu’minin (the ‘mother of the believers’) Maymuna, the wife of the Prophet, and Salim was a grandson of Umar, the second Caliph of Islam. Abu Hanifah became a great repository of Islamic knowledge.
The vast corpus of juristic pronouncements (fatawa) developed by Abu Hanifah and his trusted disciples became so large that, over time, a school of Islamic legal thought emerged named after him. Known as the Hanafi Madh’hab, this school of legal thought is most prevalent in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. Towards the end of his life, Abu Hanifah was imprisoned by the Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansur for refusing to take of the post of Qadi (Judge) of the Abbasid Empire. Abu Hanifah died in prison at the age of around sixty-seven and was buried in Baghdad.
***
Abu Hurairah (601-679): Amongst the companions of the Prophet, one man more than any other, stands out like a shining star for his utter devotion and dedication to preserving the ahadith (or sayings of the Prophet); he was Abu Hurairah.
His pre-Islamic name was Abd ash-Shams but after embracing Islam he changed it to Abd al-Rahman ibn Sakhr, although he became well known by his nickname, ‘Abu Hurairah’ (meaning the ‘father of the kitten’), received due to his love and affection for his pet kitten. Born into the Daws tribe of southern Arabia, Abu Hurairah was about twelve when Muhammad became a Prophet and started preaching Islam in Mecca. Abu Hurairah was still in his teens when the Prophet began to preach the message of Islam to his kith and kin. This was followed by an open call to all the people of Mecca.
After preaching in Mecca for more than a decade, the Prophet left his native city and moved to the nearby oasis of Madinah, where he received a warm welcome. At the time Abu Hurairah was in his early twenties. It was not until seven years after the Prophet’s migration (Hijrah) to Madinah that Abu Hurairah came to hear about the Prophet and his mission. Immediately he set out for Madinah in order to meet the Prophet. He set out for Khaybar – which is located around one hundred and sixty kilometers from Madinah – and after a long and exhausting journey, he formally became a Muslim at the hands of the Prophet. He was about thirty at the time. As a perceptive individual who was blessed with a highly retentive memory, he became one of the most learned among the companions of the Prophet.
Abu Hurairah is a legend in Islamic history for not only narrating a vast quantity of Prophetic traditions, but also for his unique memory power. According to the historian and traditionist Abd al-Rahman ibn Ali ibn al-Jawzi, Abu Hurairah narrated five thousand three hundred and seventy-four Hadith in total, more than any other companion of the Prophet, including the Prophet’s wife, Aishah. Abu Hurairah breathed his last at the age of seventy-eight and was buried in Madinah, the city of the Prophet.
***
Abu ‘l-Afia: Tudrus ha-Levi Ben Uyssuf Ben Tudrus: Head of the Jewish community of Castile, who exercised great influence over Alfonso X. He wrote Biblical and Talmudic commentaries with cabbalist tendencies: his Talmudic commentary Osar ha-kabod (Treasury of Glory) contained references to the mystical Zohar (Splendor). He exchanged verses with his contemporary Abraham Bedersi. He is not to be confused with his namesake Tudrus Ben Yuhuda Abu’l-Afia.
***
Abu Musa Island: An offshore island on the Gulf on the eve of the independence of the Trucial emirate of Sharjah in 1971, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran pressed his claim to three islands at the mouth of the Gulf, including Abi Musa. After Iranian troops had landed there, Britain, the erstwhile imperial power in the region, meditated. In 1994 the Gulf Cooperation Council took up the matter and urged Iran to agree to refer the issue of its occupation of Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tumb Islands to the International Court of Justice, but to avail. A decade later the matter remained unresolved.
***
Abu Muslim (728-755): Persian leader of the Abbasid revolution. By political and religious agitation he raised (747) the black banners of the Abbasids against the ruling Umayyad family. In 749 he established Abu al-Abbas as-Saffah, the head of the Abbasid family, as caliph of Islam. Abu Muslim became governor of Khorasan, but the caliph al-Mansur feared his power and treacherously murdered him.
***
Abu Nakr: Father of Aisha, acclaimed first Caliph after the Prophet’s death. Arguably the first adult male convert to Islam, and a close colleague and devout disciple of the Prophet Muhammad. The only man to accompany Muhammad when he escaped from Mecca. He was chosen to head the prayers by the Prophet in the last week of his life, which gave him a critical edge to become his acknowledged successor.
***
Abu Sufyan: A Meccan tribal leader who raised an army and attacked Medina. nobleman of Mecca who for ten years commanded the pagan opposition to early Islam after Muhammad’s migration to Medina. After his acceptance of Islam, prepared for by the marriage of his daughter Umm Habiba to Muhammad, he would become a loyal ally of the Prophet. He would serve as a provincial governor in the Yemen for the first two Caliphs and is traditionally considered to have fought at Yarmuk. Legitimate father of Yazid and Muawiya and possibly to others such as Amr and Zayyad. Meccan leader who opposed Muhammad; fought in battles. A Quraysh leader who surrendered Mecca to Muhammad in 629.
***
Abu-Simbel: Abu-Simbel or Ipsambul, village, S Egypt, on the Nile River. Its two temples were hewn (1250 BC) our of rock cliffs during the reign of Ramses II. To avoid the rising waters caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s, the colossal statues of Ramses II and the temples were cut into 950 blocks and reassembled farther inland. The project, sponsored by UNESCO and funded by more than 50 nations, was completed in 1966.
***
Abul A’la Mawdudi (1903-1979): If the nineteenth century was the age of European domination of the Muslim world, then the twentieth century must be considered the period when the Muslims finally woke from sleep and began to liberate their lands from foreign occupation. But following the departure of the British, French, Italians and the other European colonial powers from the Muslim world, a powerful and pertinent debate took place in all the Muslim countries concerning their political and constitutional futures. One Islamic scholar and activist contributed more to this debate than probably any other Muslim thinker or reformer of his generation; he was Abul A’la Mawdudi of Pakistan.
Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi, better known as Mawlana Mawdudi, was born in the town of Aurangabad in the Indian state of Hyderabad (located in present-day Andhra Pradesh). Born and brought up in a family where learning, personal piety and devotion to Sufism was valued and respected, young Mawdudi received his early education at home from his father. His further education was interrupted at the age of seventeen when his father suddenly died in 1920. Mawdudi was forced to abandon his studies and work to earn a living.
Mawdudi then became editor of the prominent al-Jam’iyat, the official publication of Jam’iat-i Ulama-i Hind, a national Islamic umbrella organization which represented the Indian Muslims at the time.
Following his resignation as editor of al-Jam’iyat in 1928, Mawdudi left Delhi and moved to Hyderabad. As a journalist and editor of al-Jam’iyat, he was clean-shaven and wore Western clothes, but now he grew a beard and adopted a
