THE ISSUE OF THE AUTHOR OF AL-FIQH AL-AKBAR

Abstract

The article is devoted to determining whether Abu Hanifa Numan ibn Thabit al-Kufi (80-150 AH / 699-767 AD), the founder of the Hanafi school of thought, wrote al-Fiqh al-Akbar, a well-known work in the Muslim world. The article identifies the book based on written sources. The article answers the doubts of orientalists A.J. Wensinck, Givony Joseph, Joseph Schacht, Brannon M. Wheeler, Ulrich Rudolph, and others that al-Fiqh al-Akbar was written after the time of Abu Hanifa. Muslim scholars such as Shibli Nu’mani and Mufti Azizurrahman have also confirmed these doubts. The article also proves that it is a mistake to think that Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Bukhari, the second Abu Hanifa, is the real author of al-Fiqh al-Akbar. The article also mentions a series (sanad) of narrations (rivayah) from al-Fiqh al-Akbar to the author. In general, the article reveals based on evidence that the issues discussed in the science of kalam (theology) and the aqeedah during the time of Abu Hanifa were included in al-Fiqh al-Akbar, and that the doubts in this regard were unfounded. It has been clarified that al-Fiqh al-Akbar is indeed a work by Abu Hanifa.