Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad

His upbringing
 
 
Abu Hanifa grew up in Kufa and was educated there and lived most of his life there as a student, debater 
and teacher. The sources in our possession do not mention his father’s life or what his occupation and 
circumstances were but certain things about his circumstances can be deduced. He must have been wealthy, a 
merchant, and a good Muslim. In most books which recount the biography of Abu Hanifa, it states that his 
father met ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib as a child and that his grandfather gave ‘Ali some 
faludhaj
1
on the day of 

---

Nawruz. This indicates that his family were wealthy since they were able to give the khalif sweets which only 
the wealthy ate.
It is related that ‘Ali prayed for blessing for Thabit and his descendants when he saw him. This shows that 
he must have been a Muslim. It explicitly states in histories that Thabit was born into Islam and Abu Hanifa 
grew up in a Muslim household. That is confirmed by all scholars. 
We find Abu Hanifa frequenting the market before he frequen-ted scholars. We see that throughout his life 
he engaged in trade and so we must deduce that his father was a merchant. It seems probable that he was a 
merchant in 
khazz
silk and that Abu Hanifa followed his father’s occupation as is the custom of people both 
past and present. It is also probable that, following the custom of most wealthy city dwellers, he memorised 
the Qur’an. That assumption tallies with what is known of Abu Hanifa being one of the people who was very 
frequent in his recitation of the Qur’an. It is reported that he used to recite the entire Qur’an seven times in 
Ramadan, and even if that is an exaggeration, it is based on the fact that he recited the Qur’an a lot. Many 
sources report that he learned recitation from Imam ‘Asim, the source of one of the seven recitations (
qira’at
) 
of the Qur’an.
2
Kufa was one of the two great Iraqi cities of the time. Iraq was home to many different religions, sects and 
beliefs and of various ancient civilisations. Syriac Christians were dispersed throughout it and they had 
schools there before Islam, in which Greek philosophy and the ancient wisdom of Persia were studied. Before 
Islam, Iraq was also home to several Christian sects where dogma was debated. After Islam, Iraq was a 
melting pot of diverse races and a place rife with confusion and disorder. There were clashes of opinion on 
politics and religion. The Shi‘a and Mu‘tazilites were there as well as the Kharijites in the desert. There were 
also the 
Tabi‘un
who strove to take knowledge from the Companions they met. Knowledge of the 
deen
was 
transmitted freely there. It was an environment of clashing sects and conflicting opinions. 
Abu Hanifa observed these diverse currents and his intellect was sharpened and sifted these differing 
views. It appears that while still in his youth he debated and argued people from various sects. This reveals his 
upright natural disposition. He concentrated, however, on commerce, going mainly to the markets and rarely 
to scholars. This remained the state of things until one day a scholar noticed his intelligence and cleverness 
and thought that he should not devote himself entirely to trade. He told him to frequent the scholars as he did 
the markets.
It is transmitted that Abu Hanifa said, “One day I was going past ash-Sha‘bi who was sitting down. He 
called to me, ‘Where are you going?’ I said, ‘I am going to the market.’ He said, ‘I do not frequent the market. 
I am concerned with going to the scholars.’ I told him, ‘I rarely frequent them.’ He told me, ‘Do not be 
heedless. You must look into knowledge and sit with the scholars. I discern alertness and energy in you.’ That 
affected my heart and I ceased to frequent the market and began to turn to knowledge and Allah let me benefit 
from what he said.” (
Virtues of Abu Hanifa
, al-Makki, pt. 1, p. 59) After ash-Sha‘bi’s advice, Abu Hanifa 
turned to knowledge and frequented the circles of the scholars.