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

The 
Musnad
 of Abu Hanifa
 
 
Although Abu Hanifa does not have a book on 
fiqh
, scholars mention a 
musnad
of 
hadiths
and traditions 
ascribed to him. It is arranged in the order of 
fiqh
and its rulings. So is this 
musnad
part of what he did and did 
he arrange it himself or was it transmitted by his companions who received it in the way his 
fiqh
was 
received? Did they write down what he told them in his lessons and then collect it together in chapters and 
publish it? It is certain that Abu Yusuf collected many of those transmissions which he called 
al-Athar
and 
that Muhammad ash-Shaybani also collected a group which he also called 
al-Athar
. Many transmissions are 
the same in both books. 

---

Many scholars think that the transmissions can be correctly ascribed to Abu Hanifa. Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani 
says in 
Ta‘jil al-Munfa‘a
, “As for the 
Musnad
of Abu Hanifa, he did not collect it. What is extant of the 
hadiths
of Abu Hanifa is found in the 
Kitab al-Athar
which Muhammad ibn al-Hasan related, and other 
hadiths
of Abu Hanifa can be found in the books of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan and Abu Yusuf. Abu 
Muhammad al-Harithi, who lived after 300 AH, was interested in the 
hadiths
of Abu Hanifa and collected 
them in a volume.” 
This would indicate that the 
Musnad
ascribed to Abu Hanifa is not actually his own collection. Other 
scholars state the same. It seems that the traditions ascribed to Abu Hanifa are valid, but that their actual 
collection and ordering were done by Abu Yusuf and ash-Shaybani.