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

fiqh
. That 
was the bedrock of Kufan 
fiqh
. It is from their 
fatwas
and those of their students who followed their path that 
this great legal inheritance was moulded. Hammad learned it, as said, from Ibrahim and ash-Sha‘bi but it is 
clear that the 
fiqh
of Ibrahim dominated him. Ibrahim was a proponent of the 
fiqh
of the people of opinion 
whereas ash-Sha‘bi was closer to the people of tradition even though he lived in Iraq. 
As already mentioned, Abu Hanifa stayed with Hammad for eighteen years and learned the 
fiqh
of the 
people of Iraq whose core was the 
fiqh
of ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud. He also learned the 
fatwas
of Ibrahim an-
Nakha‘i so that Shah Waliyullah ad-Dihlawi says, “The source of Hanafi 
fiqh
is found in the statements of 
Ibrahim an-Nakha‘i.” This is what he says in 
Hujjatu’llah al-Baligha
: “Abu Hanifa, may Allah be pleased 
with him, was the strongest in holding to the school of Ibrahim and his contemporaries and only exceeded it as 
much as Allah willed. A very important consideration when making deduction in his school was precise 
analysis of the manner of extrapolation. If you wish to learn the truth of what we have said, there is a 
summary of the positions of Ibrahim and his contemporaries in 
The Book of Traditions
, the 
Jami‘ 
of ‘Abdu’r-
Razzaq and the 
Musannaf
of Abu Bakr ibn Shayba. The analogy used in the school of Abu Hanifa does not 
deviate from this procedure except in a very few places and even in those few it does not leave what the 
fuqaha’
of Kufa believed.” (p. 146) 
When Hammad died, Abu Hanifa continued to study and research, teach and learn as do all true scholars, 
conforming with the tradition: “A scholar continues to seek knowledge. When he thinks that he knows, he is 
ignorant.” We mentioned his learning in Makka from ‘Ata’ ibn Abi Rabah the school of Ibn ‘Abbas which 
came through ‘Ikrima. He also took the knowledge of Ibn ‘Umar and the knowledge of ‘Umar from Nafi‘, the 
client of Ibn ‘Umar. Thus he amassed the knowledge of Ibn Mas‘ud and ‘Ali from the school of Kufa and the 
knowledge of ‘Umar and Ibn ‘Abbas from those 
Tabi‘un
with whom he studied. 
We can state, therefore, that he learned the 
fiqh
of the whole Muslim community with all its various 
methods, even though the thinking of the people of opinion was stronger in him so that he is considered the 
shaykh of the people of opinion. Abu Hanifa, however, did not confine himself to those 
fuqaha’
. He also went 

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to the Shi‘ite Imams and studied with them and supported them. He met Zayd ibn ‘Ali, Muhammad al-Baqir 
and ‘Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, each of whom had a position in 
fiqh
and knowledge. 
Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali Zayn al-‘Abidin died in 122 AH. He was a scholar with extensive learning in many 
areas of Islamic knowledge. He knew the Qur’anic readings and all the Qur’anic sciences. He knew 
fiqh
and 
doctrine and what was said in them, to the extent that the Mu‘tazilites considered him one of their shaykhs. It 
is reported that Abu Hanifa was his student for two years. According to 
ar-Rawd an-Nadir,
Abu Hanifa said, 
“I saw Zayd ibn ‘Ali as much as his family saw him. In his time, I did not see anyone with more 
fiqh
or 
knowledge than him nor anyone swifter in reply or clearer in position. He was unique.” He did not devote 
himself to him but he learned from him in some encounters. 
Muhammad al-Baqir, the son of Zayn al-‘Abidin, was the brother of Imam Zayd and died before him. He 
was one of the Shi‘ite Imams on whom the Twelvers and Isma‘ilis, the two most famous Shi‘ite groups, agree. 
He was called “al-Baqir” (deep seeker of knowledge) because of the serious way he sought knowledge. 
Although he was one of the People of the House, he did not speak ill of the first three khalifs. It is said some 
of the people of Iraq spoke ill of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthman in his presence and he became angry and 
said, “Are you are among the emigrants who were