Hanafi

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Hanafi (Arabic: حنفى ) is one of the four schools (madhabs) of jurisprudence (Fiqh) or religious law within Sunni Islam. Founded by Abu Hanifa, An-Númān ibn Thābit (Arabic: النعمان بن ثابت‎) (699 - 765), it is considered to be the school most open to modern ideas. Its followers are sometimes known in English as Hanafites or Hanifites (cf Malikite, Shafiite, Hanbalite for the other schools of thought). It is the largest of the four schools; it is followed by approximately 45% of Muslims world-wide. The other three schools of thought are Shafi, Maliki, and Hanbali.

The Hanafi school is predominant among Sunni Muslims in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Lower (Northern) Egypt, where the influence of the Ottomans was strongest.

Northern Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, and the Levant (Syria, Lebanon and Palestine) are mixed Shafi/Hanafi. Other areas with sizeable Hanafi adherents include Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, South Asia, Muslim communities of the Balkans (in Bulgaria and Romania for example), Central Asian countries (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, etc), regions in the Caucasus (Chechnya, Daghestan, Ingushetia, Abhkazia, Adygeia, Ajaria, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachai-Cherkessia, and Azerbaijan), China (Xinjiang or Uighuristan and Hui Muslims), Russia (Tatarstan, and Bashkortostan), and Ukraine (Crimea). Many Tatars and Turks are also Hanafi adherents.

The Constitution of Afghanistan allows Afghan judges to use Hanafi jurisprudence in situations where the Constitution lacks provisions.

The Hanafi school is considered to be the most liberal. For example, under Hanafi jurisprudence, blasphemy is not punishable by the state, despite being considered a civil crime by some other schools.

There is little or no animosity between the four schools of religious law within Sunni Islam. Instead there is a cross-pollination of ideas and debate that serves to refine each school's understanding of Islam. It is not uncommon, or disallowed, for an individual to follow one school but take the point of view of another school for a certain issue (for example the Egyptian Sheikh Shihab al-Din Qarafi was an Imam in both the Maliki and Shafi schools).

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