Al-Tahawi


Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi , or simply aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, was an Egyptian Arab Hanafi jurist and a hadith scholar. He studied with al-Muzani and was a Shafi'i jurist, then with Ahmad b. Imran and followed the Hanafi school. He is known for his work al-'Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah, a concise summary of the essentials of the Sunni Islamic creed.
Al-Tahawi was a contemporary of al-Ash'ari and al-Maturidi, two leading representatives of Sunni Islam, and produced a creed which exerted an influence upon the followers of the Hanafite school in Egypt.

Name

According to al-Dhahabi, in his Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', He is Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Salamah ibn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Salamah, al-Azdi al-Hajari al-Misri al-Tahawi al-Hanafi.

Biography

Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī was born in the village of Ṭaḥā in upper Egypt in 229 AH to an affluent Arab family of Azdī origins. He began his studies with his maternal uncle, Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā al-Muzanī, a leading disciple of ash-Shāfiʿī, but in 249 AH, at approximately 20 years of age, aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī abandoned the Shāfiʿī school of jurisprudence in favour of the Ḥanafī school. Different versions are given by his biographers of his conversion to the Ḥanafī school, but the most probable reason seems to be that the system of Abū Ḥanīfa appealed to his critical insight more than that of ash-Shāfiʿī.
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī then studied under the head of the Ḥanafīs in Egypt, Aḥmad ibn Abī ʿImrān al-Ḥanafī, who had himself studied under the two primary students of Abū Ḥanīfa, Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī. Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī then travelled to Syria in 268 AH for further studies in Ḥanafī jurisprudence and became pupil to Abū Khāzim ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, the chief qāḍi of Damascus.
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī gained a vast knowledge of ḥadīth in addition to Ḥanafī jurisprudence and his study circles consequently attracted many students of knowledge who related ḥadīth from him and transmitted his works. Among them were al-Da'udi, the head of the Zahiris in Khurasan, and aṭ-Ṭabarānī, well known for his biographical dictionaries of ḥadīth transmitters.
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī was famed for his extraordinary expertise in both ḥadīth and Ḥanafī jurisprudence even during his own lifetime, and many of his works, such as Kitāb Maʿāni al-Āthār and ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwīyyah, continue to be held in high regard by Sunni Muslims today.

Legacy

Many of aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's contemporaries praised him and noted him as both a reliable scholar and narrator of ḥadīth. He was widely held as a distinguished and prolific writer and became known as the most learned faqīh amongst the Ḥanafīs in Egypt, despite having knowledge of all the madhāhib. Ibn Yūnus said of him, "Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī was reliable, trustworthy, a Faqīh, intelligent, the likes of whom did not come afterwards."
The Salafists embraced his works and tried to infiltrate the Ahl al-Sunnah sect. But he is a real Hanafian.

Works

He authored many other works, close to forty different books, some of which are still available today, including:
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī died on the 14th day of Dhū-l Qaʿdah, 321 AH, and was buried in al-Qarāfah, Cairo.