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Kitab Al-Athar of Imam Abu Hanifah

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This work is a translation of the hadith of Imam Muhammad ibn al Hasan Ash Shaybani, who one of the two major student of Imam Abu Hanifa. The hadith are transmitted from his teacher, Imam Abu Hanifa himself. In today's day and age, it is a significant translation because groups have sprung up that are claiming that Abu Hanifa was not familiar with many hadith, or that the Hanafi juristic school is not based on hadith (transmissions from the Prophet and his Companions). This work proves otherwise.

The translation of the work is great. Abdassammad Clarke's translation is lucid and easily read. The Arabic is included with the English. In addition, even the chain of transmitters (sanad) has been translated. Imam Muhammad comments on the juristic rulings that are drawn from each hadith, sometimes adding his agreement or disagreement with the other jurists of the time, such as Ibrahim An Nakh'i, etc.

What makes the work even more useful for the non-Arabic speaking Hanafi are the numerous appendices that come with the work. It includes an introduction that details the position of Imam Abu Hanifa and his students in hadith, along with the reasons that some weakened Abu Hanifa in hadith. It covers his life, as well as Imam Muhammad's. An appendix at the end puts in one place all the positions where Abu Hanifa differed from Ibrahim An Nakh'i, who was his teacher's teacher. And it has a list of all the important men in the chain of transmitters, along with their grading of weak or strong.

Bottomline: get the book, for it is a gem! You will learn more about the Hanafi maddhab, and its basis in hadith, than anything else.

The book title is mis-leading as this book has not been authored by Imam Abu Hanifah (I bought it thinking that it was by the Imam). Instead it is narrations by Imam Abu Hanifah to his students, thus it is impossible to know whether these were the actual words of the great Imam.

GREAT BOOK!!!! As soon as this arrived in my mailbox I opened the book and began to read it being a huge Imam Abu Hanifa reader as well as a follower. This book covers pretty much all the basics from A-Z in Islam regarding Hanafi Fiqh. This is a must have book for Hanafi's. I often make refrences to this book all the time now and am always browsing through it to have a better understanding of it. The book is thick so don't think you will be able to read the book in one sitting. It will take some time.