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Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-Awzāʿī (Arabic: أَبُو عَمْرو عَبْد ٱلرَّحْمَٰن بْن عَمْرو ٱلْأَوْزَاعِيّ; 707–774) was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, and the chief representative and eponym of the Awza'i school of Islamic jurisprudence.
Al-Awza'i | |
|---|---|
ٱلْأَوْزَاعِيّ | |
 | |
| Title | Imam |
| Personal | |
| Born | 707 |
| Died | 774 (aged 66–67) |
| Religion | Islam |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| Region | Sham |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Independent (eponym of the Awza'i school) |
| Creed | Athari[1] |
| Main interest(s) | |
| Notable idea(s) | Awza'i school |
| Arabic name | |
| Personal (Ism) | ʿAbd al-Raḥmān عَبْد ٱلرَّحْمَٰن |
| Patronymic (Nasab) | Ibn ʿAmr ٱبْن عَمْرو |
| Teknonymic (Kunya) | Abū ʿAmr أَبُو عَمْرو |
| Toponymic (Nisba) | Al-Awzāʿī ٱلْأَوْزَاعِيّ |
Biography
editAwzāʿī was of Sindhi origin,[2] probably born in Baalbek (in modern-day Lebanon) in 707. He was referred to by his nisbah Awzā (الأوزاع), part of Banu Hamdan.[3] The biographer and historian Al-Dhahabi reports that Awzāʿī was from Sindh, and he was a mawali of ʾAwzā tribe in his early life.[4][5] He may have descended from the Zutt (Jats), who had a strong presence in Syria and Iraq during Islamic Golden Age.[6] Very little of al-Awzāʿī's writings survive, but his style of Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) is preserved in Abu Yusuf's book Al-radd ʿala siyar al-Awzāʿī, in particular his reliance on the "living tradition," or the uninterrupted practice of Muslims handed down from preceding generations. For Awzāʿī, this was the true Sunnah of Muhammad. Awzāʿī's school flourished in Syria, the Maghreb, and Al Andalus but was eventually overcome and replaced by the Maliki school of Islamic law in the 9th century. He died in 774 and was buried near Beirut, Lebanon, where his tomb is still visited.[7]
Views
editTheologically, he was known as a persecutor of the Qadariyya, but also one of the main historical witnesses of them. He said the Qadariyya merely appropriated the heretical doctrines of Christians. Al-Awza'i had met their founder Ma'bad al-Juhani.[8]
Al-Awza'i differed with other schools of jurisprudence in holding that apostates from Islam ought not be executed unless their apostasy is part of a plot to take over the state.[9]
In the introduction to his work al-Jarh wa-l-Ta'dil, Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi preserves a corpus of ten letters attributed to al-Awza'i. In these letters, al-Awza'i addresses a series of high-ranking officials in order to plead the cause of individuals and groups. Among other things, he encouraged the Abbasids to ransom Muslims who were captured by the Byzantines in Erzurum, and to increase the wages of the Syrian soldiers in charge of protecting the Levantine coast.[10]
Both Christians and Muslims from the Beirut area appealed to al-Awza'i for help. In one story, a local Christian in Beirut sought al-Awza'i's help in resolving a tax dispute. When his appeal to the tax administrator failed, al-Awza'i gave the Christian the 80 dinars he thought he was owed, and even tried to return the jar of honey the Christian had given him to thank him for his efforts.
Further reading
edit- Judd, Steven C. (2019). 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Amr al-Awza'i. London: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1786076854.
References
edit- ^ Krawietz, Birgit; Tamer, Georges; Holtzman, Livnatz (2013). "Debating the Doctrine of jabr (Compulsion): Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Reads Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī". Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. Berlin, Germany: Walter De Gruyter. p. 63. ISBN 978-3-11-028534-5.
The prominent traditionalists, such as Abū ʿAmr al-Awzāʿī (d.157/774) and Ahmad b. Ḥanbal (d.241/855)..
- ^ A.S Bazmee Ansari. Bearman, P. (ed.). "Ḏj̲āt́́". Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition Online (EI-2 English). Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_sim_2021.
Imām al-Awzāʿi was of Sindhī origin and his forefathers might have belonged to those D̲j̲āťs who fell into the hands of Muḥammad b. al-Ḳāsim and were sent as prisoners of war to ʿIrāḳ
- ^ "سير أعلام النبلاء". shamela (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ The Voice of Islam. Jamiyat-ul-Falah. 1967. p. 96.
The origin of al - Awza'i is traced from Sind, wherefrom he or his parents came to Syria...
- ^ Isḥāq, Muḥammad (1955). India's Contribution to the Study of Hadith Literature. University of Dacca. p. 199.
- ^ Schacht; Lewis; Pellat, eds. (1998-05-28). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. II (C-G). Brill. p. 489. ISBN 978-90-04-07026-4.
Imām al-Awzā'i was of Sindhī origin and his forefathers might have belonged to those Jāts who fell into the hands of Muhammad b. al-Kāsim and were sent as prisoners of war to 'lrāk.
- ^ John Esposito, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Oxford University Press, 2003
- ^ Steven C. Judd, "The Early Qadariyya" in The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology, ed. Sabine Schmidtke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 47-48.
- ^ Wood, Asmi (2012). "8. Apostasy in Islam and the Freedom of Religion in International Law". In Paul Babie; Neville Rochow (eds.). Freedom of Religion under Bills of Rights. University of Adelaide Press. p. 169. ISBN 9780987171801. JSTOR 10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
- ^ Tillier, Mathieu (2022). "La Syrie d'al-Awzāʿī (m. 157/774). Les pétitions d'un savant au pouvoir abbasside". In Boudier, Mathilde (ed.). Autour de la Syrie médiévale. Études offertes à Anne-Marie Eddé (in French). Leuven: Peeters. pp. 65–114. ISBN 9789042947986.