One day, Abu Hanifah came to Imam Ja’far Sadiq (a.

One day, Abu Hanifah came to Imam Ja’far Sadiq (a.s.) and the Imam (a.s.) said: “You use analogy in jurisprudence, while it must not be, because the first one to resort to analogy was Iblees.” Imam (a.s.) says: “The worst mischiefs in Muhammad’s Ummah are personal opinion and analogy, which have changed unlawful into lawful and lawful into unlawful.” It is also related from Thalabi that the Holy Prophet (S) said: “Very soon a nation will appear, which will use analogy and personal opinion in jurisprudence, by which Islam will be destroyed.” Doubtlessly, Abu Hanifah was very fond of analogy and personal opinion, as seen from his jurisprudence.

The apparent reason for this is that in his time, he had no access to authentic traditions.[^1] This is supported by the statement of Mulla Ali Qari, who quotes from Sakhawi in an authentic report that due to his young age, the great Imam (Abu Hanifah) did not get any chance of meeting any companion.[^2] There is no doubt that Abu Hanifah had great trust in his opinion and analogy. Thus, it is apparent from Pg. 82 of Al-Milal wan-Nihal that Abu Hanifah preferred analogy to a solitary report.

Thus, to prefer ones personal opinion over tradition is like abrogating the traditions. On the same basis, the later scholars have criticized Abu Hanifah for his verdict regard divorce.[^3] In the same way, Khatib Baghdadi, Ahmad Hanbal, Ibne Jauzi have all ridiculed Abu Hanifah.[^4] On page 4 of the same preface, the Holy Prophet (S) is reported to have said: “My nation will be divided into more than seventy sects but the worst sect is the one which uses analogy and one who does so, has legalized illegal things and made the legal ones illegal.” Another tradition of the Prophet (S) says: “No one has snatched away the knowledge of religion, except the incapable scholars.” When there remained no scholars of religion, people began to follow ignorant rich men, and they began to issue verdicts based on personal views without the help of Quran and tradition.

They became misguided and also misguided others. In Vol. 1 of Qastalani there is a tradition from Abu Saeed Khudri that the Prophet (S) said: “One who performs jurisprudence without tradition, only on the basis of analogy, is accursed, and one who acts upon it, is also accursed.” The gist of the above is that in presence of Quran and tradition, jurisprudence based on personal opinion and analogy, is severely prohibited.