Al-Aʿmash

Al-Aʿmash was one of the leading Successors, older than Abū Ḥanīfa, and lived in Kufa. Initially he did not acknowledge Abū Ḥanīfa’s merit. It is related that al-Aʿmash fell ill and Abū Ḥanīfa visited him. When Abū Ḥanīfa rose, al-Aʿmash said: “This man is burdensome in his own house; how much more in ours!” Abū Ḥanīfa heard and said: “What can I say of a man who has neither prayer nor fasting?” His companions asked what he meant. He answered: “He does not require washing after intercourse without ejaculation; he eats in Ramadan after dawn until sunrise, and considers daytime to begin at sunrise rather than dawn.”

Later al-Aʿmash acknowledged Abū Ḥanīfa’s merit. Evidence is what the imam Shams al-Aʾimma Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥalwānī related to us: I heard the jurist Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAlī recount from the jurist Abū Jaʿfar al-Hinduwānī: Al-Aʿmash did not incline toward Abū Ḥanīfa or treat him kindly, and there was something difficult in his temperament. He swore an oath divorcing his wife if she told him that the flour was exhausted, wrote it, sent a message, mentioned it to anyone to tell him, or gestured about it. His wife was bewildered and sought a way out. She was told to consult Abū Ḥanīfa and related the story. He said: “It is easy: tonight tie the flour sack to the drawstring of his waistcloth, or wherever you can on his clothing. When he rises in the morning or during the night, he will discover that the sack is empty and the flour exhausted, and arrange for his provisions.” She did so. Al-Aʿmash rose in darkness or after daybreak and took his waistcloth. He felt the sack, touched it and pulled it toward himself as he pulled his waistcloth. He realized the flour was exhausted and said: “By God, this is one of Abū Ḥanīfa’s devices! How can we prosper while he lives, exposing us to our wives and showing them our incapacity and limited understanding?”

He said: Through this same chain, from the teacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ḥafṣ: ʿAlī ibn Yūnus mentioned: Yūsuf ibn Khālid al-Samtī related to us: I left Basra and came to Kufa when I heard Abū Ḥanīfa’s name. I entered a mosque in Kufa, thinking it his mosque, but it was al-Aʿmash’s, with his companions inside. I sat with them and posed questions. Al-Aʿmash was absent then; when he entered, we rose for him. His companions said: “This man from Basra poses questions to us.” Al-Aʿmash took my hand and said: “Leave this mosque and go to Abū Ḥanīfa’s mosque: he knows the answers to these questions.”

Yūsuf ibn Khālid al-Samtī then said: We sat with al-Battī and thought ourselves jurists. When I sat with Abū Ḥanīfa, it was as though a covering had been removed from my face.

He said: Through this same chain, from the teacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ḥafṣ: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir ibn Zurāra mentioned: I heard ʿAlī ibn Mushir say: Al-Aʿmash performed pilgrimage, and a group from Kufa accompanied him on his departure. I was among them. When he came alongside al-Ḥīra, he asked: “Is ʿAlī ibn Mushir among you?” He knew me from my attendance upon Abū Ḥanīfa. I said yes. He said: “Return to Abū Ḥanīfa so that he writes the pilgrimage rites for me, then catch up with me at al-Qādisiyya.” I returned and asked him, and he dictated them to me.

Among the accounts of his generosity is what is recounted of Yūsuf ibn Khālid al-Samtī. When he came to Kufa to learn from Abū Ḥanīfa, he first came across al-Aʿmash’s mosque; al-Aʿmash directed him to Abū Ḥanīfa. He studied with him four or five years, then asked to return to Basra. Abū Ḥanīfa told him to wait a week. He then invited him home and produced a written collection of admonitions, including: “Yūsuf, you have learned and become more learned than Basra’s scholars. You probably think that, on entering Basra, you will disregard its jurists, compel them and not be troubled by them.” Yūsuf said this was what he thought. Abū Ḥanīfa warned: “Beware of that. When you enter Basra and jurists and imams visit, honor and respect them. Return their visits and speak kindly to each. If you can send each a gift of good things, do so. If no one visits you, visit them and honor each.” He gave such admonitions, then a thousand dirhams and fine garments as a gift. Yūsuf departed for Basra and said: “I followed Abū Ḥanīfa’s advice, and it benefited me in both worlds.”

Ḥammād's companions included Abū Bakr al-Nahshalī, Abū Burda al-ʿUtbī and Muḥammad ibn Jābir al-Ḥanafī—or, in another version, al-Juʿfī. When Ḥammād died, his son did not take his teaching seat because he was not a jurist. Abū Bakr al-Nahshalī did not take it because he was easily wearied, and Abū Burda did not take it. Abū Ḥanīfa therefore took the seat to teach jurisprudence, and Ḥammād's companions gathered around him.

Ibn Abī Laylā, Ibn Shubruma, Sharīk ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Sufyān al-Thawrī and al-Aʿmash opposed him. He continued until his position became established, without becoming weary. His companions gathered around him: Abū Yūsuf, Zufar, Asad ibn ʿAmr, al-Qāsim ibn Maʿn, al-Walīd, al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyād, Dāwūd al-Ṭāʾī, Yūsuf ibn Khālid al-Samtī, Zakariyyā ibn Abī Zāʾida, Nūḥ ibn Abī Maryam, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, al-Mughīra ibn Ḥamza and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan. Forty men among Abū Ḥanīfa's companions composed books on jurisprudence, including the men just mentioned.

Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr, Commander of the Faithful, needed a purchase deed or an endowment deed written. The jurists Ibn Abī Laylā, Ibn Shubruma, al-Aʿmash and Sufyān al-Thawrī gathered and jointly wrote a deed. It was presented to Abū Jaʿfar, who found many errors and returned it. He summoned Abū Ḥanīfa and said: “I give you two months to write such a deed.” Abū Ḥanīfa replied, “I do not need the time,” and dictated it immediately. Abū Jaʿfar approved it and offered him ten thousand dirhams, but Abū Ḥanīfa did not accept them.

Shaykh Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ḥafṣ said: Yaḥyā ibn al-Naḍr said: “They did not doubt that he had been given poison and died.” Another version says he was forced to drink a draught of sawīq and died from it. It is also related that the Commander of the Faithful appointed him judge of al-Ruṣāfa, but he refused. He was flogged, became ill and died six days later.

Another version says that Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh rose in Basra claiming the caliphate. Al-Manṣūr heard that al-Aʿmash and Abū Ḥanīfa had written to him. He forged two letters in Ibrāhīm's name, addressed to them. When a letter was brought to Abū Ḥanīfa, he took it and kissed it. Abū Jaʿfar consequently suspected him and gave him poison. His face turned green and he died. Another version says Abū Jaʿfar imprisoned him and gave him ten lashes every day, and he died in prison.

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmāra washed him. His funeral bier was carried from prison, and a great crowd gathered and prayed over him at the gate of al-Khayzurān. Prayers were offered over him after burial for more than ten days. His son Ḥammād was the last to pray over him.

They differed over his age. Muqātil al-Samarqandī said: “Abū Ḥanīfa died in the year 150, aged seventy-two.” Abū Nuʿaym said the same. Others said he was seventy.

Evidence also is what the teacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ḥafṣ mentioned: Bishr ibn Yaḥyā mentioned, from Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd: I heard al-Aʿmash, when a man came with a question, say: “Go to the people of that circle. When a question arises, they continue turning it over until they get it right.” He meant the circle of Abū Ḥanīfa and his companions.