Ibrahim al-Nazzam

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Sayyār Ibn Hāni‘ an-Naẓẓām (Arabic: أبو إسحاق بن سيار بن هانئ النظام‎) (c. 775 – c. 845) was an Arab[1] Mu'tazilite theologian and poet. He was a nephew of the Mu'tazilite theologian Abu al-Hudhayl al-'Allaf, and al-Jahiz was one of his students. An-Nazzam served at the courts of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mamun.[2] His theological doctrines and works are lost except for a few fragments.[3]

Views

While most of the Mu'tazila were followers of the Hanafite school of jurisprudence, with a minority preferring the Shafi'ite rite, Nazzam was entirely different. He was famous for his strong rejection of analogical reason, which was accepted by both the Hanafites and Shafi'ites; of juristic preference, a pillar of Hanafite though; of binding consensus, accepted by all of Sunni Islam; and of the hadith supposedly reporting prophetic traditions, accepted by the majority of Muslims in multiple sects. Like other early Mu'tazilites, An-Nazzam was a scripturalist who had no use for hadiths, which he believed were full of contradictions.[4]

Consensus

Nazzam's rejection of consensus as a valid source of law was primarily due to his rationalist criticism of the first generation of Muslims, mainly Abu Hurayra, whom he viewed as possessing defective personalities and intellects.[5] Shi'ite theologians Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid and Sharif al-Murtaza held Nazzam's book Kitab al-Nakth in which he denied the validity of consensus for this reason in high esteem.[6]

References

1. Smart, J. R.; Smith, G. Rex; Pridham, B. R. (1997). New Arabian Studies. University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0-85989-552-1.
2. [http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ei2/nazzam.html
3. van Ess, Josef (1993). "al-Naẓẓam, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Sayyār Ibn Hāniʾ". In C. E. Bosworth; et al. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. 7: Mif–Naz (New ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 1057a–58b. ISBN 90-04-09419-9.
4. Josef Van Ess, The flowering of Muslim theology, Harvard University Press, 2006, pg. 161
5. Devin J. Stewart, "Muhammad b. Dawud al-Zahiri's Manual of Jurisprudence." Taken from Studies in Islamic Law and Society Volume 15: Studies in Islamic Legal Theory. Edited by Bernard G. Weiss. Pg. 107. Leiden: 2002. Brill Publishers.
6. Josef van Ess, Das Kitab al-nakt des Nazzam und seine Rezeption im Kitab al-Futya des Gahiz. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Reprecht, 1971.