Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-ʾAwzāʿī ( ar, أبو عمرو عبدُ الرحمٰن بن عمرو الأوزاعي) (707–774) was an Islamic scholar, traditionalist and the chief representative and eponym of the
ʾAwzāʿī school of
Islamic jurisprudence
''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh.
The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and e ...
. ʾAwzāʿī was referred to by his tribe "''ʾAwzā''" (الأوزاع), part of
Banu Hamdan.
Biography
He was probably born in
Baalbek
Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...
(in modern-day
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
) in 707, although the biographer and historian
Al-Dhahabi
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...
reports that Awzāʿī was originally from
Sindh
Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
. 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
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
handed down from preceding generations. For Awzāʿī, this was the true
Sunnah
In Islam, , also spelled ( ar, سنة), are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed ...
of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
. Awzāʿī's school flourished in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
, and
Al Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
but was eventually overcome and replaced by the
Maliki
The ( ar, مَالِكِي) school is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century. The Maliki school of jurisprudence relies on the Quran and hadiths as primary ...
school of Islamic law in the 9th century. He died in 774 and was buried near
Beirut, Lebanon
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...
, where his tomb is still visited.
Views
Theologically, he was known as a persecutor of the
Qadaris, but also one of the main historical witnesses of them. He alleged that the Qadaris merely appropriated heretical doctrines from the Christians. Awzāʿī had met their founder
Maʿbad.
Al-Awzāʿī differed with all the other schools of ''fiqh'' in holding that
apostates from Islam
Apostasy in Islam ( ar, ردة, or , ) is commonly defined as the abandonment of Islam by a Muslim, in thought, word, or through deed. An apostate from Islam is referred to by using the Arabic and Islamic term ''murtād'' (). It includes ...
ought not be executed unless their apostasy is part of a 'plot to take over the State', i.e. treason.
In the introduction to his work ''al-Jarh wa-l-ta'dil'', Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi (d. 938 (AH 327)) preserves a corpus of ten letters attributed to al-Awzāʿī. In these letters, al-Awzāʿī addresses a series of high ranking officials, in order to plead the cause of individuals and groups. Among other things, he encouraged the
Abbasids
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
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.
Further reading
*
References
External links
Biodata at MuslimScholars.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Awzai, Abd-Al-Rahman
707 births
774 deaths
Sunni Muslim scholars
Atharis
Taba‘ at-Tabi‘in hadith narrators
Religious leaders from Beirut
Scholars from the Umayyad Caliphate
8th-century jurists
8th-century Arabs