Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-Awzāʿī (; 707–774) was a Sunni Muslim
scholar,
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...
,
theologian
Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...
, and the chief representative and eponym of the
Awza'i school of
Islamic jurisprudence.
Biography
Awzāʿī was of
Sindhi origin,born in
Baalbek (in modern-day
Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
) in 707. He was referred to by his nisbah Awzā (الأوزاع), part of
Banu Hamdan
Banu Hamdan (; Ancient South Arabian script, Musnad: 𐩠𐩣𐩵𐩬) is an ancient, large, and prominent Arab tribe in northern Yemen.
Origins and location
The Hamdan stemmed from the eponymous progenitor Awsala (nickname Hamdan) whose descent ...
. The biographer and historian
Al-Dhahabi reports that Awzāʿī was from
Sindh
Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...
, and he was a
mawali of ʾAwzā tribe in his early life. He may have descended from the
Zutt (Jats), who had a strong presence in Syria and Iraq during
Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific, economic, and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century.
This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign o ...
. 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 () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
handed down from preceding generations. For Awzāʿī, this was the true
Sunnah
is the body of 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 supposedly saw, followed, and passed on to the next generations. Diff ...
of
Muhammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
. Awzāʿī's school flourished in
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
, the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...
, 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.
Views
Theologically, he was known as a persecutor of the
Qadariyah, 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.
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.
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
Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...
, and to increase the wages of the Syrian soldiers in charge of protecting the Levantine coast.
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
*
References
External links
Biodata at MuslimScholars.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Awzai, Abd-Al-Rahman
707 births
774 deaths
Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Atharis
Taba‘ at-Tabi‘in hadith narrators
Religious leaders from Beirut
Scholars from the Umayyad Caliphate
8th-century jurists
8th-century Arab people
8th-century Lebanese people