Hanafi (Arabic: حنفى ) is one of the four schools (madhabs) of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. Founded by Abu Hanifa, An-Númān ibn Thābit (Arabic: النعمان بن ثابت) (699 - 765), it is considered to be the school most open to modern ideas. Its followers are sometimes known in English as Hanafites or Hanifites (cf Malikite, Shafiite, Hanbalite for the other schools of thought).
Hanafi is predominant among Sunni Muslims in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Lower Egypt (Northern Egypt) (where the influence of the Ottomans was strongest). Northern Egypt, Turkey and the Levant (Syria, Lebanon and Iraq) are mixed Shafi/Hanafi. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, the South Asia, amongst the Muslim communities of the Balkans (in Bulgaria and Romania for example), Central Asia, in (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan etc), the Caucasian Muslims (Chechnya, Daghestan, Ingushetia, Abhkazia, Adygeia, Ajaria, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachai-Cherkessia, and Azerbaijan), China (Xinjiang or Uighuristan and Hui Muslims), the Muslims of Russia (Tatarstan, and Bashkortostan), and Ukraine (Crimea), (Tatars and Turks) are have sizeable Hanafi adherents. The Constitution of Afghanistan allows Afghan judges to use Hanafi jurisprudence in situations where the Constitution lacks provisions.
The Hanafi madhab is the largest of the four schools; it is followed by approximately 45% of Muslims world-wide. The other three schools of thought are Shafi, Maliki, and Hanbali.
The Hanafi school is considered to be one of the more liberal. For example, under Hanafi jurisprudence, blasphemy is not punishable by the state, despite being considered a civil crime by some other schools.
The presence of four different schools of religious law within Sunni Islam should not be viewed as a schism. On the contrary, there is little or no animosity between the schools. Instead there is a healthy cross-pollination of ideas and logical debate that serves to refine each school's understanding of Islam. It is not uncommon, or disallowed, for an individual to follow one school but take the point of view of another school for a certain issue (for example the Egyptian Sheikh Imam al-Qarafi was an Imam in both the Maliki and Shafi schools).
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Islamic jurisprudence
