Hanif

Hanif (Arabic: حنيف‎, Ḥanīf; plural: حنفاء, ḥunafā') is a term that refers to those who maintain the pure monothestic beliefs of the patriarch Ibrahim. More specifically, in Islamic thought it refers to the people during the period known as the Age of Ignorance, who were seen to have rejected idolatry and retained some or all of the tenets of the religion of Ibrahim which was "submission to God" (Arabic: Allah) in its purest form.

Etymology and History of the term

The term is from the Arabic root ḥ-n-f meaning "to incline, to decline" (Lane 1893) from the Syriac root of the same meaning. The ḥanīfiyyah is the law of Ibrahim; the verb taḥannafa means "to turn away from (idolatry)", with a secondary and subsequent meaning of "to become circumcised". In the verse 3:27 of the Quran it has also been translated as "upright person" and outside the Quran as "to incline towards a right state or tendency". It appears to have been used earlier by Jews and Christians in reference to 'pagans' and applied to followers of an old Hellenized Syro-Arabian religion and used to taunt early Muslims.

Others maintained that they followed the "...religion of Ibrahim, the hanif, the Muslim..." It has been theorized by Watt that the verbal term Islam; arising from the participle form of Muslim (meaning: surrendered to God); may have only arisen as an identifying descriptor for the religion in the late Medinan period.

List of hanifs

This is a minor list of those who submitted their whole selves to God in the way of Abraham:

• All the prophets of God
• Hashim ibn Abd al-Manaf
• Abdul Mutallib
• ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib
• Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib
• Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib
• Ali ibn abu Talib
• Alexander Herbst
• Said ibn Zayd

The four friends in Mecca from Ibn Ishaq's account:

• Zaid ibn Amr ibn Nufail: rejected both Judaism and Christianity
• Waraqah ibn Nawfal: converted to Christianity
• Uthman ibn Huwarith: travelled to the Byzantine Empire and converted to Christianity
• Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh: early Muslim convert who emigrated to Abyssinia and then converted to Christianity.

Hanif opponents of Islam from Ibn Ishaq's account:

• Abu Amir Abd Amr ibn Sayfi: a leader of the tribe of Banu Aus at Medina and builder of the "Mosque of the Schism" mentioned in the Quranic verse 9:107 and later allied with the Quraysh then moved to Taif and onto Syria after subsequent Muslim conquests.
• Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat

As a name

Ḥanīf, capitalized, can also be a common Arabic proper name used for its more literary and poetic definition, "true believer" or "righteous one". The name is used throughout the Muslim world including non-Arabic speaking cultures.

See also

• Banu Khuza'a
• virtuous pagan
• Urmonotheismus

References

• Hawting G R 1999: The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History, Cambridge University Press
• Ambros Arne A & Procháczka Stephan 2004: A Concise Dictionary of Koranic Arabic", Reichert
• Kochler, Hans (EDT),Concept of Monotheism in Islam & Christianity, I.P.O., Jan 1, 1982, ISBN 3-7003-0339-4
• William Montgomery Watt, "Muhammad: prophet and statesman", Oxford University Press US, Jun 1, 1974 ,ISBN 0-19-881078-4
• F. E. (Francis E.) Peters, "Muhammad and the Origins of Islam", SUNY Press, Jul 1, 1994, ISBN 0-7914-1875-8
• John Kaltner, "Ishmael Instructs Isaac: An Introduction to the Qu'ran for Bible Readers", Liturgical Press, Oct 31, 1999, ISBN 0-8146-5882-2