Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i
Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-ʾAwzāʿī (Arabic: 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. ʾAwzāʿī was referred to by his tribe "ʾAwzā" (الأوزاع), part of Banu Hamdan.
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 2 Views
- 3 Further reading
- 4 References
- 5 External links
Biography
He was probably born in Baalbek (in modern-day Lebanon) in 707, although the biographer and historian Al-Dhahabi reports that al-Auza'i was originally from Sindh. Very little of al-Awzai's writings survive, but his style of Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) is preserved in Abu Yusuf's book Al-radd ala siyar al-Awzai, in particular his reliance on the "living tradition," or the uninterrupted practice of Muslims handed down from preceding generations. For Awzai, this was the true Sunnah of Muhammad. Awzai's school flourished in Syria, the Maghreb, 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 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-Awzai differed with all the other schools of fiqh in holding that apostates from Islam 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-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, and to increase the wages of the Syrian soldiers in charge of protecting the Levantine coast.
Further reading
- Judd, Steven C. (2019). 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Amr al-Awza'i. London: Oneworld Publications. ISBN:978-1786076854.
References
External links
- Biodata at MuslimScholars.info