Abu Thawr

Abu Thawr
أبو ثور
Personal life
Born	147 H/ 764 CE
Died	240 H/ 854 CE
Nationality	Caliphate
Era	Abbasid era
Region	Abbasid Caliphate
Religious life
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
School	Shafi‘i / Ijtihad[1]
Lineage	al-Kalbi
Creed	Kullabi[2]
Profession	Faqih, scholar
Muslim leader
Teacher	Al-Shafi'i[3][4]
Students Junayd of Baghdad

Ibrahim ibn Khalid al-Kalbi al-Baghdadi (764–854) better known as Abu Thawr (Arabic: أَبُو ثَوْر) was an early Arab scholar of Islam. He was born in 170 AH.

Abu Thawr was a student of Al-Shafi.[5] A personal school was built by the followers of Abu Thawr which disappeared by the 4th century Hijra.[6][7] Abu Thawr was asked, "Who are the Qadariyyah?" and he replied:

"The Qadariyyah are those who say Allaah did not create the actions of the servants and that Allah did not decree acts of disobedience for the servants and that He did not create them (the acts of disobedience). Therefore these Qadariyyah are not be prayed behind, nor are their sick to be visited and nor are their funerals to be attended. Their repentance from this saying should be sought. If they repent (then so) and if not then their necks are to be struck."[8]

He was also one of the students of Ibn Kullab who believed the Quran is uncreated, but recitation of the Quran is created.[9]

Notes

1. Cook, Michael. "Magian cheese: an archaic problem in Islamic law." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 47.3 (1984): 449-467. "On the Sunni side, such a position is ascribed to Abu Thawr (d. 240),39 a Baghdadi lawyer who was in some sense a Shafi'ite"
2. "The Adversaries of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal", 1997 Christopher Melchert. "Al-Karabisi's (And Ibn Kullabs) doctrine of the pronunciation was taken up after him by Ahmad al-Sarrak (fl. ca. 240/854-855), Abu Thawr (d. 240/854), Ibn Kullab (d. ca. 240/854-855), al-Harit al-Muhasibi (d. 243/857-858), Dawud al-Zahiri (d. 270/884), and even al-Bukhari (d. 256/870). Indeed, most of the known semi-rationalist Kullabi school were loosely associated with Al-Shafi'i.
3. Williams, Wesley. "Aspects of the creed of Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal: a study of Anthropomorphism in early Islamic discourse." International Journal of Middle East Studies 34.3 (2002): 441-463. "Abu Thawr (d. 854), a student of al-Shafi'i, stated..."
4. Amin, Yasmin. "Prayer in Islamic Thought and Practice." The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 32.2 (2015): 135. "...such as those of the Shafi'i jurists Abu Thawr (d. 240/845 [sic]) and al-Muzani (d. 246/878)."
5. "Biographies of Some of the Ashab al-Wujuh in the Shafi'i Madhab". Islamic Studies. 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
6. Dutton, Yasin. "The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, 9-10th Centuries CE." (1999): 164-168. " they are 'to be classified amongst the schools of law that died out over time, of which the most renowned are those of Abu Thawr, Dawud al-Zahiri, and al-Tabari'"
7. Ali, Abdullah bin Hamid. "Scholarly consensus: Ijma ‘: between use and misuse." Journal of Islamic Law and Culture 12.2 (2010): 92-113.
8. reported by al-Laalikaa'ee in his "I'tiqaad", 1/172, no. 319
9. The Adversaries of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal. Christopher Melchert T. 44, Fasc. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 234-253: "Al-Karabisi's (And Ibn Kullabs) doctrine of the pronunciation was taken up after him by Ahmad al-Sarrak (fl. ca. 240/854-855), Abu Thawr (d. 240/854), Ibn Kullab (d. ca. 240/854-855), al-Harit al-Muhasibi (d. 243/857-858), Dawud al-Zahiri (d. 270/884), and even al-Bukhari (d. 256/870). Indeed, most of the known semi-rationalist Kullabi school were loosely associated with Al-Shafi'i."

References

• Wael B. Hallaq. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) p. 168
• Ahmed el-Shamsy. "Canonization beyond the Shāfiʿī School", The Canonization of Islamic Law, Cambridge University Press, pp. 194–220
• "The Adversaries of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal", 1997 Christopher Melchert.