Hanif
Encyclopedia
Hanif is a term that refers to those who maintain the pure monothestic
Muslim
beliefs of the patriarch
Ibrahim
. More specifically, in Islam
ic 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.
meaning "to incline, to decline" (Lane 1893) from the Syriac root of the same meaning. The is the law of Ibrahim; the verb 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 Christian
s in reference to 'pagans' and applied to followers of an old Hellenized
Syro
-Arab
ian 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 verb
al 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
.
in the way of Abraham:
The four friends in Mecca
from Ibn Ishaq
's account:
Hanif opponents of Islam from Ibn Ishaq's account:
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.
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
beliefs of the patriarch
Patriarch
Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
Ibrahim
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
. More specifically, in Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic 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
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
of Ibrahim which was "submission to God" (Arabic: Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
) in its purest form.
Etymology and History of the term
The term is from the Arabic rootTriliteral
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals"...
meaning "to incline, to decline" (Lane 1893) from the Syriac root of the same meaning. The is the law of Ibrahim; the verb 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 Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s in reference to 'pagans' and applied to followers of an old Hellenized
Hellenization
Hellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and, to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...
Syro
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
-Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
ian 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 verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
al term Islam; arising from the participle
Participle
In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
form of Muslim (meaning: surrendered to God); may have only arisen as an identifying descriptor for the religion in the late Medinan period
Muhammad in Medina
The period of Muhammad in Medina started with the Hijra in 622 and ended with the conquest of Mecca in 630.-Hijra to Medina:...
.
List of hanifs
This is a minor list of those who submitted their whole selves to GodGod in Islam
In Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe. Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular . God is unique and inherently One , all-merciful and omnipotent. According to the Islamic...
in the way of Abraham:
- All the prophets of GodProphets of IslamMuslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
- Hashim ibn Abd al-Manaf
- Abdul Mutallib
- ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib
- Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-MuttalibAbu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-MuttalibAbi Tlib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib also known as Abu Talib ibn al-Muttalib.Talib was in reality the elder son of Abd Munāf and elder brother to Ali Ibn Abd Munāf. He was an head of Bani Hashim clan of Quraysh tribe of Mecca in Arabia. He was married to Fatima bint Asad and was an uncle of the...
- Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-MuttalibHamza ibn ‘Abd al-MuttalibHamza ibn ‘Abdul-Muttalib [b.568-d.625] was the paternal uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and his foster-brother. He and Muhammad were raised together as they were almost the same age. With excellence in the arts of wrestling and swordsmanship...
- Ali ibn abu Talib
- Said ibn Zayd
The four friends in Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
from Ibn Ishaq
Ibn Ishaq
Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār was an Arab Muslim historian and hagiographer...
's account:
- Zaid ibn Amr ibn NufailZayd ibn UmarZayd ibn Umar son of the second Caliph of Islam.-Biography:His mother was Umm Kulthum bint Ali. He was killed when was trying to bring peace to his clan Banu `Adi, at the same time his mother Umm Kulthum died-References:...
: rejected both Judaism and Christianity - Waraqah ibn NawfalWaraqah ibn NawfalWaraka Ibn Nawfal was the parental cousin of Khadija, the first wife of the prophet Muhammad, and was also the son of Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf's half brother Nawfal ibn Abd Manaf...
: converted to Christianity - Uthman ibn Huwarith: travelled to the ByzantineByzantineByzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
Empire and converted to Christianity - Ubayd-Allah ibn JahshUbayd-Allah ibn JahshUbayd-Allah ibn Jahsh was the brother of Zaynab bint Jahsh, Hammanah bint Jahsh and Abd-Allah ibn Jahsh. He is one of the four monotheistic hanifs mentioned by Ibn Ishaq. The others being Waraqah ibn Nawfal, Uthman ibn Huwarith and Zayd ibn Amr....
: 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 AusBanu AusThe Banū Aws or simply Aws was one of the main Arab tribes of Medina. The other was Khazraj, and the two, constituted the Ansar after the Hijra.Aws and Khazraj were known as Banū Qayla in pre-Islamic era.-Etymology:...
at MedinaMedinaMedina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
and builder of the "Mosque of the Schism" mentioned in the Quranic verse and later allied with the Quraysh then moved to Taif and onto SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
after subsequent Muslim conquestsMuslim conquestsMuslim conquests also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Muslim power.They...
. - Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat
As a name
, capitalized, can also be a common Arabic proper nameProper name
"A proper name [is] a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic , "but not of telling anything about it"...
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.