The fifth leading jurisprudent: 'Abd al-Rahman al-Awzal (157/791)
The fifth leading scholar, Abu 'Amr 'Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i (88-157/707-791), was the imam and jurist of the people of Syria. A senior Successor of the Successors, he received
his knowledge from Mak-hul and 'Ata'.
He travelled to Iraq, the Hejaz, and Egypt to seek knowledge. He studied under such Successor scholars as b. Shihab al-Zuhri and Yahya b. Abi Kathir, until he became a leading scholar and major specialist in jurisprudence and hadith. 'Abd al-Rahman b. al-Mahdi said, ‘There are four hadith scholars: al-Awza'i, Malik b. Anas, Sufyan al-Thawri, and Hammad b. Zayd. Moreover, no one more was knowledgeable about the Sunnah than al-Awza'i’. A majority of scholars testified to his profound knowledge: Malik said al-Awza'i was exemplary, Sufyan b. 'Uyayna said that al-Awza'i was the leading scholar of his time, and Yahya b. Ma'in said there are three true scholars: al-Thawri, Abu Hanifa and al-Awza'i.40Al-Awza' i was a source of knowledge for such prominent scholars as 'Abdullah b. Mubarak, Sufyan al-Thawri, Abu Is-haq al-Fazari, al-Walid b. Muslim, and 'Amr b. Abi Salama. He became an authority on jurisprudence at the age of 13 and issued fatwas on 70,000 matters. An independent mujtahid, he expressed his own views and formed his own school of Ijtihdd. He was more inclined towards transmitted reports than to personal judgement, opposed legal analogy and actively pursued reports, for,
You should take into consideration the ancestors’ transmitted opinions even if the people reject you, and you should be aware of the people’s legal opinions even if later scholars have decorated and improved them. Be patient with the Sunnah and take it as it stands, rule according to what the majority says, and stop where they do. Be aware of how much they can do.
He was very aware of the meanings of the words he used and made sure that whoever listened to him wrote down his best opinions.
Ibn al-Nadim said that al-Awza'i wrote works arranged by legal chapter, including Kitab al-Sunan fi al-Fiqh and Kitab al-Masa'ilfi al-Fiqh.n His works were preserved through citations in later works such as Kitab al-Radd 'ald Siyar al-Awzai by Abu Yusuf, the disciple of Abu Hanifa, which appears in al-Shafi'i’s Kitab al-Umm.42 Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi al-Hatim’s (d. 327/939) Kitab al-Jarh wa-l-Ta‘dil preserves the epistles al-Awza'i wrote to the Abbasid caliphs to explain his views on jurisprudential issues and to present various exhortations. When one of these reached Caliph al-Mansur, he read it and pondered on its wonderful meanings and the sweetness of its contents.43Al-Awza'i’s school was widespread in Syria; the people of Damascus and its surrounding areas followed it for 220 years. It disappeared at the beginning of the third/ninth century. The people of the Andalus also followed it as a consequence of the influx of Syrians, especially in the early Islamic centuries. It was replaced by the Maliki legal school after two centuries of Umayyad rule.44 The modern scholar 'Abdullah al-Mawla Muhammad al-Jabburi’s Fiqh al-Imam al-Awzai is now available in two volumes.45