Everything about Hanif totally explained
(Arabic, plural حنفاء) is an
Arabic term that refers to pre-
Islamic non-
Jewish or non-Christian
Arabian
monotheists. More specifically, in
Islamic thought it refers to the
Arabs during the (pre-Islamic) period known as the
Jāhiliyya or "Ignorance", who were seen to have rejected
Shirk (
polytheism) and retained some or all of the true tenets of the monotheist
religion of
Ibrahim (
Abraham)
Etymology and History of the term
The term is from the Arabic
root meaning "to incline, to decline" (Lane 1893) from the Syriac root of the same meaning. The is the law of Abraham; 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".
In the Quran
The term
hanif is used 12 times in the Quran; eight times in reference to Ibrahim, who is the only person to have been explicitly identified with the term. Ibrahim is mentioned in the Qur'an as a Hanif, being a
prophet predating the Judaic and Christian traditions, who turned away from
polytheism and
pantheism for monotheism.
The hanīfiyya have been the subject of academic controversy and accounts of natural "Arab" monotheist have not been universally accepted by Western scholars, with some instances being generally ascribed to special pleading, such as for Waraqa,
while G.R. Hawting rejects the Muslim explanations believing that they're later distortions.
As a name
, 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hanif'.
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