Event Reports, Events

Event Report: Author Evening with Shaykh Omar Subedar

On Friday, 20 January 2023, IHRC hosted an event with Shaykh Omar Subedar, author of the book A Collection of Imam Abu Hanifah’s Hadiths and Fatwas – purchase here from the IHRC Bookshop. The event was moderated by Ustadh Nisar Shaikh.

WATCH THE FULL AUTHOR EVENING HERE:

According to the Shaykh Subedar, Imam Abu Hanifah is a very misunderstood to the English speaking Muslim community and one of the reasons is because his works is not directly translated in to English and therefore the author believes that it is crucial for students of knowledge, especially in the west, need to have direct access to Abu Hanifah’s works to see what his actual positions were. The discussion then went in to the various groups that oppose the works of Imam Abu Hanifah especially in regards to his credentials as a scholar. Shaykh Subedar responded by saying that Imam Abu Hanifah was not a conventional muhaddith as he was focused only on hadith analysis, not reporting. This has resulted in different accusations against Imam Abu Hanifah due to his method of operation and Shaykh Subedar hopes that this book will help clarify certain misconceptions people might have about the Imam.

Shaykh Subedar mentioned some online groups that were hostile to Imam Abu Hanifah. They then spoke about the format of the book which was somewhere in between Imam al Bukhari’s Sahih Bukhari and Imam Maliks Muwattah and when asked about that, Shaykh Subedar stated that he followed the same method of Imam Al Bukhari because that was the method that Imam Abu Hanifah used. The discussion then went in to the methods they used to derive fatwas and what Imam Abu Hanifah’s priorities were. They mention Imam Abu Hanifah’s arrest and Shaykh Subedar noted that Imam Abu Hanifah never intended to be a political figure, he just refused to take a position that was needed by the state due to him being a qadi. They then talked about how the author wrote the book, what his future projects were and his aims and objectives behind the book.

Ustadh Nisar opened up the event for futher Q&A which covered topics such as Islamic history, tradition, who the target audience is, how the author found the time to write the book, hadith commentary and more information about Abu Hanifah.

Below is a brief excerpt of Shaykh Omar Subedar’s talk:

When it comes to Abu Hanifah rahimatullahi, he was looked up on as a controversial figure within different factions of the community. There are those who love him and there are those who, unfortunately, are misinformed about him. But when it comes to finding material on him, in the Arabic language there is absolutely no shortage. If you want to accurately know who he is, there is plenty of material. In the English language, there are limitations; there’s less material when it comes to his biography. There are some really good ones, but then is just limited to that. If you want to learn about imam abu hanifah, you are learning from a third-party source. What we do not have in the English language is his actual work displayed for a person to read.

This event will be of interest to those who want a better understanding of Islam, Islamic history, the Hanafi school of thought, learning fiqh and more.

About the speakers:

Ustadh Nisar Shaikh is an avid grappler having trained extensively in Jiu-jitsu and cross trained in freestyle and Greco-style Wrestling, Judo and Sambo. He holds a black belt in Jiu-jitsu under the Carlson Gracie Team London. His passion for the grappling arts has taken him abroad, seeking out instruction from some of the best grapplers in the world, visiting Brazil, Japan, USA and Canada. He is a deeply passionate and active teacher with over fifteen years’ experience, instructing all levels, from professional MMA fighters to young children. He currently serves as a Muslim Chaplain at Royal Holloway University in London, where he lives with his family.

Mohammed Omar Subedar was born and raised in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada. In 1990, he enrolled in the Institute of Islamic Education located in Dewsbury, W. Yorkshire, United Kingdom. There, he became a ḥāfiẓ of the Qurʾān in 1993. In 2001, he graduated from a seven-year dars-i niẓāmī program offered by the very same institute. He was thus conferred the title of Scholar of Islamic Sciences and Arabic Literature.

Till date, he has authored the following books: