Hitit İlahiyat Dergisi

In Islamic political thought, allegiance defines a contract between the ruler and the ruled. When Abū Ḥanīfa lived, allegiance was transformed into a political mechanism that strengthened the political positions of the ruling elites by moving away from the founding meaning set significantly. Thus, allegiance as an element of political action and pressure, as in all institutional structure of Islam, had to face a rationalization process to a great extent.
The study is based on the basic assumption that allegiance is preferred by Abū Ḥanīfa to be institutionalized in terms of control of politics, a civil initiative and opposition. The research problematized that Abū Ḥanīfa transformed allegiance into a sacred construction based on which religious-symbolic universes and social conditions. Focusing on the subject of allegiance as an element of political pressure for Abū Ḥanīfa, the article aimed to reveal the basic components of the meaning that Abū Ḥanīfa attributed to the concept of allegiance. Therefore, methodologically, the subject has been handled as a singular case study in the context of the works and literature based on Abū Ḥanīfa. The research has been tried to be understood in terms of phenomenological sociology of knowledge in Abū Ḥanīfa's own unique nature.
When looking at the design of Abū Ḥanīfa regarding allegiance as an element of political pressure, it can be clearly seen that his theoretical point of view, the Qur'an, circumcision, the practices of the companions and the sociological conditions in his period have decisive effects. Above all, Abū Ḥanīfa has built her world-construction and world-maintenance strategy on two different levels, interrelated with each other, in an entity hierarchy based on unity. For this reason, Abū Ḥanīfa's categorical distinctions such as religion-sharia, faith-action are very important in order to evaluate the meaning he attributes to the relationship between religion and politics. According to him, religion is a universal principle that should be morally and consciously attached outside of mere human conditions and in this context carry values for the regulation of individual and social spheres. Politics as a social output is a construction related to the human world where responsibilities are arranged according to the macrocosm. In other words, politics is a religious interpretation about society.
Of course, epistemologically, one of the main elements on which Abū Ḥanīfa relies on allegiance is the basic sources of religion. Especially here, Abū Ḥanīfa accepted the Qur'an, prophet as a religious and political leader against the Qur'an, and the stance of the Companions against this accumulation as important data in terms of his own inferences. Finally, the religious, social and political conditions of the period he lived with them were another factor that determined the meaning of allegiance in Abū Ḥanīfa. Especially at this point, Abū Ḥanīfa's own life and socialization environment had a special importance. As a matter of fact, he faced a social marginalization against the founding Arab politics due to the ethnic identity of his family. In addition, he had an intellectual relationship with a qualified and wide epistemic group and carried out a profession that he earned a lot.
In addition to all this ontological and epistemological background, his life stance has revealed a very unique structure in Abū Ḥanīfa's relationship with political powers. Justice, social consensus and taqwa created a special design in Abū Ḥanīfa's political attitude regarding allegiance in the election of the caliph. However, if we put aside Abū Ḥanīfa's allegiance to the first ʿAbbāsī Caliph, Abū l-ʿAbbās whom he hoped would abide by the universal law after the collapse of the Umayya reign, almost his entire life was in a crisis in this sense. The rulers, who had gone through difficult times in political terms, wanted to benefit from his religious authority. However, in order not to approve the political powers that he believed to be contrary to the founding values, Abū Ḥanīfa refused their job offers and gifts. He even made propaganda as a method of political pressure against the administrations he did not consider fair, financially supported the opposition, conducted lobbying activities, and participated in wiretapping administration and boycott activities. Abū Ḥanīfa did not pursue absolute disobedience in politics. The most striking characteristic of his understanding of allegiance can be to intervene in case the political power violates the religious and social agreement, to confront any threat that may come from the political authority, and to stop cooperating with politics. Because of, Abū Ḥanīfa has displayed a rational and dynamic attitude towards the revolutionary and static models in Islamic political thought.