We tackle here, and in the next chapters, events exemplifying the corruption of ordinary judicial authority within the Abbasid caliphate and the Mameluke State, and we tackle the rare emergence of just and fair judges who tried to face the trend of injustice, so that we get a more comprehensive picture of the judicial authority of the Muhammadans. In this chapter, we tackle how the post of judges was manipulated to satisfy and cater for the whims of corrupt, unjust, tyrannical caliphs, by analyzing the lifetime events of the most famous supreme judge of the Abbasid Era, namely Abou Youssef. We analyze his history as per what is written about him in "History of Baghdad" by Ahmed Ibn Ali Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdadi (14/242-262), "Al-Muntazim" by Ibn Al-Jawzy (9/71, deaths of 182 A.H.), History of Ibn Katheer (10/194), and "History of Caliphs'' by Al-Siyouti, p. 463.     

 

Firstly: Abou Youssef the disciple and his teacher/sheikh Abou Hanifa:

 Without exaggeration, we assert here that the religious scholar Abou Hanifa (died in 150 A.H.) was the greatest scientific and humane person in the Abbasid Era; he combined between fiqh and philosophy, and he had the excellent traits of courage in expressing his views, dignity, generosity, and chastity, and he preceded his age in knowledge and a high moralistic level. Sadly no disciple of his followed his footsteps at all in terms of knowledge or the high moralistic level; his favorite disciple, Abou Youssef, was the exact opposite of his tutor/sheikh Abou Hanifa. The full name of Abou Youssef was Yacoub Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Habeeb Ibn Saad Al-Ansari. In fact, Abou Hanifa refused adamantly to be appointed as a judge because he knew that circumstances of corruption and tyranny would certainly never allow him to achieve justice, whereas Abou Youssef became, after the death of Abou Hanifa, the very first and most famous supreme higher judge in the Abbasid Era. Abou Hanifa rejected gently any sum of money granted to him as a gift from any caliph, and he worked as a merchant of silk cloth to make sure he would remain independent financially and to maintain his dignity, whereas Abou Youssef used to live off money-gifts granted to him by caliphs and the retinue members of caliphs, and their women, so that he would shamelessly serve their purposes of lending quasi-religious 'legitimacy' or pretext to almost anything. All his life, the honest Abou Hanifa refused to believe in fabrications called ''hadiths'' authored by so many men and he rejected the notion that Muhammad might have uttered such nonsense. In contrast, Abou Youssef, after the death of Abou Hanifa, spread and propagated all hadiths and believed in them to cater for tastes of his benefactors and satisfy their whims, and we personally tend to think, by analyzing his writings, that Abou Youssef concocted and fabricated himself many hadiths and ascribed such falsehoods to Muhammad and invented their imaginary series of narrators. In sum, Abou Hanifa was elevated above the evils of his era, while Abou Youssef wallowed in the mud of sins and evils of the Abbasid era. The former was beaten, punished, tortured, and incarcerated during the Umayyad and the Abbasid eras, until he was put to death by poisoning at the command of the Abbasid caliph Abou Jaffer Al-Mansour, whereas the latter enjoyed being filthily rich and owned stature and many possessions because he sold his eternal life to serve Harun Al-Rasheed and gain his favor. Abou Youssef was born in Kufa, Iraq, long before the city of Baghdad was built, and he lived in abject poverty, and when Abou Hanifa noticed how sharp and intelligent the young boy was, he made him his protégé and taught him fiqh and the Quranic teachings. The father or mother of Abou Youssef (historical accounts differ in that respect) wanted to prevent the young Yacoub (i.e., later on known as Abou Youssef) from accompanying Abou Hanifa who was hated by people in power and authority and it was desired that Abou Youssef would learn a craft as an apprentice to earn some money. Abou Hanifa used to give the parents of Abou Youssef a monthly sum of money to make them allow Abou Youssef to dedicate his full time to learn and stay at the house of Abou Hanifa.          

 

Secondly: Abou Youssef and Harun Al-Rasheed:

  Following the death of Abou Hanifa, Abou Youssef left Kufa and came to Baghdad in search for any opportunities to gain fame, authority, stature, and wealth. He had his only chance to fulfill his ambition by engaging into the widespread activity and ongoing process of fabricating and inventing hadiths and attributing them to Muhammad. In fact, Abou Youssef apprenticed himself to the group of Al-Aamash, who was the most famous fabricator and propagator of hadiths serving the Abbasid dynasty. Of course, the Abbasids before and after establishing their caliphate depended on authoring  and propagating hadiths to assert their sovereignty and 'legitimate' rights, and two of the main persons serving them in that field were al-Aamash and Ibn Ishaq, and the latter has written a false biography of Muhammad made especially to serve the early Abbasid caliphs. Indeed, both men were favorite ones in the Abbasid palace courts, and hence, we understand now how Abou Youssef managed to make his way into the retinue members of Harun al-Rasheed; he used all his intelligence to issue fatwas that appeal to the caliph and to twist rules of fiqh and meanings of the Quranic teachings without qualms or any sense of shame. Besides, Al-Rasheed was in need for the likes of Abou Youssef as a theological scholar. We know that Harun Al-Rasheed is known to Europeans and the West in general as the legendary hero of many stories of the Arabian Nights (i.e., One Thousand and One Night of Scheherazade), and his typical image is one of a promiscuous sultan surrounded in his luxurious palace with very beautiful female slaves, an image that appealed to Arab and European men. Such an image goes on in folktales until now in the Arab world, because it is based on historical facts recorded in books of traditions and history authored during the Abbasid Era. Indeed, Harun Al-Rasheed became a symbol of promiscuity of a man who never get bored of desiring new women in his bed and who would 'taste' women who were prohibited for him to marry or to own as sex slaves serving him, or the women/slave girls who were hard to get, as he would get bored of submissive women. His only wife was the pretty queen Zubayda, and his harem/seraglio had hundreds of very pretty female slaves from every race and age-group. Yet, when Al-Rasheed got bored of all of them one day, he coveted a pretty female slave that his late father (the caliph Al-Mahdi) owned and enjoyed in bed. When he desired her and commanded her to serve him in bed, she refused because she was the concubine of his own father. And she recited this Quranic verse to him to justify her stance: "Do not marry women whom your fathers married, except what is already past. That is improper, indecent, and a bad custom." (4:22). Of course, her  refusal to gratify him enflamed his desire to have her, and he commanded Abou Youssef, the supreme judge of Baghdad, to find an immediate solution to the problem (based on Sunnite fiqh, of course) because he desired this concubine in bed in the same very night. The cunning Abou Youssef told him that he can get married to her and never to heed her testimony that she was the concubine of his father, because female slaves were not trusted or allowed at the time to bear testimony at all (Al-Siyouti, p. 463). The narrator of this story wondered how a ruler trusted with lives, safety, and money of all Muslims of the empire (i.e., the Muhammadans) was never trusted to preserve the honor of his late father by insisting on having sex with the concubine of his father within illegal marriage; this story tells volumes about how the judicial authority was manipulated, through appointing corrupt judges, to serve all whims of caliphs. Not only the judicial authority was in service of all whims of caliphs, but also all fiqh knowledge and notions as well as fabrications of hadiths and narratives. Every time Al-Rasheed would be prevented by the Quranic sharia from having a female slave in bed, he would hurriedly send for Abou Youssef to seek a solution for him. In another story of Al-Rasheed in the same source, a female slave rejected Al-Rasheed in bed by asserting that she must wait for the three-month period before she would be in service of him in bed, to make sure she was not impregnated by any last owners who copulated with her. Al-Rasheed felt angry, because he insisted on having her in his bed sooner, and typically, he sent for Abou Youssef for a solution to such a situation. Abou Youssef insisted that the waiting period of female slaves is one month not three like free women! Sadly, this corrupt view is repeated by the 20th century scholar Abou Bakr Al-Jazaeiry (Minhaj Al-Moslem, p. 462). This view is silly; God commands in the Quran that waiting period of divorced women and widows before re-marrying is three consecutive months including three menstruations, as per 2:228. Of course, Al-Rasheed gave Abou Youssef large rewards of money for his corrupt fatwas, and he was promoted from being a judge to the post of the supreme judge of Baghdad, and he grew filthily rich and had a high authority and stature within the Abbasid society, as a close member of the retinue of Abbasid caliph Harun Al-Rasheed.

 

Thirdly: how Abou Youssef was appointed as a judge:

  Historical narratives assert Abou Youssef contacted Al-Rasheed for the first time when the former left Kufa and came to settle in Baghdad after Abou Hanifa died, and when Al-Rasheed wanted a religious scholar to help him in a problem that occurred when one of the favorite leaders of the caliph reneged on his promise after swearing solemn oath using the name of God, Abou Youssef managed to find a way out to this leader by his strange fatwa, and Al-Rasheed granted Abou Youssef a generous gift of money and granted him a house near to the Abbasid palace, as a friendship struck between both men. This account tells us that Abou Youssef purposefully moved to Baghdad to get rich and ascend the social ladder using his sharp intelligence and making use of his known name as the disciple of the famous sheikh Abou Hanifa, and when he got a chance to prove himself to the Abbasid caliph, Al-Rasheed kept him as a privately owned scholar to serve his whims. Another historical account tells us how the close relation between Abou Youssef and Al-Rasheed grew stronger; the caliph caught one of his sons committing fornication, and he wondered how to escape punishing him by flogging in public as per the Quran; he enlisted the help of Abou Youssef, who was recommended and praised by one of the military leaders of Al-Rasheed, as he saw that Abou Youssef was a resourceful theologian and expert in Sunnite fiqh. Indeed, Abou Youssef issued a fatwa that cleared the name of the son of Al-Rasheed (by asserting that no accusations are to be leveled without tangible proof of seeing genital contact between a man and a woman) and he authored a hadith (about non-application of penalties in certain cases) to support his erroneous view, and Al-Rasheed prostrated to God in gratitude for sparing his son such penalty. This situation made the caliph appoint Abou Youssef as the only Mufti of religious edicts (i.e., fatwa-issuer) to all Abbasid household members and retinue members, even women and servants inside the palace. This led all promiscuous and corrupt wrongdoers and sinners commit any sins and would ask Abou Youssef for help to clear their conscience and when he would issue fatwas as per their whims and desires, they would heap money and rich gifts on him. Soon enough, Abou Youssef became the favorite religious consultant (i.e., Mufti) of Harun Al-Rasheed and one of his favored retinue in the palace court, and it was natural that the caliph would appoint him as the supreme judge of Baghdad, and the first judge to get that title and post in the Abbasid caliphate. Youssef, the son of Abou Youssef, was papered and cared for by Al-Rasheed, and when Abou Youssef appointed his son as a judge in one of the districts of Baghdad, Al-Rasheed agreed and endorsed the matter. When Abou Youssef died, Al-Rasheed made his son, Youssef, succeed his late father in the post of the supreme judge of Baghdad.            

 

Fourthly: how Abou Youssef did his best to satisfy the whims of Al-Rasheed:

  The known judge Bishr Ibn Al-Waleed, who worked and grew famous during the reign of the caliph Al-Maamoun, son of Al-Rasheed, was one of the disciples of Abou Youssef, and he liked very much to tell tales and narratives about Abou Youssef to people and to Al-Maamoun. Bishr Ibn Al-Waleed used to say that Abou Youssef once told him this anecdote: Abou Hatem, the heavily armed messenger of Al-Rasheed, with his guards knocked violently at the doors of the house of Abou Youssef, in the middle of the night, demanding his presence immediately in the palace to meet Al-Rasheed who wanted him on urgent business, and Abou Youssef told Abou Hatem to give him few minutes to get dressed and wash up, wear white cloth wrapped around his body under his outer garments, and wear a perfume. Hastily, Abou Hatem conveyed Abou Youssef  to the palace of Al-Rasheed. This means that such terror of cronies and henchmen of Al-Rasheed, who demanded one of his retinue members be brought to him at midnight, indicated that the life of Abou Youssef was in danger if he did not satisfy whims of the moody caliph who got furious easily and would put easily the disobedient ones to death. This is why this historical account mentions that Abou Youssef wore perfume; he was preparing himself to meet his death (as corpse would be washed up and wrapped in white cloth after being perfumed) any time upon a command of Al-Rasheed. With such sentiments and acts, he went with Abou Hatem to meet the redoubtable Al-Rasheed. Once inside the palace, Abou Youssef was frightened to see Masrour, the executioner of Al-Rasheed, beside the empty throne of Al-Rasheed. Very much afraid, Abou Youssef wondered of the caliph was furious and demanded his beheading. He tentatively asked Masrour if he knew the matter that made the caliph demand his presence at such an hour. Masrour said he knew nothing, but the caliph was with one man in a private meeting, his retinue member, friend, and son of his paternal uncle, Eissa Ibn Jaffer. Abou Youssef calmed himself and thought that the caliph sought his fatwa within some urgent matter of considerable importance, and that was all. Eventually, Abou Youssef saw the figure of the redoubtable Al-Rasheed getting into the palace court and ascending his throne. Al-Rasheed hastily told Abou Youssef about the matter about which his consultation was needed: Al-Rasheed demanded the concubine of Eissa Ibn Jaffer as a gift and offered to purchase her, but Eissa Ibn Jaffer refused, and Al-Rasheed threatened and swore he would kill him if he went on with his stubborn refusal. Now, Al-Rasheed wanted a solution to this problem as kings cannot renege on their words and solemn oaths but he did not want to kill his favorite relative. Of course, Abou Youssef felt safe and he knew he must find a solution to issue a fatwa that would satisfy the caliph and make him have this concubine at any cost. Abou Youssef talked aside to Eissa Ibn Jaffer and urged him to give up his concubine to the caliph, as one cannot  risk one's life for any woman, let alone a concubine. Eissa Ibn Jaffer told him the main problem: he swore solemn oaths never to sell this concubine or to grant her as a gift to anyone, or else, he would divorce his wives, free his male and female slaves, and donate unaffordable sums of money for charity if he sold or present this concubine as a gift and this breaking his solemn oaths. Abou Youssef had to think quickly to please Al-Rasheed and Eissa Ibn Jaffer so as not to lose his own life. After Al-Rasheed felt that Abou Youssef was informed fully of the problem, he asked for a fatwa as a way out. Abou Youssef simply told both men that Eissa Ibn Jaffer should present half of the body of this concubine to Al-Rasheed and to sell to Al-Rasheed the other half of her body; this way, he neither had sold her or granted her as a gift in her entirety, and thus never broke his solemn oaths! Such a trick proves how Abou Youssef was a master of tricks within the Abou Hanifa fiqh and doctrine and he knew how to issue corrupt fatwas to please men of authority. Of course, Eissa Ibn Jaffer was happy to escape death by Masrour, and readily granted half of the body of the concubine to Al-Rasheed and sold the other half to him for 100 thousand dinars. Abou Youssef allowed Al-Rasheed to make this concubine join his palace seraglio, with his blessings! Another problem came along; Al-Rasheed wanted her in bed tonight, though the Quranic sharia stipulates that all women must wait for a three-month period of time before they re-marry lest they might be pregnant. Al-Rasheed was frank enough to tell Abou Youssef that he would die of desire if he would not have her in bed tonight and he must find a solution to that problem immediately. Abou Youssef said simply to Al-Rasheed that he had to set free this concubine and marry her, and this way, she was not to wait for three months! Of course, such erroneous view makes such a marriage illegal as far as the Quran is concerned, as the marriage contract was null and void as long as the woman (free or slave) did not wait for the three-month period before getting married to make sure she is not pregnant by her last man (dead husband, her ex, her master, or her previous lover). Hence, this fatwa of Abou Youssef was and remains to be corrupt and wrong. Al-Rasheed hastily brought witnesses and made Abou Youssef draw the marriage contract (with a dowry to her of 20 thousand dirhams) and attend the sumptuous wedding party, and afterwards, Abou Youssef went home with rich gifts of 20 embroidered expensive gowns and 200 thousand dinars. After Abou Youssef narrated such events to his disciple and pupil Bishr Ibn Al-Waleed, he asked his opinion and if he was wrong in his fatwas. Bishr told him that he was in the right in all his views, and Abou Youssef gave him 10% of the sum he received from Al-Rasheed for agreeing with him! Did this indicate any pangs of remorse inside Abou Youssef? Both he and Bishr knew quite well that they violated the Quranic sharia; besides, it was not customary that a teacher would seek the approval and opinion of his disciple, and it was not typical of the stingy and miserly Abou Youssef to share any money with anyone. Let us mention the surprise at the end of this historical account; in the very next day, the concubine that became one of the wives of the caliph Harun Al-Rasheed sent to Abou Youssef half of her dowry as a gift for him sent by one of her maids: 10 thousand dirhams!                              

 

Fifthly: Abou Youssef and fabricators of hadiths:

  The main and actual religion of the Abbasid caliphate was fabricating hadiths within the Sunnite religion as the formal religion of the Abbasid State that was established by hadiths and maintained its rule and sovereignty by fabricating more hadiths under the banner of Sunna, and the Abbasid caliphs hired so many scholars of fiqh to author hadiths to serve Abbasid tyranny as per whims and desires of caliphs. Within such environment and dominant culture, Abou Youssef went to Baghdad  armed with fiqh knowledge learned from his sheikh/teacher Abou Hanifa, and unlike his teacher who refused to accept any single hadith at all as part of Islam, Abou Youssef embraced hadiths narrated by others and formulated many hadiths himself to pave his way to the Abbasid palace court, and as a money-seeking man, he mingled with hadith narrators and repeated their concocted hadiths and narratives ascribed falsely to Prophet Muhammad, and he participated in fabricating many hadiths of his own fashioning. Of course, hadith fabricators in Baghdad welcomed Abou Youssef who left the school of Abou Hanifa that refused the so-called hadiths once and for all and joined them instead (as they were intellectual foes of Abou Hanifa who criticized them), and they helped Abou Youssef with their authority and power to reach Al-Rasheed, who appointed Abou Youssef as the supreme judge and made him a close retinue member. Thus, Abou Youssef and his allies of hadith fabricators invented their own Sunnite Abou Hanifa fiqh school or doctrine which has nothing to do with the late Abou Hanifa, as their fiqh is filled with countless hadiths and corrupt fatwas and the means and tricks to get over problematic issues in the manner Abou Youssef did with Al-Rasheed, and we provide some details below (based on historical narratives) about relations of Abou Youssef with religious scholars and theologians of fiqh in Baghdad.

A) Their attending his meetings: history tells us that meetings and gatherings of Abou Youssef who was in full power and authority as a Mufti and the supreme judge were attended by most clergymen and scholars of Baghdad of different social classes, and among the attendees was the youth named Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (whose name will later be used as label to an extremist violent Sunnite doctrine after his death, though he wrote only hadiths in his book). Those attendees would discuss and debate issues of fiqh among one another and pay attention to the views expressed by Abou Youssef.   

B) Their desire to get some of his gifts: Yahya Ibn Maaeen, a scholar of fiqh, coveted once to have a share of the rich gifts of precious items and excellent food dishes brought to Abou Youssef by rich, affluent class members in Baghdad, and he fabricated a hadith on the spot that when Muhammad was given gifts, he would share it with guests in his house. Abou Youssef, the cunning man, instead of telling Yahya Ibn Maaeen that this is a false hadith, he simply added to it a phrase asserting that gifts in 7th century Arabia were dishes of dates and bread and simple tokens, not precious gifts and sumptuous meals as in Baghdad; thus, this hadith was non-applicable in the view of Abou Youssef. After saying this emphatically, he ordered his man-servant to carry all gifts to his kitchen and his coffers. It is noteworthy that the name of Abou Youssef  was used toward the end of the reign of the caliph Al-Maamoun (died in 218 A.H.), the question of whether the Quran is 'created' or not was in hot debate, about 36 years after the death of Abou Youssef, and the caliph favored the view that the Quran is 'created' (i.e., not eternal and did not exist before being revealed to Muhammad), and fabricators of hadith and scholars of fiqh stood against this view adopted by the caliph and his thinkers, a group of philosophers called Al-Mu'tazala, and Sunnite hadith-narrators and scholars of fiqh invoked and used the name of Abou Youssef after his death in their debate and propaganda against Al-Mu'tazala, by fabricating a hadith and claimed to be narrated by Abou Youssef asserting that he prohibited talking with those supporting this erroneous view and that he declared supporters of this view as infidels, based on hadiths asserting that the Quran is eternal. The name of Abou Youssef was sued and invoked again decades after his death during the Mameluke Era in Egypt and the Levant, when alchemy was popular (i.e., the myth of turning cheap metals into gold), and Sunnite scholars at the time ascribed views to Abou Youssef against practicing alchemy. Some other Sunnite scholars after the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate ascribed views to Abou Youssef against Kalam (philosophy debating 'Islamic' issues and topics) and virulent attacks on those studying and using philosophy and logic and fabricated hadiths, but such views were never expressed during the lifetime of Abou Youssef in the Abbasid Era, but found in the books of the Sunnite historian and scholar Ibn Katheer who died in 774 A.H.        

C) Their lies for the sake of obtaining the favor of Abou Youssef: though Abou Youssef was an unjust and unfair judge and supreme judge, who committed injustices to serve his venal purposes and to serve the unjust affluent class members of his time (esp. the Abbasid household members), his admirers and attendees of his meetings fabricated stories and narratives about him, such as his declaring one Abbasid caliph, Moussa Al-Hadi, as an unjust ruler, within a story of a dispute between this caliph and an unknown foe among the masses. Within this fabricated story, Moussa Al-Hadi and one unnamed man disputed over the ownership of an orchard, and Abou Youssef as a judge ordered the orchard to the unnamed man who brought eye-witnesses to prove that it was his own for years, infuriating Moussa Al-Hadi the unjust caliph who assumed the judge Abou Youssef would issue a verdict on his favor. Why are we asserting that this story is untrue? Because Abou Youssef was NEVER appointed as a judge during the reign of Moussa Al-Hadi (brother of Harun Al-Rasheed) but during the reign of Al-Rasheed. Besides, the character traits of Moussa Al-Hadi included his being eager to put to death those who disobey him or disagree with him even over trivial matters, and he, as a despot and a tyrant, would not have possibly allowed any judge to issue verdicts that contradicted his desires. The same fabricated story is told elsewhere with adding the detail that Harun Al-Rasheed, brother and successor of the caliph Moussa Al-Hadi, was the one recommending Abou Youssef to be the judge between the caliph and the unnamed man over the property of the orchard. Of course, this fabricated story does not match the hypocritical obsequious nature of Abou Youssef who loved bribes and the tyrannical despotic traits of Al-Rasheed and his brother, and the story does not mention Masrour, the executioner who was eager to put to death anyone upon the commands of Abbasid caliphs, even a trusted friend of Al-Rasheed like Jaffer Ibn Khaled Al-Barmaky. Let us remember that the true traits of Al-Rasheed are the ones mentioned in the story about the concubine of Eissa Ibn Jaffer.

  Strangely, another story about Abou Youssef (if it is true) assert his feelings pangs of remorse and pricks of conscience while he was in his last weeks in his death bed, as he kept remembering the piety, honor, and dignity of his teacher Abou Hanifa as he spent 17 years as his apprentice to learn fiqh and Quranic sharia, but he spent another 17 years of Baghdad seeking wealth at any cost, never thinking of death and the Hereafter, and the narrator of this story asserts that days before Abou Youssef died, he kept lamenting his sins and repeating that he wished he could have refused to be appointed as a judge and a supreme judge and that he wished to die in poverty with a clear conscience instead of being filthy rich as he was.                

 

Lastly:

  Yacoub Abou Youssef was the first one to corrupt on purpose the Abou Hanifa doctrine and views, and he was the very first man to be appointed as the supreme judge and to use himself as a mediator or a facilitator to appoint his own son, Youssef, as a judge. He was the very first scholar to use his knowledge to please a caliph and satisfy whims and caprices of this caliph and other affluent class members of his time, thus encouraging injustices and committing many injustices himself when he judged among people for the sake of money. In contrast, Abou Hanifa rejected many times to be appointed as a judge, and he was tortured and put to death by poisoning in his cell prison for refusing to please the caliph Abou Jaffer Al-Mansour by issuing a fatwa to allow the caliph to have a second wife, because his wife had stipulated in her marriage contract signed by the caliph never to allow him to marry other women or to have concubines. Jaffer Al-Mansour attempted to force Abou Hanifa to issue a fatwa that such a marriage-contract condition is against the polygamy allowed in the Quran, but Abou Hanifa insisted that since the caliph signed the marriage contract while agreeing to that condition stipulated by his wife, he must respect the contract. This contrast between Abou Hanifa and Abou Youssef tells us that when the latter was appointed as a supreme judge, justice was lost in Baghdad, and within the whole Abbasid Empire, among people at the time.