Recordings › Why don't sunni imams transmit from Imam Jafar? | Mufti Abu Layth · 6 Dec 2020 › Segment 1 of 2
Why don't Sunni imams like Malik and Abu Hanifa transmit from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq?
sahih saheeh sahih hadith saheeh hadith sound hadith malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas imaam prayer leader muftis sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice as-salaf salaf al-salih salaf us-salih al-salaf early generations ahlul bayt ahl ul-bayt ahle bait ahlulbayt ahl-e-bait ahlul bait ahl al-bait ahl al-sunnah ahl as-sunnah ahlus sunnah ahl al-sunna shiah shiite shi'i twelver ithna ashari ulama ulema ulamaaWhy Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa do not transmit from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq
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This segment0:02 to 6:37 · 6 min 35 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenMufti Abu Layth's theory is that the early imams of the Ahl al-Bayt were for the most part as the Shia describe them, so Malik and Abu Hanifa, though respectful of them, did not transmit from them because it would have caused a political storm. He adds that this does not make the Shia theological claims more authentic.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth is asked about Imam Jafar al-Sadiq and his relationship with Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik. He offers what he calls his own theory: that Imam Jafar, Muhammad al-Baqir, Zayn al-Abidin and the other early imams of the Ahl al-Bayt were, for the most part if not in every detail, as the Shia describe them. He observes that the imams up to Jafar al-Sadiq are highly praised and well known in Sunni sources, as well known as Sunni scholars such as Sufyan al-Thawri, while the imams after him are still accepted by Sunni scholars but little mentioned and not well known among ordinary people. He says Sunni orthodoxy holds that these imams were nothing like the Shia describe, denying that they believed in the imam structure or in a select transmission within the family, and calls the Shia account propaganda, whereas he himself thinks that, even if the Shia claims are not wholly accurate, the imams were for the most part as the Shia say rather than Sunni. In his view this is why imams of the Sunni salaf such as Malik and Abu Hanifa, although on very good and respectful terms with them, do not transmit anything from them: it would have caused a political storm, since society would have known that these figures held those views. He adds that the differences then came without the hatred of today, that imams like Jafar were not fanatics or extremists and taught, mingled and were close to Malik and Abu Hanifa, and that neither side would have regarded the other as disbelievers or traitors. He says Sunnis will not accept this because it extends legitimacy to some Shia claims, but that in his perspective it does not make the Shia theological claims more authentic or change the arguments, and that covering something up does not destroy the beliefs the Shia built.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedCan you talk about Imam Jafar al-Sadiq and his relationship with Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik?
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth offers as his own theory that the early imams of the Ahl al-Bayt up to Jafar al-Sadiq were for the most part as the Shia describe them rather than Sunni, and that Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa, though on good terms with them, did not transmit from them because their views would have caused a political storm, while adding that this does not in his view make the Shia theological claims more authentic.
“that's in my view the reason why imam malik doesn't transmit views from uh imam jaffar it's the reason why uh imam abu hanifa doesn't transmit from them”
Category: historical claim
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine0:02 to 6:37 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
can you talk about imam jafar sadiq and his relationship with abu hanifa and imam malik right i don't know what to i think this is my theory [Laughter] i think that
imam jafar or imam muhammad al-baqir all the other imams of the the the albeit i think for the most part if not not necessarily i'm not saying it has to be verbatim or spot on symmetrical but i feel for the most part they were
you know as the shia claim of them so i feel that you see because what it is is these figures well that you have you know whether it's going to be zayn or abidine or whether it's going to be all of these great imams that from the from that you know from the early line of the twelve imams that the shia have now up until jaffra sadiq they will be very highly praised by the sunni scholars as well after that the sunni scholars still claim to accept them but don't really mention them and they ain't that well
known after that in the sunni sources they aren't i mean when i say that i don't mean you can't find it but i mean for the common people they're not that well known uh up until imam jaffar they are well known so they're as well known as sunni self scholars so somebody who's heard of sufyana thodi has definitely heard of you know muhammad al-baqir or did you get that but after that the imams that will come after whether it will be muslim or the imams i suppose that's in in that other or in the other way as well in the ismail uh sense as well
they're not as well known but the question isn't that the question is that sunni orthodoxy claims that these imams were nothing uh like the shia claim of them so they feel that the shia make a claim that they were obviously they were shia that they were uh you know they believed in this imam structure they believed in this kind of not a secrecy but a special uh a select
kind of transmission through the al just for the family and and for people related a kind of almost like a secret society coming down this secret order now the sunnis deny all of that and say that this is they say it's nonsense and it's propaganda made up by the shia i actually think that it's not i think that even if they're not a hundred percent what some of what the shia are claiming them to have been and said but they are for the most part that
then they are sunni um that's what i would feel and this is the reason why imams from the salaf of the sunnah like imam malik imam abu hanifa all these people even though they were on very good terms with them very respectful with them they don't really transmit anything from them because i think it would have caused too much of a it would have just caused a political you know kind of a storm for them because if if because these because it would have been known in society that
these people had those views that's in my view the reason why imam malik doesn't transmit views from uh imam jaffar it's the reason why uh imam abu hanifa doesn't transmit from them or other people but that said i think in that day and age these you see the differences were there but there wasn't this kind of um hatred or anything the way it is today i mean there was hatred with other people who were proper fanatics and extremists but i don't believe the imams like imam jaffar were
at all like that um hence they were with people like imam malik and these people and imam abu hanifa and other other kind of sunni imams they would teach them mingle with them you know be close to them on occasion upon occasion so uh they obviously wouldn't have felt these people are cafes or betrayers of the you know but they just to themselves probably felt that we've got this mission which is our mission and yeah and i think sunnis won't accept that because if they do it extends legitimacy to some of the shia
claims that's my uh take on it i don't think it makes in my perspective i don't think it makes the the shia claim more authentic than it or then you know it doesn't make the arguments it doesn't change them um to me they're still what they are but i i i mean i don't think by trying to cover something we can yeah we can somehow destroy the theological beliefs created by the shia so that yeah that's my kind of two pence
on it i don't know i don't know so somebody said imam malik and hanifa will learn its students from mom jaffa what are you on about you yeah i know i you see the question [Laughter] this is where i'm just blabbering on and nobody's gotten you see what do they transmit from them they don't transmit from them the question is what was it that they learned from them
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-12-06-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/phrss-nir30/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, December 6). Why don't Sunni imams like Malik and Abu Hanifa transmit from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq? [Video, segment 2020-12-06-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/phrss-nir30/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "Why don't Sunni imams like Malik and Abu Hanifa transmit from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq?" Video, segment 2020-12-06-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded December 6, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/phrss-nir30/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-12-06-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Why don't Sunni imams like Malik and Abu Hanifa transmit from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq?}}, year = {2020}, month = {12}, date = {2020-12-06}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/phrss-nir30/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/phrss-nir30/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2020-12-06-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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