Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i

Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian (707–774)

Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al Awzāʿī (أَبُو عَمْرو عَبْد ٱلرَّحْمَٰن بْن عَمْرو ٱلْأَوْزَاعِيّ; 707–774) was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, and the chief representative and eponym of the Awza'i school of Islamic jurisprudence.

Awzāʿī was of Sindhi origin, probably born in Baalbek (in modern day Lebanon) in 707. He was referred to by his nisbah Awzā (الأوزاع), part of Banu Hamdan. The biographer and historian Al Dhahabi reports that Awzāʿī was from Sindh, and he was a mawali of ʾAwzā tribe in his early life. He may have descended from the Zutt (Jats), who had a strong presence in Syria and Iraq during Islamic Golden Age. Very little of al Awzāʿī's writings survive, but his style of Islamic jurisprudence (usul al fiqh) is preserved in Abu Yusuf's book Al radd ʿala siyar al Awzāʿī, in particular his reliance on the "living tradition," or the uninterrupted practice of Muslims handed down from preceding generations. For Awzāʿī, this was the true Sunnah of Muhammad. Awzāʿī's school flourished in Syria, the Maghreb, and Al Andalus but was eventually overcome and replaced by the Maliki school of Islamic law in the 9th century. He died in 774 and was buried near Beirut, Lebanon, where his tomb is still visited.

Theologically, he was known as a persecutor of the Qadariyya, but also one of the main historical witnesses of them. He said the Qadariyya merely appropriated the heretical doctrines of Christians. Al Awza'i had met their founder Ma'bad al Juhani. Al Awza'i differed with other schools of jurisprudence in holding that apostates from Islam ought not be executed unless their apostasy is part of a plot to take over the state. In the introduction to his work al Jarh wa l Ta'dil, Ibn Abi Hatim al Razi preserves a corpus of ten letters attributed to al Awza'i. In these letters, al Awza'i addresses a series of high ranking officials in order to plead the cause of individuals and groups. Among other things, he encouraged the Abbasids to ransom Muslims who were captured by the Byzantines in Erzurum, and to increase the wages of the Syrian soldiers in charge of protecting the Levantine coast. Both Christians and Muslims from the Beirut area appealed to al Awza'i for help. In one story, a local Christian in Beirut sought al Awza'i's help in resolving a tax dispute. When his appeal to the tax administrator failed, al Awza'i gave the Christian the 80 dinars he thought he was owed, and even tried to return the jar of honey the Christian had given him to thank him for his efforts.