بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
After the era of the Ṣaḥābah (raḍī Allāhu ʿanhum), Ḥijāz became the home of ḥadīth, which later on led to the production of scholars such as Imām Mālik (raḥimahullāh). As for ʿIrāq, a widespread misconception is that it became the centre of fabricated Ahadith. It therefore, as some claim, influenced the opinions and sources of jurists like Imam Abu Hanifah (raḥimahullāh) that resided in it. However, taking into consideration important historical points about fiqh, this claim is incorrect. Below, I briefly mention three reasons why:
Firstly, approximately 1500 Ṣaḥābah ended up residing in Kūfa ʿIrāq, and a lot of them were famous for narrating aḥādīth excessively such as ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd and Anas ibn Mālik (raḍī Allāhu ʿanhum). Later on, the number of their students totaled approximately 4000. Anas ibn Sīrin says: “I came to Kufa and saw that 4000 of them were studying ḥadīth while 400 had already excelled.” It is incomprehensible that this large number of Ṣaḥābah and Tābiʿūn resided in ʿIrāq and yet it still was overcome by fabricated aḥādīth. This simply cannot be true.
Secondly, the aḥādīth of Madīnah were known to the people of Kūfa, as they would often travel to the Ḥaramayn for ḥadīth. Ibn Saʿd in his Ṭabaqāt mentions 202 people who did this from among the Tābiʿūn of Kūfa. Likewise, they would often go to perform ʿumrah and meet the narrators of Ḥijāz there and take ḥadīth from them. Imām Abū Ḥanīfah (raḥimahullāh) himself, had performed umrah 55 times and met Imām Mālik (raḥimahullāh), among others every time he traveled. It is therefore of no surprise that Imām Abū Ḥanīfah was able to gather thousands of aḥādīth.
The great leader of the Muslims in ḥadīth, Imām Bukhārī (raḥimahullāh), when he mentioned the number of times he traveled to ʿIrāq for ḥadīth, he said that it cannot be enumerated, indicating that he went there so many times! If ʿIrāq was truly a place filled with fabricated aḥādīth, then why would someone like mām Bukhārī (raḥimahullāh) travel there so many times?
Finally, if the atmosphere of ʿIrāq at that time was such that it led to the fabrication of ḥadīth that influenced the likes of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah — as some claim — then how did Imām Aḥmad (raḥimahullāh), who is considered to be ‘the leader of the school of ḥadīth’ emerge from here? The answer is, because ʿIrāq did have sound ḥadīth. We know that Imām Aḥmad has a collection of sound Hadith upon which he based his opinions. Likewise, we say about Imām Abū Ḥanīfah that he has based his opinions on aḥādīth he had collected which he deemed sound.
Source:
Fiqh Ahl al-ʿIrāq wa Ḥadīthuhum, by Imām Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī (d. 1378 AH)
Hadithiyya 