The Hanafi School
is the oldest of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence and among the most widespread. It is not merely the school of a single individual, but rather a collective scholarly tradition that began with Imam Abu Hanifa and expanded through his prominent students—Abu Yusuf, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, and Zufar—until it became a well-established legal reference widely accepted by the Muslim ummah.