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Banu Hanifa (Arabic: بنو حنيفة‎) were an ancient Arab tribe inhabiting the area of al-Yamama in the central region of modern-day Saudi Arabia. The tribe belonged to the great Rabi'ah branch of North Arabian tribes, which also included 'Anizzah, Abd al-Qays, Bakr, and Taghlib. Though counted by the classical Arab genealogists as a Christian branch of Bani Bakr, they led an independent existence prior to Islam.^[1]

Pre-Islamic Era[link]

The tribe's members appear to have been mostly sedentary farmers at the dawn of Islam, living in small settlements along the wadis of eastern Nejd (known back then as al-Yamama), particularly the valley of Al-'Irdh, which later came to bear their name (see Wadi Hanifa). Sources such as Yaqut's 13th century encyclopedia credit them with the founding of the towns of Hadjr (the predecessor of today's Riyadh) and Manfuha, and being responsible for the granaries of Al-Kharj. According to legend, the tribe had moved to al-Yamamah from the Hejaz after the region's original inhabitants, the legendary people of Tasm and Jadis were decimated by war.

Islamic Era[link]

Banu Hanifa played an important role in early Islamic history. At around 632, according to the traditional Muslim chroniclers, they sent a delegation pledging allegiance to the Islamic prophet Muhammad (SAW). Among the members of the delegation was Musaylimah, who, probably from what he then saw, conceived the idea that he might successfully set up a claim to prophethood. The delegation, before their departure, embraced Islam and denounced Christianity without compunction.^[1]

Muhammad (SAW) died shortly afterwards, and the Banu Hanifa immediately renounced their new religion, under the leadership of their own self-proclaimed prophet, Musaylima. It is said, however, that Musaylima had declared his prophethood shortly before Muhammad's (SAW) death, claiming to have been made a partner of Muhammad's (SAW) in divine revelation. This, along with other apostasy movements in Arabia, triggered the Ridda Wars, in which the Muslims of Medina, under the leadership of the first caliph Abu Bakr, subjugated the rebellious tribes, but not before some heavy losses. The Muslims of Medina were only able to defeat Banu Hanifa on the third attempt, killing Musaylima in the battle of 'Aqraba, some 30 km north of modern Riyadh, and the rest of Banu Hanifa then made peace with the Muslims and rejoined the new Islamic state.

Umayyad and Abbasid Eras[link]

Due to their role in the Apostasy movement, members of Banu Hanifa were initially banned from participating in the early Muslim conquests by the first Caliph, Abu Bakr. The ban was lifted by Abu Bakr's successor Umar, and members of Bani Hanifa subsequently joined Muslim forces in Iraq, with some settling in garrison towns such as al-Kufa.

Tribesmen from Banu Hanifa also supplied the ranks of rebellious movements such as the Kharijites. One member of the tribe by the name of Najdah ibn 'Amir, even founded a short-lived Kharijite state in al-Yamama during the Umayyad era. Thereafter the tribe seems to have resumed its pre-Islamic agricultural way of life, leading the famous Umayyad-era poet Jarir ibn Atiya to mock them in scathing satirical verse for choosing the "humble" life of the farmer over the "glorious" life of the Arab nomad, and accusing them of cowardice and incompetence in battle. Others such as the 8th century literary critic al-Jahiz, however, express admiration for their military prowess, surrounded as they were by hostile tribes from every direction. Al-Jahiz, however, also notes with curiosity that the tribe produced almost no poets of any repute. The tribes small pastoralist bedouin section, mentioned only fleetingly by Muslim sources, appears to have joined the rest of the bedouins of Bakr and 'Annizah in northern Arabia and southern Iraq, at some point after Islam according to al-Tabari.

Perhaps due to the legacy of the Ridda Wars and Najdah's Kharijites, the Umayyads and Abbasids made sure never to appoint a member of the tribe to governorship in their native province of Yamamah. In the 9th century, the Alid dynasty of Banul Ukhaidhir came to power in al-Yamama, having fled there from their native Mecca. According to Yaqut and others, Ukhaidhirite rule was harsh on Bani Hanifa, leading many of them to leave for Basra in Iraq, and to Upper Egypt, where sources such as al-Yaqubi of the 9th century state that Bani Hanifa formed the majority of the population of the valley of Wadi al-Allaqi, near Aswan, having moved there earlier with their women and children. There they worked in gold mining, and according to Yaqut, the "sultan of al-Allaqi" was a man of Bani Hanifa.

Geographers such as Al-Hamadani of the 10th century and Yaqut of the 13th seem to indicate that Bani Hanifa still resided in its ancestral lands at the time of their writings, though the tribe seems to have held little political power by then, and many of their old settlements had been taken over by other tribes, such as Bani Tamim and Bani 'Amir. Yaqut, however, reports that they still formed the majority in al-Yamama's provincial capital, Hadjr, though he could have been reporting from an earlier source.

13th Century Onwards[link]

In the 14th century, however, Ibn Batuta relating his visit to Hadjr, also states that most of its inhabitants are from Banu Hanifa, and even joins their emir, one Tufail ibn Ghanim, on a pilgrimate to Mecca. Little else is heard from Banu Hanifa thereafter, except that a number of clans in the region of Wadi Hanifa are given a Hanafite lineage by Jabr ibn Sayyar, the ruler of nearby Al-Qassab, in his short 17th-century manuscript on the genealogies of the people of Nejd. One such clan mentioned by Ibn Sayyar were the Mrudah, among whom later appeared Saudi Arabia's current rulers, the clan of Al Saud. Most of these clans mentioned by Ibn Sayyar, however, today claim membership of the large tribe of 'Anizzah, or to Wa'il, the purported patriarch of both 'Annizah and Hanifah. Scholars such as Hamad Al-Jassir attribute this to the need to associate with a more powerful bedouin tribe, and that 'Anizzah was chosen due to shared ancestry.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Yaqut Al-Hamawi, "Yamamah", "Hajr", "Al-'Irdh", "Al-'Allaqi", and "Qurran" in Mu'jam Al-Buldan
• Abu Muhammad Al-Hamadani, Sifat Jazirat Al-'Arab ("A Description of the Arabian Peninsula")
• Hamad Al-Jassir, Jamharat Ansab Al-Usar Al-Mutahaddira Fi Nejd ("Compendium of the Lineages of the Settled Families of Nejd")
• Ibn Battuta, Travels of Ibn Battuta
• Jarir ibn Atiya, Diwan
• Al-Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan ("The Book of Animals"), Alwaraq.net edition, p. 379 [1]
• Al-Yaqubi, Al-Buldan, Alwaraq.net edition, p. 41 [2]
• Jabr ibn Sayyar's manuscript on the lineages of the people of Nejd

See also[link]

• Banu Bakr ibn Wa'il
• Rabi'ah
• Al-Yamama
• Nejd
• Banul Ukhaidhir

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the Danish Wikipedia. (September 2011) Don't speak Danish? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the Danish article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|da|Bilal Philips}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Philips in August 2010
Born	Dennis Bradley Philips (1946-01-06) 6 January 1946 (age 66) Kingston, Jamaica
Education	B.A. Islamic Studies, M.A. Aqeedah, & PhD Islamic Theology
Alma mater	B.A. - Islamic University of Medina, M.A. - King Saud University, & PhD - University of Wales
Occupation	Islamic preacher
Years active	1971-present
Religion	Islam
Website
www.bilalphilips.com

Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips (born Dennis Bradley Philips on 6 January 1946 in Jamaica) is a contemporary Islamic scholar, teacher, speaker, and author, resident in Qatar.^[1][2] He appears on Peace TV, which is a 24-hour Islamic satellite TV channel broadcasting to many countries around the world.

Biography[link]

Education[link]

Philips was born on 6 January 1946^[3] in Jamaica, but grew up in Canada, where he converted to Islam in 1972. He received his B.A. degree from the Islamic University of Medina and his M.A. in Aqeedah (Islamic Theology) from the King Saud University in Riyadh, then to the University of Wales, where he completed a PhD in Islamic Theology in the early 1990s.^[4] Philips comes from a family of educators, as both his parents were teachers and his grandfather was a Christian minister and Bible scholar.^[5]

Islamic Information Center[link]

In 1994 he founded (and continues to direct) an Islamic Information Center, now known as Discover Islam, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.^[5]

Islamic Online University[link]

The Islamic Online University has been founded by Dr. Bilal Philips as a completely tuition-free institution that is offering an online intensive, undergraduate, and graduate courses in Islamic Studies. The university offers a four year bachelor of arts degree in Islamic studies program.^[6]

The IOU was initially launched in 2001 from UAE with an offering of a few short courses. After a five year interlude, it was restarted in 2007 from Qatar with a greater offering of completely free short courses.^[7]

Controversies[link]

According to Steven Emerson, Executive Director of Investigative Project on Terrorism, he follows a strong anti-Western agenda and is connected to radical and terrorist Islamists.^[8] Bilal has made statements against suicide bombing and other terrorist tactics as un-Islamic. He has also suggested that once violent conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims can be better solved with education.^[9]

Bilal Philips (left) and Pierre Vogel speaking on a rally in Frankfurt in 2003.

In an interview given, Philips accused the Australian authorities of "blindly following American allegations and unsubstantiated false accusations" claiming that investigations in the UK, Canada and Australia had found no evidence that he was in any way connected with terrorism.^[2] In this interview, he also pointed out that he had not entered the USA since 1995, characterizing media claims that he had been deported in 2004 as an "outright lie". Philips also called the statement that he was an "unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing "really a joke", claiming that it was based on a "supposedly leaked report" of over 100 prominent Muslims who were never charged. In April 2011 he has been banned from re-entering Germany as persona non grata.^[10]

At a conference in Toronto during the city's Pride Parade on July 3, 2011, Philips briefly reiterated his view that homosexuals caught in the act should be executed in countries governed by Islamic law.^[11]

Publications[link]

Books[link]

• Fundamentals of TAWHEED (Islamic Monotheism) International Islamic Publishing House; ISBN 9960-9648-0-9^[12]
• The Evolution of Fiqh (Islamic Law & The Madh-habs) International Islamic Publishing House (Edited by Bradley Philips); ISBN 9960-672-86-7^[13]
• True Message of Jesus Christ Islamic Book Services 2006; ISBN 81-7231-360-8^[14]
• Purpose of Creation 84pp, Islamic Book Services 2002; ISBN 81-7231-358-6^[15]
• Funeral Rites International Islamic Publishing House; ASIN 9960850846^[16]
• Polygamy in Islam Islamic Book Services; ISBN 81-7231-715-8^[17]
• Islamic Studies Al-Basheer 2002; ISBN 1-898649-19-7^[18]

Videos[link]

• Sundry videos at LightUponLight.com

See also[link]

• List of Da'ees
• Dawah
• Islam in Canada
• Zakir Naik
• Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo
• Muhammad bin Jamil Zeno

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bilal Philips' official website
• Bilal Philips' Blog
• Bilal Philips audio and video lectures
• Interview with Bilal Philips on Famous Muslims
• Lecture: Hardening of the Heart
• Bilal Philips' Islamic Online University