ABSTRACT
ABHIDHARMA: The Sanskrit term designating that division of the Buddhist canon dealing with metaphysics and philosophy. ABU HANIFA (700-767): A Persian scholar who developed Moslem law into the liberal Hanifite school. He applied the code of behavior found in the Koran to contemporary cases by means of analogy, deduction, or ra’y (“considered opinion,” or “recognized justice”). He paid little attention, in this process, to the Tradition (Hadith). To illustrate how this kind of reasoning might work, the Koran states punishment for theft as chopping off the hand. That punishment may be regarded as applicable only to the semi-nomad society of the times, which did not have the ability to keep track of thieves, so that the best possible warning for those sitting around a campfire would be a stranger who joined them with only one hand. People would be warned to watch their possessions, and the one-handed man could not carry off much. However, in the more cosmopolitan parts of Persia, such an extreme punishment is not necessary. Different circumstances call for different punishments. By analogical deduction from other parts of the Koran, we may conclude that an appropriate punishment for theft in more modern times and civilized situations is imprisonment.
