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In Islam, the terms ' (; , ) and ' (; حنفاء) are primarily used to refer to pre-Islamic Arabians who were Abrahamic monotheists. Muslims regard these people favorably for shunning Arabian polytheism and instead solely worshipping the God of Abraham, thus setting themselves apart from what is called . However, they were not associated with Judaism or Christianity; instead exemplifying what they perceived as the unaltered beliefs and morals of Abraham.
The form appears 10 times in the Quran, and the form twice. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad himself was a (before he met the angel Gabriel) and a direct descendant of Abraham's eldest son Ishmael.See:
Likewise, Islam regards all Islamic prophets and messengers before Muhammad — that is, those affiliated with Judaism and/or Christianity, such as Moses and Jesus — as , underscoring their Ismah.
According to Francis Edward Peters, in verse of the Quran, hanif has been translated as "upright person", and outside the Quran as, "to incline towards a right state or tendency". According to W. Montgomery Watt, hanif appears to have been used earlier by Jews and Christians in reference to "paganism" and applied to followers of an old Hellenized Syrian and Arabian religion and used to taunt early Muslims.
Michael Cook states, "its exact sense is obscure," but the Quran uses hanif "in contexts suggestive of a pristine monotheism, which it tends to contrast with (latter-day) Judaism and Christianity". In the Quran is associated "strongly with Abraham, but never with Moses or Jesus". (1983). 9780192876058, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192876058 The unique association of ḥanīf with Abraham underscores his foundational role in the development of monotheistic faith and his exemplary status in the Islamic tradition.
Oxford Islamic Studies online defines as "one who is utterly upright in all of his or her affairs, as exemplified by the model of Abraham"; and that prior to the arrival of Islam "the term was used ... to designate pious people who accepted monotheism but did not join the Jewish or Christian communities."
Others translate as the law of Ibrahim; the verb as "to turn away from idolatry". Others maintain that the followed the "religion of Ibrahim, the , the Muslim." It has been theorized by Watt that the term Islam, arising from the participle form of Muslim (meaning "surrendered to God"), may have only arisen as an identifying descriptor for the religion in the late Medinan period.
A Greek source from the 5th century CE, The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, speaks of how "Abraham had bequeathed a monotheist religion" to the Arabs, who are described being descended "from Ishmael and Hagar" and adhering to certain practices of the Jews, such as shunning pork consumption.Ibn Rawandi, "Origins of Islam", 2000: p.112
Sozomen, a 5th-century Roman lawyer and historian of the Christian Church, is thought to have been a native of Gaza CityCrone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, 1987: p.190-91 and a native speaker of Arabic Therefore, according to Ibn Rawandi, he provides a "reliable source" that Arabs—at least in northwest Arabia—were familiar with the idea there were pre-Islamic "Abrahamic monotheists () ... whether this was true of Arabs throughout the Arabian peninsula it is impossible to say."
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According to the website "In the Name of Allah", the term is used "twelve times in the Quran", but Abraham/Ibrahim is "the only person to have been explicitly identified with the term." He is mentioned "in reference to" eight times in the Quran.
Among those who are thought to have been are:
The four friends in Mecca from ibn Ishaq's account:
opponents of Islam from Ibn Isḥāq's account:
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