Question:
It is said in a paper:
” Abu Hanifa is reported to have regarded building over tombs (al-bina ala l-qubur) as legal and not objectionable.57 Unfortunately, neither the Musnad of Abu Hanifa nor the Kitab al-Asl of Muhammed Hasan al-Shaibani have chapters on janaiz, from which one could draw actual statements by the early Hanafiyya on that complex of questions.
[57 Nawawi majmu 5:298; Abu Abd’allah Muhammed Qadhi Safad al-Dimaqshi, Rahmat al Umma fi Kthilaf al Aimma( Cairo,1386/1987), 73; Abd al Wahab al-Sharani, Kitab al Mizan, 2 vol.(Cairo, 1291/1874), vol 1, p.271. Reports that Abu Hanifa approved of tombs without any restriction may have been negative propoganda by other religious schools against the Hanafiyya, but they did circulate widely.]””
http://archnet.org/library/documents/one-document.jsp?document_id=4216
Is this attribution to Imam Abu Hanifa accurate and correctly referenced ?
Answer:
If Imam al-Nawawi mentions it in al-Majmu` then it is certainly reliable.
See also here.
Hajj Gibril Haddad