  á¸¤anÄ«f (, ; plural: Ø­ÙÙØ§Ø¡, ) refers to one who maintained the pure monotheistic beliefs of the patriarch ibrahim. more specifically, in islamic thought, they are the people who, during the period known as the pre-islamic period or age of ignorance, were seen to have rejected idolatry and retained some or all of the tenets of the religion of abraham (arabic: ibrÄhÄ«m) which was "submission to god" (arabic: allah) in its purest form. ==etymology and history of the term== the term is from the arabic root  meaning "to incline, to decline" (lane 1893) from the syriac root of the same meaning. the  is the law of ibrahim; the verb  means "to turn away from [idolatry]". in the verse 3:67 of the quran it has also been translated as "upright person" and outside the quran as "to incline towards a right state or tendency". it appears to have been used earlier by jews and christians in reference to 'pagans' and applied to followers of an old hellenized syro-arabian religion and used to taunt early muslims. others maintained that they followed the "...religion of ibrahim, the hanif, the muslim..." it has been theorized by watt that the verbal 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. ===list of á¸¤anÄ«fs===  this is a minor list of those who, per traditional islamic belief, submitted their whole selves to god in the way of abraham: *all the prophets of god after abraham *sa'Ä«d ibn zayd the four friends in mecca from ibn ishaq's account: *zayd ibn 'amr ibn nufayl: rejected both judaism and christianity *waraqah ibn nawfal: was an ebionite priest and patrilineal third cousin to mohammed. he converted to christianity (peters, pp. 122-124) *'uthmÄn ibn á¸¤uwÄrith: travelled to the byzantine empire and converted to christianity *'ubaydullÄh ibn jaá¸¥sh: early muslim convert who emigrated to abyssinia and then converted to christianity. á¸¤anÄ«f opponents of islam from ibn isá¸¥Äq's ac
History_of_Islam Islamic_terminology Quranic_words_and_phrases