Hanif

Hanif (Arabic حنيف, plural hunafa حنفاء) is an Islamic Arabic term that refers to people who during the time of Jahiliya rejected the idolatry in their society.

The literal translation of hanif is "monotheist", referring to any person who was not poly- or pantheistic before the advent of Islam. As postulated in the Qur'an, a hanif was a person who followed a non-pagan Arabic religion said to be the precursor of both Islam and Judaism. (i.e. Abraham and Isaac were hanifs.)

Now Muhammad had to do with another religion besides Judaism and Christianity - the religion of the Arabs, or in the language of those from whom he had hitherto taken his information on religious matters, the hunafa'. That also must be the degeneration of a pristine pure revelation. Further, Abraham through Ishmael was the progenitor of the Arabs. He therefore must have been the founder of the religion of the hunafa'. He was the hanif, par excellence, but as Mohammed is always careful to add, in order to prevent misconceptions, he was not one of the Polytheists. The hanif religion as he founded it, was, like all other revealed religions, a pure monotheism; and as Abraham was earlier in time than both Judaism and Christianity, his religion was purer than either of them had ever been. It was nearer the origin of things. It was "the religion upon which Allah created the people" (XXX, 29) Richard Bell. Muslim World, Volume XXIX, 1949, pp. 120-125.

Hanif, capitalized, is a common Arabic proper name used for its more literary and poetic definition, which is "true believer".