Muḥammad ibn ‛Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla (; 693 – 765), also known as Ibn Abi Layla, was an early Muslim jurist who served as the qadi (judge) of Kufa from until his death. Considered to be one of the leading figures of the ahl al-ra'y, he was a contemporary of fellow Kufan jurist Abu Hanifa, the eponym of the Hanafi school of law.

Biography Ibn Abi Layla was born in 693 to a scholarly family. His father, Abd al-Rahman, who died when Ibn Abi Layla was young, was a prominent Kufan tabi'i who fought alongside Ali at the Battle of the Camel and participated in the revolt of Ibn al-Ash'ath; his grandfather, Abu Layla, was a companion of Muhammad. Ibn Abi Layla's principal teachers of fiqh were al-Sha'bi and , and for some time he audited the lectures of Ata ibn Abi Rabah. He was appointed as the qadi of Kufa by the Umayyads, although exactly when is uncertain; 733 and 741 details 263 points of law on which Abu Hanifa and Ibn Abi Layla disagreed. In the treatise, Ibn Abi Layla rarely adduces hadith or the opinions of Muhammad's companions to argue a case, instead largely relying on his own ra'y.