Religious scholars from many Muslim countries gathered at an international symposium on Imam-e-Azam (the great imam) Abu Hanifa in Kabul on Thursday called for an immediate end to the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

The three-day symposium saw notable religious figures from Afghanistan, Turkey, Egypt, Central Asia and a number of other Muslim countries deliberating on various aspects of life and teachings of the founder of Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence.

Addressing the closing ceremony of the symposium, President Ashraf Ghani said the identity of the Afghan and Islam are two interconnected phenomena and that there are more efforts need to be done for Islamic development.

He asked the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs to make efforts for honoring the legacy and scientific achievements of the scholars in the future through such gatherings.

“He (Abu Hanifa) was among few prominent scholars who never relied on any assistance by government or public; he was leading his business by his own and was also supporting others,” said Ghani.

“Let’s resolve our problems through consulting the teachings of Imam Abu Hanifa. There is no need for war. We must give an end to the war. We say no to war,” former Jihadi leader Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf said.

Other religious figures said that Abu Hanifa’s ideology and teachings could be a paradigm of fighting terrorism and extremism.

Imam Abū Ḥanīfa was an 8th-century Sunni Muslim theologian and jurist of Persian origin, who became the eponymous founder of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence, which has remained the most widely practiced law school in the Sunni tradition.