I say, and with God's success: it is a superlative form on the pattern of 'Af'al, famously used to refer to the Imam of Imams in jurisprudence, which is Abu Hanifa; due to the status he attained in jurisprudence, a status that no one else in Islam has reached, to the extent that the area where he was buried is called Al-A'zamiya in Iraq, even though Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal is also buried there. In recognition of his merit in the science of jurisprudence, as he was the one who established and laid its foundations, many phrases have been attributed to him, including this one. And God knows best.