ISLAMIC HISTORY IS replete with scholars who distinguished themselves by the breadth of their learning and courage. These scholars were both pious and profoundly knowledgeable in Islamic principles and practices, and they cared little about the wealth and material possessions of this world. They humbled themselves before their Creator during the darkness of the night, and continued their quest for knowledge and wisdom during the day. They also endured considerable personal and financial hardship, and were often made to suffer for their faith and conviction, but they never bowed before a King or Queen. To them, the life of this world was like an illusion; without a reality of its own. The pursuit of truth, justice, equality and the welfare of the poor and needy became their main mission in life. They were men of remarkable character, enduring personality and profound courage and determination. Such exemplary scholars appeared at various times in Islamic history and they fulfilled their vocation with patience, perseverance and great success. Ahmad ibn Hanbal was one such towering scholar and reformer who emerged to defend traditional Islam at a critical time in Islamic history, and thereby left his indelible mark in the annals of Islam.
Abu Abdullah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani was born into the noble Arab tribe of al-Shayban. Ahmad’s grandfather, Hanbal ibn Hilal, occupied a prominent position as governor of the province of Sarakhs under the Umayyads, while his father, Muhammad, was a valiant warrior who participated in a jihad (military expedition) led by the Umayyads and died on the battlefield while he was in his thirties. Ahmad was about two years old when his father died, and he was brought up in very difficult economic circumstances by his devout mother, Safiyya. He attended his local schools and successfully committed the entire Qur’an to memory before he was ten. Influenced by his mother, Ahmad began to study hadith (Prophetic traditions) at the age of sixteen and fell in love with the subject. He was not only a bright student, but also deeply religious during his early years. His scrupulous character and friendly personality endeared him to his teachers. During this period he worked as a clerk at his local post office to supplement his family’s meagre income, and regularly drafted letters for the illiterate villagers free of charge. He thus combined his education in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and hadith under the guidance of Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ibrahim with his extra-curricula activities. Abu Yusuf was one of the foremost students of Abu Hanifah and an outstanding Islamic scholar and jurist in his own right. Although Abu Hanifah died about fourteen years before Ahmad was born, he was very fortunate to study hadith and fiqh under Abu Yusuf who was considered to be one of the most gifted jurists of his generation. Like Abu Hanifah, Abu Yusuf emphasised the importance of scholarly discretion (ijtihad) through analogical deduction (qiyas), and this became a key feature of hanafi legal thought and methodology. Ahmad attended Abu Yusuf ’s lectures regularly and became thoroughly familiar with hanafi fiqh.
He then studied hadith and fiqh for another four years under the guidance of Haitham ibn Bishr, who was one of the foremost scholars of hadith in Baghdad. As the political capital of the Muslim world and a thriving city, Baghdad attracted some of the Muslim world’s most prominent scholars to live and teach there. Eager to complete his education, Ahmad then attended the classes of luminaries like Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi and Abu Bakr ibn Ayyash, and rapidly assimilated Islamic knowledge and wisdom. His devotion, dedication and commitment to his studies, especially of Prophetic hadith, was such that he often left his home well before the dawn prayer (fajr) and waited for his teachers to arrive to begin the first class of the day. After completing his studies under the renowned scholars of Baghdad, he travelled to other major centres of Islamic learning (including Basrah, Kufah, Makkah, Madinah, Yemen and Syria) in pursuit of hadith. During his wanderjahre, he came into contact with Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi’i, who was living in Makkah at the time. Although Ahmad was much younger than Shafi’i, the latter was deeply impressed by his vast knowledge of Islam. Many years later, these two luminaries of Islam met again; this time in Baghdad. By then Shafi’i had already developed his theories of Islamic jurisprudence in a rigorous and systematic way. Likewise, Ahmad became widely recognised as an eminent scholar of hadith, having mastered all the nuances and intricacies of this subject under the tutelage of the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Razzaq ibn Hammam, the author of the highly rated Musannaf. Here in Baghdad, the two men regularly engaged in debate and discussion on the finer points of fiqh and hadith. Shafi’i soon acknowledged Ahmad’s superiority in hadith, and regularly consulted him on difficult issues relating to hadith.
Since Ahmad’s main preoccupation in life was the pursuit of knowledge, he happily travelled long distances in search of Islamic knowledge and wisdom. He was not one of those who expected his teachers to come to him; rather he went out of his way to visit his teachers to learn from them. So much so that when he first met his tutor Abd al-Razzaq in Makkah during the hajj (pilgrimage) season, his colleague Yahya ibn Ma’in, the tutor of the celebrated al-Bukhari, suggested they should start learning from him there and then. Ahmad disagreed with him and instead he travelled all the way to Sana, the capital of Yemen, to study hadith under Abd al-Razzaq. As an honest and passionate seeker of knowledge, he was happy to spend his money and endure hardship in his quest for knowledge, but he never liked to compromise his beliefs and principles in the process. Ahmad’s collaboration with Shafi’i proved extremely beneficial for him for a number of reasons. Hitherto he had been busy writing and memorising hadith and fiqh, but Shafi’i helped him to develop a critical approach to these subjects. An outstanding analyst and synthesiser, Shafi’i explained to him his theories of Islamic jurisprudence, including all the intricacies involved in the construction and deduction of the principles of usul al-fiqh, which enabled Ahmad to revisit the large quantity of hadith he had learned. His critical examination of hadith literature enabled him to ascertain their relevance to Islamic law and legal theory. This represented a major turning point in Ahmad’s intellectual journey. He was now in a position to develop his own approach to fiqh, thanks to his colossal knowledge of hadith, the sayings of the sahabah (the Prophet’s companions) and those of the tabiun (or successors of the companions). Ahmad’s mastery of both hadith and fiqh was then publicly acknowledged by Shafi’i himself when he said: ‘I am leaving Baghdad when there is none more pious, nor a greater jurist than Ahmad ibn Hanbal’. He was about forty at the time.
Normally a scholar of Ahmad’s calibre and accomplishment would have started his own religious seminary long before he reached forty, but he refrained from doing so. Why wait so long? Some historians say he followed the Prophet’s example; that is to say, since the latter did not attain his Prophethood and begin to propagate Islam until he was forty, so Ahmad waited till he reached his fortieth birthday. Others say he decided not to teach while his own teachers were still alive, out of respect for them. Interestingly, Shafi’i died in the year Ahmad turned forty. It is not clear whether his death played a part in his decision to start teaching. Perhaps it was a combination of all these factors which encouraged him to set up his own class. Either way, Ahmad started teaching hadith and fiqh at the age of forty, and soon gathered around him a large following. Having suffered considerable financial hardship during his student days, he gave preference to the poor students, especially those who were not in a position to pay for additional tuition. When he delivered lectures on hadith and fiqh, his students listened to him in absolute silence, and often the locals came along to hear him analyse and dissect hadith and aspects of fiqh in his unique and inimitable style. It was not long before his reputation spread in and around Baghdad. According to some historians, his lectures were attended by hundreds of students at a time. Unflustered by the mass attention he now received, Ahmad continued to lead a simple and ascetic lifestyle, far removed from the wealth and luxuries of this world.
If any of his well-wishers sent him any money or gifts, he gave them away to the poor and needy. On a number of occasions, the Caliph sent him parcels of gifts, but he refused to accept them. When his sons asked him why he refused to accept such gifts, he explained that giving and taking gifts was not unlawful per se; rather, it was perfectly acceptable – and even encouraged – to give and accept gifts, and he also stated that one could even perform hajj with money given as gift.
