target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_d5c54d94-474e-57da-8976-dd6e291b2755.jpg" alt="image"/> CHAPTER 13
PRAISE OF HIM BY HIS PEERS, HIS CONTEMPORARIES, AND THOSE CLOSE TO HIM IN AGE
MUḤAMMAD IBN IDRĪS AL-SHĀFIʿĪ (GOD BE PLEASED WITH HIM)
[Ḥarmalah ibn Yaḥyā:] I heard al-Shāfiʿī say: “I left behind me in Baghdad no one more scrupulous, more God-fearing,76 or more insightful in matters of law”—and I think he added “or more learned”—“than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.” 13.1
[Al-Shāfiʿī:] Three men of learning never cease to amaze me. One is Abū Thawr: even though he’s an Arab, he never uses grammatical inflections. The second is al-Ḥasan al-Zaʿfarānī: even though Arabic is not his first language, he never makes a mistake. The third is Ibn Ḥanbal: whatever he says, his elders believe. 13.2
[Al-Shāfiʿī:] No one I met back in Iraq was like Ibn Ḥanbal. 13.3
[Al-Shāfiʿī:] I have never seen anyone more self-restrained than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī. 13.4
ABŪ BAKR ʿABD ALLĀH IBN AL-ZUBAYR AL-ḤUMAYDĪ
[Al-Ḥumaydī:] So long as I’m in the Hijaz, Aḥmad’s in Iraq, and Isḥāq’s in Khurasan, we will never be defeated. 13.5
IBN ABĪ UWAYS
[Al-Baladī:] Once at Ibn Abī Uways’s house I heard him reply to a Hadith scholar who had remarked that there were no Hadith scholars left. 13.6
“As long as God spares Ibn Ḥanbal,” he said, “there will still be Hadith scholars.”
ʿALĪ IBN AL-MADĪNĪ
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] I have taken Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal as a guide in all my dealings with God. Who else is strong enough to do what he does? 13.7
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is our leader. 13.8
[Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl:] ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī came to us and we gathered around him and asked him to teach us some Hadith. 13.9
“My master,” he said, “is Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and he told me never to recite Hadith except from a written text.”77
[Muḥammad ibn ʿAbduwayh:] I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī say, at the mention of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: “I think he is greater than Saʿīd ibn Jubayr was in his time, since Saʿīd had peers but Aḥmad doesn’t,” or words to that effect. 13.10
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] No one I know has a better memory than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, but I’ve heard that even he won’t recite Hadith without a written text, and that’s the good example I intend to follow. 13.11
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] When I have a question, I’d rather ask Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal than Abū ʿĀṣim or ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd. Age doesn’t always make a man more learned. 13.12
[Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Khālid:] I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī say, when someone mentioned Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, “May God protect Aḥmad! He’s God’s living proof to His creatures of the truth of Islam.” 13.13
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] God, mighty and glorious, has exalted this religion of ours through two men who have no equal: Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, for what he did during the Apostasy, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, for what he did during the Inquisition.78 13.14
[Al-Maymūnī:] I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī say, “No one after God’s Emissary, God bless and keep him, has done for Islam what Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal did.” 13.15
“What about Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq?” I asked.
“No,” he answered. “Abū Bakr had friends and allies, but Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal didn’t.”
[Abū Yaʿlā l-Mawṣilī:] I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī say, “God, mighty and glorious, has exalted this religion of ours through two men who will have no equal until Judgment Day: Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, for what he did during the Apostasy, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, for what he did during the Inquisition.” According to another report of his words, he added, “Abū Bakr had friends and allies, but Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal didn’t.” 13.16
[Al-Madīni:] I’ve known Aḥmad for fifty years and he keeps getting better. 13.17
[Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd:] “How can you reproach me for admiring ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī when he’s my teacher?”79 13.18
[Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd:] “People reproach me for sitting with ʿAlī [ibn al-Madīnī], but I learn more from him than he does from me.” 13.19
ABŪ ʿUBAYD AL-QĀSIM IBN SALLĀM
[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] Knowledge of Hadith has come down to four men: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who understood it best; Ibn Abī Shaybah, who had the most retentive memory; ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, who knew the most; and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, who wrote down more of it than the others. 13.20
[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] Knowledge of Hadith has come down to four men: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, and Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah. Of the four, Aḥmad understood it best. 13.21
[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is our guide; it’s an honor for me to speak of him. 13.22
[Abū Bakr al-Athram:] We were at Abū ʿUbayd’s and I was debating with someone there. At one point the man asked me to name my authority for a report. 13.23
“The one who has no equal, east or west,” I replied.
“Who’s that?”
“Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”
“He’s right,” interjected Abū ʿUbayd. “There’s no one like him, east or west. I never met anyone who knew the sunnah better than he did.”
[Al-Maymūnī:] Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām said, “I’ve sat opposite Abū Yūsuf, the judge; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan”—as best I can remember, he added, “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Mahdī”—“but I was never more intimidated when discussing a question than I was with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.” 13.24
[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] One day I went to Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal’s. He seated me in the place of honor and took a lower seat for himself. 13.25
“Aḥmad,” I protested, “don’t they say the host should take the best seat?”
“What they mean,” he answered, “is that he can seat himself and his guests anywhere he wants.”
“That’s
