who saw Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal!” 19.6
I asked the man if he had really seen Aḥmad.
“I prayed in his mosque,” he replied.
[Al-Qūmisī:] Two Zoroastrian women had a dispute over an inheritance and went to a scholar for arbitration. The scholar ruled against one woman, who said, “If you’ve judged according to what Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal would say, I accept; otherwise I don’t.” 19.7
The scholar replied that he had ruled as Ibn Ḥanbal would have, and the woman accepted the judgment.116
Al-Marrūdhī said: “I once saw a Christian doctor coming out of Aḥmad’s house with a priest or maybe a monk. I heard the doctor tell someone, ‘He asked to come with me so he could get a look at Aḥmad.’” 19.8
Al-Marrūdhī said: “I once brought a Christian to Aḥmad’s house to treat him. ‘Aḥmad,’ he told him, ‘I’ve been hoping to meet you for years. Your well-being concerns not only the Muslims but everyone else as well. You’ve never given any of us cause for complaint.’”
I said to Aḥmad, “If only everyone everywhere would pray for you.”
“So long as a man knows himself,” he replied, “it makes no difference what people say.”
[ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAdī:] I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣayrafī addressing students of the Shāfiʿī system as follows: “Take careful note of what happened to Ḥusayn al-Karābīsī and Abū Thawr. Ḥusayn was famous for his learning and his powers of retention, which were ten times greater than Abū Thawr’s. But when Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal objected to Ḥusayn’s view of utterance117 Ḥusayn lost his reputation, and when Aḥmad praised Abū Thawr for sticking to the sunnah, his reputation grew.” 19.9
[Ibn Rāhawayh:] I once went to see ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir, who said, “I’ve never seen anything like these Postponers!118 They’ll say, ‘My faith is as strong as Gabriel’s,’ but by God I don’t think it’s right even to say, ‘My faith is as strong as Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā’s, or Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s.’” 19.10
[Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā:] I’ve never seen generousity as meaningful as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s. I used to hear Hadith from him in the morning and dictate it to my students that same evening. 19.11
[Aḥmad:] I traveled to Sanaa in Yemen with Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn. We arrived around the time of the afternoon prayer and asked where ʿAbd al-Razzāq’s house was. They told us he lived in a village called al-Ramādah. I was so eager to meet him that I went on ahead, but Yaḥyā stayed behind. It wasn’t that far from Sanaa. As soon as I asked, they pointed out the house. But then when I went to knock on the door, a grocer across the street said, “Don’t knock; the shaykh is a terror.” 19.12
So I sat down to wait until it was almost time for the sunset prayer. When ʿAbd al-Razzāq came out to pray, I jumped up, holding out some Hadith I had chosen.
“Peace be upon you!” I said. “Will you recite these for me, please? I’ve come a long way.”
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”
When he heard that, he stopped and drew his shoulders together as if to make himself smaller. Then he turned back and embraced me. “Are you really Aḥmad?” he asked. He took the Hadith reports and started reading them, not stopping until it got too dark for him to see. He asked the grocer for a lamp and kept going until the time for the sunset prayer—which he usually performed at the last possible time—had passed.
[ʿAbd Allāh:] Whenever my father recalled learning that he had been praised in the presence of ʿAbd al-Razzāq, he would weep.
[Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Ḥaṭṭāb:] Back when many of the great men were still with us, I took some slips of paper and wrote down their names, one on each slip: Aswad ibn Sālim, Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and so on. Then I prayed two cycles and asked God, mighty and glorious, to choose one for me as an exemplar. I shuffled the slips and put them out of sight, then picked one. To my delight, it turned out to be Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. I prayed two more cycles, invoked God, and reshuffled the slips, and again it came out Aḥmad. When I tried it a third time the same thing happened. 19.13
HIS CREED
HIS POSITION ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF BELIEF
[Aḥmad:] Belief consists of what you say and what you do. It can increase or decrease. It is the only source of piety, and disobedience to God lessens it. 20.1
HIS POSITION ON THE QURʾAN
[Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm:] When asked about people who say that the Qurʾan is created, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal replied, “Anyone who says that is an Ingrate.”119 20.2
[Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm:] Asked about anyone who says that the Qurʾan is created, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal replied, “He’s an unbeliever,” using the participle.120 20.3
[Salamah ibn Shabīb:] I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal say that whoever says that the Qurʾan is created is an Ingrate. 20.4
[Al-Sarrāj:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about someone who says that the Qurʾan is created. 20.5
“He’s an Ingrate.”
“What about someone who says that the text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is a created thing?”
“He’s a follower of Jahm.”121
[Al-Kawsaj:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal what he thought of someone who called the Qurʾan created. 20.6
“He’s committed UN-BE-LIEF,” he answered, stressing each syllable.
[Al-ʿUkbarī:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal whether it was true that the Qurʾan is the speech of God, uncreated, and that it came from Him and goes back to Him. 20.7
He answered: “From Him came the knowledge of it, and to Him belongs the judgment concerning it.”122
[Ṣāliḥ:] I found out that Abū Ṭālib had been quoting my father as saying “The text of the Qurʾan, spoken aloud, is uncreated.” I told my father about this, and he asked how I knew. I told him I had heard it from So-and-So. 20.8
“Send for Abū Ṭālib,” he said.
I sent for him and he came, along with Fūrān.123
“Did I ever say to you that the text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is uncreated?” said my father, shaking with anger.
“I read «Say, He is God, the one»124 out loud and you said, ‘That’s not
