wrote to and tell them I never said that.”
Fūrān began apologizing, and finally left looking terrified. Abū Ṭālib came back to say that he had rubbed the words out of his notes and written a letter explaining that he had misquoted my father.
ON REPORTS OF GOD’S ATTRIBUTES125
[Aḥmad:] We transmit these reports as we find them. 20.9
[Aḥmad:] A believer who belongs to the people of sunnah and community should defer what he doesn’t understand to God. If he hears a Hadith report like “The people in the Garden will see their Lord,”126 he should believe it without trying to explain it. All men of learning everywhere are agreed on this. 20.10
HIS POSITION AGAINST DISPUTATION127 AND THOSE WHO ENGAGE IN IT
[ʿAbd Allāh:] My father once wrote the following to ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Yaḥyā ibn Khāqān: “I don’t engage in Disputation, and I don’t think one should talk about any of that unless it appears in Scripture or the Hadith of the Prophet, God bless and keep him. Talking about anything else is no good.” 20.11
[Aḥmad:] Don’t sit with Disputationists, even if they’re defending the sunnah.128 20.12
HIS POSITION ON THE HERESIES OF THE FOLLOWERS OF JAHM, THE PROPONENTS OF CREATED UTTERANCE, THE STOPPERS, AND THE PROPONENTS OF FREE WILL129
[Aḥmad:] The Proponents of Created Utterance are worse than the followers of Jahm. 20.13
Ibn al-Layth added: “I once heard someone ask Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about the Stoppers, and he said: ‘As far as I’m concerned, the Stoppers, the followers of Jahm, and the Proponents of Created Utterance are all equally bad.’” 20.14
[Aḥmad:] If you do the ritual prayer and the man next to you turns out to be a follower of Jahm, do it over. 20.15
[Salamah ibn Shabīb:] I went to see Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal to ask him what he thought of someone who says, “The Qurʾan is the speech of God.”130 20.16
“If he doesn’t say, ‘The Qurʾan is the speech of God, uncreated,’ then he’s an Ingrate.” He went on: “Have no doubt about it. If he doesn’t say, ‘The Qurʾan is the speech of God, uncreated,’ then he’s saying it’s created. And anyone who says it’s created has sinned against God, mighty and glorious.”
I asked him if the Stoppers were Ingrates.
“They are.”
[Aḥmad:] Anyone who says that the text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is a created thing131 is a follower of Jahm. 20.17
[ʿAbd Allāh:] I told my father that al-Karābīsī was saying that the Qurʾanic text spoken aloud is a created thing. 20.18
“He’s lying, the tricky bastard,” he said. “May God expose him! He’s taken up where Bishr al-Marīsī132 left off.”
[Aḥmad:] Have no doubt that a Stopper is an Ingrate. 20.19
[Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Hāniʾ:] Someone asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal whether it was allowed to perform the ritual prayer behind a leader who believes that the text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is a created thing. 20.20
“No praying behind him, no sitting with him, no talking to him, and no praying over him when he dies.”
[Aḥmad:] Scholars who are Secessionists133 are heretics.134 20.21
[Ṣāliḥ:] My father was asked whether it was permissible to pray behind a Proponent of Free Will. 20.22
“If he says that God doesn’t know what human beings are going to do until they do it, then no praying behind him; or behind a Rejectionist,135 either, if he criticizes the Prophet’s Companions.”
I also heard my father say: “The followers of Jahm have spilt into three groups. One says that the Qurʾan is a created thing. One says that it’s the speech of God, and stops there. And one says that the text of the Qurʾan read aloud is a created thing.”
“So we’re not allowed to talk to the Stoppers?”
“No.”
“But what if someone does talk to them?”
“Tell him not to. If he listens, then you can talk to him; but if he doesn’t, then you can’t.”
My father also said: “No praying behind anyone who says, ‘The Qurʾan is a created thing.’ If you’ve prayed behind someone like that, pray again. The same goes for Stoppers and Proponents of the Created Utterance.”
[Al-Balkhī:] I was once at Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s when a messenger came from the caliph to ask whether it was permissible to employ Muslim sectarians in state service. He replied that it was not. 20.23
“But we employ Jews and Christians! Why not sectarians?”
“The Jews and Christians don’t try to win people over, but the sectarians do.”
HIS POSITION ON THE RELATIVE MERITS OF THE PROPHET’S COMPANIONS136
[Al-Muṭṭawwiʿī:] I once heard someone ask Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about the relative merits of the Prophet’s Companions, and he answered, “They should be ranked according to the Hadith of Ibn ʿUmar.137 As far as the caliphate is concerned, the order is the one given in the Hadith of Safīnah: first Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, then ʿAlī.” 20.24
“Was that report transmitted by Ḥashraj?”
“No, by Ḥammād ibn Salamah.”
[The author:] This question arose because both Ḥammād ibn Salamah and Ḥashraj ibn Nubātah transmitted the Hadith of Safīnah, but Ḥashraj is of dubious reliability while Ḥammād ibn Salamah is an exemplar.
[ʿAbd Allāh:] I asked my father about the testimony that Abū Bakr and ʿUmar are in the Garden. He said, “It’s true. I follow the Hadith of Saʿīd ibn Zayd, which says, ‘I testify that the Prophet is in the Garden, and so are his nine Companions.’ And the Prophet, God bless and keep him, said, ‘The people in the Garden stand in a hundred and twenty rows, of which eighty are filled by members of my community.’ If his Companions aren’t included, then who would be?” 20.25
[Al-Maymūnī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said to me, “Abū l-Ḥasan, if you hear anyone saying anything bad about the Companions of the Prophet, God bless and keep him, then you should doubt his Islam.” 20.26
[Aḥmad:] When God’s Emissary, God bless and keep him, fell ill, he sent Abū Bakr to lead the ritual prayer even though there were others who were better readers. The point was to show who the caliph should be. 20.27
[Aḥmad:] The best member of this community, after the Prophet, was Abū Bakr
