The Life of Ibn Ḥanbal. Ibn al-Jawzi

our rewards to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, our leader in Baghdad.” 13.59

      ABŪ THAWR

      [Al-Marrūdhī:] I was present when someone asked Abū Thawr about something and he answered, “Our teacher and authority, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, has addressed that question as follows …” 13.60

      [Abū Thawr:] “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is more learned and more understanding of the law than al-Thawrī.” 13.61

      [Abū Thawr:] If you were to say that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is among the saved, no one would rebuke you. Why not? If you go to Khurasan and the regions around, you’ll hear people saying that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is a good man. If you go to Syria and those parts, or Iraq, you’ll hear the same thing. So this is a matter of consensus, which wouldn’t be the case if even one person were to take issue with it. 13.62

      [Abū Thawr:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal always looked as if he could see the Law written on a tablet in front of him. 13.63

      ABŪ ʿABD ALLĀH MUḤAMMAD IBN YAḤYĀ L-DHUHLĪ

      [Al-Dhuhlī:] I have chosen Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal as my exemplar in all my dealings with God. 13.64

      [Al-Dhuhlī:] My exemplar is Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 13.65

      SUFYĀN IBN WAKĪʿ

      [Ibn Wakīʿ:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is the test: as far as we’re concerned, anyone who says anything against him is a sinner.⁹⁴ 13.66

      AḤMAD IBN ṢĀLIḤ AL-MIṢRĪ

      [Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ:] Nowhere in Iraq did I meet anyone to compare with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in Baghdad, or with Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr in Kufa. Both of them brought together more virtues than anyone else I saw. 13.67

      [Abū Bakr ibn Zanjuwayh:] When I went to Egypt, I met Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ, who asked me where I was from. I told him I was from Baghdad. 13.68

      “Do you live anywhere near Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal?” he asked.

      “I’m with him all the time,” I said.

      “Write down for me where your house is,” he said. “I want to come to Iraq so you can introduce me to him.”

      I wrote down what he asked, and he came and stayed with ʿAffān, and I introduced him to Aḥmad. The two of them exchanged Hadith, and Aḥmad recited a report that Ibn Ṣāliḥ insisted on copying down.

      “Let me get it from the book,” said Aḥmad. He went inside, came out with the book, and dictated the report.

      “If this is all I get out of coming to Iraq, it’ll be more than worth the trip,” said Ibn Ṣāliḥ. With that, he bid Aḥmad farewell and departed.

      ABŪ ʿUMAR HILĀL IBN AL-ʿALĀʾ AL-RAQQĪ

      [Al-Tirmidhī, al-Ṣābbāḥ, and al-Baghdādī:] We heard Hilāl ibn al-ʿAlāʾ al-Raqqī say, “There are four men who deserve to be recognized as blessings from God upon our community: Abū ʿUbayd, for explaining difficult Hadith reports; al-Shāfiʿī, for discerning the law in the Hadith; Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, for casting out false reports; and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, for standing firm during the Inquisition.” 13.69

      If not for Aḥmad, we’d all be Ingrates. (This remark was added by Ismāʿīl ibn al-ʿAbbās.)

      ABŪ ʿABD AL-RAḤMĀN AḤMAD IBN SHUʿAYB AL-NASĀʾĪ

      [Al-Nasāʾī:] The four greatest figures of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s time were ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, Aḥmad himself, and Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh. The one who knew the most about defects in transmission was ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī. The one who knew the transmitters best, and knew the most reports, was Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn. The one who most readily memorized reports and their legal implications was Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh. In my view, though, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal knew more about defects in transmission than Isḥāq did. Besides his knowledge of Hadith, Aḥmad also had all the virtues of legal insight, scrupulosity, and renunciation, and he could suffer without complaint. 13.70

      NAṢR IBN ʿALĪ

      [Naṣr ibn ʿAlī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was the greatest man of his time. 13.71

      ABŪ MAʿMAR ISMĀʿĪL IBN IBRĀHĪM AL-HUDHALĪ L-QAṬĪʿĪ

      [Bakr ibn Muḥammad:] It was thirty-four years ago, or even more, that I heard Abū Maʿmar say, “In the last fifty years, I never saw anyone like Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Even as a boy he kept going from strength to strength.” 13.72

      ʿAMR IBN MUḤAMMAD AL-NĀQID

      [ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-Nāqid:] So long as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal agrees with me on a Hadith report, I don’t care who disagrees. 13.73

      AḤMAD IBN AL-ḤAJJĀJ

      [Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥajjāj:] I never met anyone like Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Even if he had lived at the same time as Ibn al-Mubārak, I would still give him precedence. 13.74

      MUḤAMMAD IBN MIHRĀN AL-JAMMĀL

      [Al-Faḍl ibn Ziyād:] I once heard Muḥammad ibn Mihrān al-Jammāl say, at the mention of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: “He’s the only one, really. Whenever I cast my mind over the transmitters working in Mecca and Medina, he’s the one who stands out. If I think about Basra and Kufa, I come back to him. If I turn to Syria and northern Mesopotamia, again it’s him; and the same with Khurasan.” 13.75

      MUḤAMMAD IBN MUSLIM WĀRAH AL-QŪMISĪ

      [Muḥammad ibn Muslim Wārah al-Qūmisī:] The pillars of our religion are Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ in Egypt; in Baghdad, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal; in Ḥarrān, al-Nufaylī; and in Kufa, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr. 13.76

      [ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim:] I heard someone ask Muḥammad ibn Muslim ibn Wārah whether ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī or Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn had retained more Hadith. He replied, “ʿAlī could recite more fluently and accurately, while Yaḥyā had a better grasp of what was correct and what was doubtful. But better than both was Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, with his insight, his memory, and his knowledge.” 13.77

      ABŪ JAʿFAR ʿABD ALLĀH IBN MUḤAMMAD IBN ʿALĪ IBN NUFAYL AL-NUFAYLĪ

      [Al-Nufaylī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was a waymark of our religion. 13.78

      MUḤAMMAD IBN MUṢʿAB

      [Muḥammad ibn Muṣʿab:] Any of the lashes that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal bore for the sake of God is worth all the days of Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith. 13.79

      AL-ḤASAN IBN MUḤAMMAD IBN AL-ṢABBĀḤ AL-BAZZĀR

      [Abū Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥātim:] I heard my father say that whenever al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ heard that anyone had criticized Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, he would gather the senior men of learning and confront the offender. “He would turn people against him,” he said.⁹⁵ 13.80

      [Al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Bazzār:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is our elder and our master. 13.81

      YAʿQŪB IBN SUFYĀN

      [Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nihāwandī:] I heard Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān say that he had written down reports recited for him by a thousand different teachers but counted only two as authorities in his dealings with God. 13.82

      I asked him who his authorities were, recalling that he had copied reports from prominent authorities, such as al-Anṣārī and Ḥabbān⁹⁶