The Life of Ibn Ḥanbal. Ibn al-Jawzi

CHAPTER 20

      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 created.’”

      “But why did you quote me as saying ‘The text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is uncreated’? Not only that: I hear you wrote this down and sent it to people. If you wrote it down, rub it out as hard as you can, and write to the people you 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