The Life of Ibn Ḥanbal. Ibn al-Jawzi

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 ibn Hilāl.

      “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal,” he said, “and Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Miṣrī.”

      MUḤAMMAD IBN YAḤĀ L-AZDĪ AL-BAṢRĪ

      [Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā l-Azdī:] We stand by the creed of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. He is our exemplar, the last one left to the believers. We accept him as our guide and will not go against him. He is the remnant of the learned men of old. We declare ourselves quit of anyone who opposes him; anyone who opposes him is a misdirected purveyor of reprehensible innovations. 13.83

      ABŪ HAMMĀM AL-WALĪD IBN SHUJĀʿ AL-SAKŪNĪ

      [Abū Hammām:] I’ve never seen anyone like Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, nor has Aḥmad met anyone like himself. 13.84

      ABŪ ʿUMAYR IBN AL-NAḤḤĀS AL-RAMLĪ AL-FALASTINĪ (OF PALESTINE)

      [Abū ʿUmayr, at the mention of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal:] May God have mercy on him! How long he suffered in silence, and how greatly did he resemble the first Muslims and approach the pious men of old! The world’s riches came within his reach, and he returned them; he was asked to embrace heresies, but he spurned them. 13.85

      [Abū Ḥātim:] Abū ʿUmayr ibn al-Naḥḥās al-Ramlī was a Muslim worshipper. One day I went to see him and he asked if I had anything copied from Ibn Ḥanbal. 13.86

      When I said I did, he asked me to dictate it. So I dictated to him the Hadith reports I had memorized after learning them from Aḥmad. Then he asked me to read them for him, and I did.⁹⁷

      MUḤAMMAD IBN IBRĀHĪM AL-BŪSHANJĪ

      [Al-Būshanjī:] I never met anyone so complete in his merits, or as self-restrained, as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 13.87

      [Al-Būshanjī:] In my view, he was worthier and more discerning than Sufyān al-Thawrī, who never suffered the same trials and hardships, and whose learning, like the learning of the earlier jurists of various regions, could not match Aḥmad’s. His learning was more comprehensive, and he knew more than Sufyān did about which transmitters were accurate and truthful and which ones were sloppy or mendacious. I was told that Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith said, “Aḥmad has done the work of a prophet.” The way I see it, Aḥmad endured two distinct ordeals. Four caliphs took their turn with him, some testing him by tormenting him, and others by tempting him, but he took strength in God, mighty and glorious, and prevailed. Al-Maʾmūn, al-Muʿtaṣim, and al-Wāthiq tried everything from flogging and imprisonment to threats and intimidation, but Aḥmad never wavered from true religion, nor did the lash or the dungeon sway his faith. Then came al-Mutawakkil, who showered him with tokens of esteem, and offered him the world, but he spurned it, remaining as he had always been, unmoved by ambition and unswayed by greed. Sufyān was never subjected to trials like these. Someone quoted al-Mutawakkil as saying, “Aḥmad won’t even let me send gifts to his sons!” 13.88

      ḤAJJĀJ IBN AL-SHĀʿIR

      [Ḥajjāj ibn al-Shāʿir:] I didn’t want to die in the path of God and I didn’t join the funeral prayer for Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.⁹⁸ 13.89

      [Ḥajjāj ibn al-Shāʿir:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was God’s blessing to this community: he stood firm on the Qurʾan. If he hadn’t, all of us would have perished. 13.90

      [Ḥajjāj ibn al-Shāʿir:] I once kissed Aḥmad on the forehead and told him that God had put him on a par with Sufyān and Mālik. I don’t think I could have said more, as Aḥmad surely outdid both of them as an exemplar of Islam. 13.91

      [Al-Qāsim ibn Naṣr:] Al-Marrūdhī once passed Ḥajjāj ibn al-Shāʿir, who rose respectfully and said, “Peace be upon you, servant of the righteous!” 13.92

      [Ḥajjāj ibn al-Shāʿir:] I never saw a living, breathing human being worthier than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 13.93

      [Abū Bakr ibn al-Muṭṭawwiʿī:] I heard Ḥajjāj ibn al-Shāʿir say, “I used to stay at Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s until late at night, and on the way home, I would weep”—or “I would start crying”—“because I couldn’t bear to be parted from him.” 13.94

      IBRĀHĪM IBN ʿARʿARAH

      [Abū Yaḥyā l-Nāqid:] We were at Ibrāhīm ibn ʿArʿarah’s and ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim’s name came up. Someone noted that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal called him a weak transmitter. Someone else responded, “But if he’s reliable, so what?” 13.95

      “By God,” interjected Ibrāhīm ibn ʿArʿarah, “if Aḥmad had criticized ʿAlqamah and al-Aswad, no one would trust them any more.”

      ISMĀʿĪL IBN KHALĪL

      [Ismāʿīl ibn Khalīl:] “If Aḥmad had lived among the Children of Israel, they would have taken him for a sign from God.” 13.96

      ʿALĪ IBN SHUʿAYB AL-ṬŪSĪ

      [Al-Ṭūsī:] We think of Ibn Ḥanbal as being like the ones God’s Emissary meant when he said, “In my community are men like those who lived among the Children of Israel. Nothing, not even the blade of a saw placed on the crown of their heads, could turn them from their religion.” If Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal hadn’t done what he did, then not a single man of those put into the crucible would have emerged from it, and the shame would remain until the Day of Resurrection. 13.97

      MUḤAMMAD IBN NAṢR AL-MARWAZĪ

      [Abū l-ʿAbbās ibn ʿUthmān ibn Salm:] I asked Muḥammad ibn Naṣr al-Marwazī whether he had met Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 13.98

      “I went to see him many times,” he answered, “and asked him questions.”

      “Who knew more Hadith?” someone asked. “Aḥmad or Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh?”

      “Aḥmad.”

      “Who was more accurate?” I asked.

      “Aḥmad.”

      Someone asked who had more legal insight.

      “Aḥmad.”

      “Who was more scrupulous?”

      “What kind of question is that?” cried Muḥammad ibn Naṣr. “Aḥmad was the most scrupulous man of his day.”

      ABŪ ʿUMAYR AL-ṬĀLQĀNĪ, CITING HIS TEACHERS

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