“I can’t think of anyone,” he replied, “except one young man out east,” meaning Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.
[The author:] A good many more reports like this will appear—God willing—in the course of this book.
TEACHERS AND SENIOR MEN OF LEARNING WHO CITE HIM73
These include: 11.1
MAʿRŪF AL-KARKHĪ
[Ibn Aktham:] I once heard Maʿrūf say, when Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was mentioned: “To me, Ibn Ḥanbal seemed a young man marked by devotion—one who could convey a great deal in a few words. Once I heard him say: ‘If you remember that you’ll be forgotten when you die, you’ll do good deeds and harm no one.’” 11.8
ASWAD IBN ʿĀMIR, KNOWN AS SHĀDHĀN
[Shādhān:] I sent a message to Abū ʿAbd Allāh—meaning Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—asking his permission to transmit the Hadith reported by Ḥammād, citing Qatādah, citing ʿIkrimah, citing Ibn ʿAbbās, citing the Prophet, God bless and keep him: “I saw my Lord, mighty and glorious …”74 11.9
Aḥmad told the messenger, “Tell him to go ahead. That report has been transmitted by learned men.”
ʿALĪ IBN AL-MADĪNĪ
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] My master Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal told me not to recite Hadith except from a written document. 11.16
ALL THE MEN OF LEARNING WHO CITE HIM75
WOMEN WHO TRANSMITTED ON HIS AUTHORITY
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s slave Ḥusn. Khadījah, Umm Muḥammad. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s cousin and wife Rayḥānah, the mother of his son ʿAbd Allāh. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s wife ʿAbbāsah bint al-Faḍl, the mother of his son Ṣāliḥ. Mukhkhah, sister of Bishr al-Ḥāfī. 12.57
PRAISE OF HIM BY HIS PEERS, HIS CONTEMPORARIES, AND THOSE CLOSE TO HIM IN AGE
MUḤAMMAD IBN IDRĪS AL-SHĀFIʿĪ (GOD BE PLEASED WITH HIM)
[Ḥarmalah ibn Yaḥyā:] I heard al-Shāfiʿī say: “I left behind me in Baghdad no one more scrupulous, more God-fearing,76 or more insightful in matters of law”—and I think he added “or more learned”—“than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.” 13.1
[Al-Shāfiʿī:] Three men of learning never cease to amaze me. One is Abū Thawr: even though he’s an Arab, he never uses grammatical inflections. The second is al-Ḥasan al-Zaʿfarānī: even though Arabic is not his first language, he never makes a mistake. The third is Ibn Ḥanbal: whatever he says, his elders believe. 13.2
[Al-Shāfiʿī:] No one I met back in Iraq was like Ibn Ḥanbal. 13.3
[Al-Shāfiʿī:] I have never seen anyone more self-restrained than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī. 13.4
ABŪ BAKR ʿABD ALLĀH IBN AL-ZUBAYR AL-ḤUMAYDĪ
[Al-Ḥumaydī:] So long as I’m in the Hijaz, Aḥmad’s in Iraq, and Isḥāq’s in Khurasan, we will never be defeated. 13.5
IBN ABĪ UWAYS
[Al-Baladī:] Once at Ibn Abī Uways’s house I heard him reply to a Hadith scholar who had remarked that there were no Hadith scholars left. 13.6
“As long as God spares Ibn Ḥanbal,” he said, “there will still be Hadith scholars.”
ʿALĪ IBN AL-MADĪNĪ
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] I have taken Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal as a guide in all my dealings with God. Who else is strong enough to do what he does? 13.7
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is our leader. 13.8
[Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl:] ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī came to us and we gathered around him and asked him to teach us some Hadith. 13.9
“My master,” he said, “is Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and he told me never to recite Hadith except from a written text.”77
[Muḥammad ibn ʿAbduwayh:] I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī say, at the mention of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: “I think he is greater than Saʿīd ibn Jubayr was in his time, since Saʿīd had peers but Aḥmad doesn’t,” or words to that effect. 13.10
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] No one I know has a better memory than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, but I’ve heard that even he won’t recite Hadith without a written text, and that’s the good example I intend to follow. 13.11
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] When I have a question, I’d rather ask Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal than Abū ʿĀṣim or ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd. Age doesn’t always make a man more learned. 13.12
[Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Khālid:] I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī say, when someone mentioned Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, “May God protect Aḥmad! He’s God’s living proof to His creatures of the truth of Islam.” 13.13
[ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī:] God, mighty and glorious, has exalted this religion of ours through two men who have no equal: Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, for what he did during the Apostasy, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, for what he did during the Inquisition.78 13.14
[Al-Maymūnī:] I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī say, “No one after God’s Emissary, God bless and keep him, has done for Islam what Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal did.” 13.15
“What about Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq?” I asked.
“No,” he answered. “Abū Bakr had friends and allies, but Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal didn’t.”
[Abū Yaʿlā l-Mawṣilī:] I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī say, “God, mighty and glorious, has exalted this religion of ours through two men who will have no equal until Judgment Day: Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, for what he did during the Apostasy, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, for what he did during the Inquisition.” According to another report of his words, he added, “Abū Bakr had friends and allies, but Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal didn’t.” 13.16
[Al-Madīni:] I’ve known Aḥmad for fifty years and he keeps getting better. 13.17
[Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd:] “How can you reproach me for admiring ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī when he’s my teacher?”79 13.18
[Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd:] “People reproach me for sitting with ʿAlī [ibn al-Madīnī], but I learn more from him than he does from me.” 13.19
ABŪ ʿUBAYD AL-QĀSIM IBN SALLĀM
[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] Knowledge of Hadith has come down to four men: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who understood it best; Ibn Abī Shaybah, who had the most retentive memory; ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, who knew the most; and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, who wrote down more of it than the others. 13.20
[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] Knowledge of Hadith has come down to four men: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, Yaḥyā ibn