“Who’s that?”
“Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”
“He’s right,” interjected Abū ʿUbayd. “There’s no one like him, east or west. I never met anyone who knew the sunnah better than he did.”
[Al-Maymūnī:] Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām said, “I’ve sat opposite Abū Yūsuf, the judge; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan”—as best I can remember, he added, “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Mahdī”—“but I was never more intimidated when discussing a question than I was with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.” 13.24
[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] One day I went to Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal’s. He seated me in the place of honor and took a lower seat for himself. 13.25
“Aḥmad,” I protested, “don’t they say the host should take the best seat?”
“What they mean,” he answered, “is that he can seat himself and his guests anywhere he wants.”
“That’s worth remembering,” I told myself.
Then I said, “If I were to visit you as much as you deserve, I would come every day.”
“Don’t say that,” he warned. “I have close friends I see only once a year, but I trust them more than the people I see every day.”
“Another point to remember,” I thought.
When it was time to leave he rose with me. When I protested, he recited, “Al-Shaʿbī said: ‘A perfect host accompanies his guest to the door and holds his stirrups.’”
“Another lesson!” I thought.
He walked me all the way to the door and held my stirrups.
[Muḥammad ibn Abī Bishr:] I went to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal to ask him a question, and he told me, “Go ask Abū ʿUbayd; he has an explanation you won’t hear from anyone else.” 13.26
So I took the question to Abū ʿUbayd, who answered it to my satisfaction. Then I told him what Aḥmad had said about him.
“Cousin,” he replied, “there you see a man doing God’s work. I pray to God to spread the news of his good works far and wide in this world, and reward him with closeness to Him in the next! Have you seen how people are drawn to him? And how he makes them feel welcome and sets them at ease? No one else in Iraq brings together all the fine qualities he does. He is patient, knowledgeable, and perceptive. May God bless him in the use of the virtues He has given him!”
Then he said, “The poet who praised him put it well: 13.27
A joy it is to see his face, and proud
Is he who calls a man like him a friend.
Let learning barricade itself away:
Fear not, for he will draw it out again.
And when he sees injustice done, he speaks
Without a qualm, for God and all that’s right
And for his friends, the favored ones who know
The Law of God, and rise to scale the heights.”
YAḤYĀ IBN MAʿĪN
[Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn:] I’ve only seen three men teach Hadith expecting no reward but God’s good pleasure: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd, al-Qaʿnabī, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 13.28
[ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm:] I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn say that there are only four scholars you can trust—or only four true Hadith scholars—namely Wakīʿ, Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd, al-Qaʿnabī, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 13.29
[ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad:] Once when someone mentioned Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn say, “By God, I can’t do what Aḥmad does; I’m not strong enough.” 13.30
[Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn:] People wanted me to be like Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, but that’s impossible: I’ll never be like him. 13.31
[Al-Anmāṭī:] I was once sitting with Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, Abū Khaythamah, Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb, and other senior men of learning. When they began praising Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and describing his virtues, someone said, “Enough already! Don’t get carried away,” to which Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn replied, “As if one could go too far in praising Aḥmad! Even if we’d come here to do nothing but speak of his merits, we would still fail to recount them all.” 13.32
ABŪ KHAYTHAMAH ZUHAYR IBN ḤARB
[Abū Zurʿah:] I heard Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb say, “I’ve never seen anyone like Ibn Ḥanbal, or anyone tougher—to stand up the way he did, with people being flogged and executed.” He added, “No one stood up the way he did. He was persecuted and hounded all those years, but he stayed the course.” 13.33
ISḤĀQ IBN RĀHAWAYH
[Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yāsīn:] I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm say that he heard Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥanẓalī say, at the mention of Ibn Ḥanbal, “No one comes close.” 13.34
[Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq:] I heard my father say, “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is God’s sign to His worshippers on earth.” 13.35
[Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq:] I heard my father say, “If Aḥmad hadn’t laid his life on the line the way he did, Islam would have disappeared.” 13.36
BISHR IBN AL-ḤĀRITH THE BAREFOOT
[Ibn Khashram:] Someone asked Bishr about Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and I heard him reply, “Why should you care what someone like me has to say about Aḥmad? He went into the bellows and came out red gold.”80 13.37
[Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was put into the bellows and came out like a chunk of red gold. 13.38
[Ibn Khashram:] I heard Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith say “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was put into the bellows and came out like a chunk of red gold.” When Aḥmad learned of this, he said, “Thank God Bishr approves of what I did!” 13.39
[Al-Tammār:] When Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was flogged during the Inquisition, Bishr came to see me. “Abū Naṣr,” he said, “today that man has done what everyone else has failed to do. I hope God counts his learning in his favor.” 13.40
[Muḥammad ibn al-Shāh:] After the Inquisition was over, Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith was asked about Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and said, “He’s one of the exemplary leaders of Islam.” 13.41
[Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥārith:] When Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was flogged, Bishr’s associates said, “If only you had gone out and said, ‘I stand with Ibn Ḥanbal!’” 13.42
“Do you want me to do what the prophets did?”81 replied Bishr. “That’s what Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s doing.”
[Al-Asadī:] When Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was taken away to be flogged, people went to Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith and said, “They’ve taken Aḥmad and they’ve brought out the whips. You need to speak out.” 13.43
“Do you want me to do what the prophets did?” said Bishr. “I can’t. May God keep Ibn Ḥanbal safe from every danger!”
[ʿAbd Allāh:] Bishr was asked—when they were flogging Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—to say something, and he replied, “You’re asking me to stand where the prophets stood? That’s what Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is doing.” 13.44
[Al-Ṭabbāʿ:]