Biography of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal

To Isma'il ibn Moussa, and he said: what were you doing with this wicked man who insults the elders?

Ibn 'Adi reported it.

Then he said: he lengthened two hadiths from Malik, and was alone in hadiths from Charik: they only disapproved of his excess in Shi'ism.

And Ali ibn Ja'far said: Isma'il, son of the daughter of as-Soudi, informed us, and he said:

"I was in the circle of Malik: he was asked about an obligatory ruling, and he answered with the word of Zayd: I say: what have Ali and Ibn Mas'oud said, may Allah be pleased with them? he pointed then to the door: when they wanted to seize me, I left, and I rendered them powerless: they said: what shall we do with his books and his inkwell?

He said: seek him gently.

They came then to me: I went with them, and Malik said: where are you from?

I said: from Koufa.

He said: where then have you left courtesy?

I said: I only studied with you in order to draw benefit.

He said: the merit of Ali and Abdallah is certainly not disapproved; and the people of our city are upon the word of Zayd ibn Thabit: and when you are among a people, do not begin with what they do not know, lest they begin with what you disapprove of."

Isma'il al-Fazari died in the year two hundred and forty-five, and he was among the sons of the ninety: may Allah forgive him.

And died with him: Ahmad ibn 'Abda ad-Dabbi, Hicham ibn 'Ammar, Abou al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Muhammad an-Nabbal reciter of Mecca, Ishaq ibn Abi Isra'il, Ahmad ibn Nasr an-Naysabouri, Dhou an-Noun the Egyptian the preacher, Sawwar ibn Abdallah al-'Anbari, Abdallah ibn 'Imran al-'Abidi, Douhaym, Muhammad ibn Rafi', and Abou Tourab an-Nakhchabi the ascetic.

78 - Ahmad ibn Hanbal Abou Abdallah (a)

He is: the true imam, and the sheikh of Islam, the truthful, Abou Abdallah Ahmad ibn

Muhammad ibn Hanbal ibn Hilal ibn Asad ibn Idris ibn Abdallah ibn Hayyan ibn Abdallah ibn Anas ibn 'Awf ibn Qasit ibn Mazin ibn Chayban ibn Dhoul ibn Tha'laba ibn 'Oukaba ibn Sa'b ibn Ali ibn Bakr Wa'il, adh-Dhouhli, ach-Chaybani, al-Marwazi, then al-Baghdadi, one of the most eminent imams.

Thus he unfolded his genealogy: his son Abdallah, and al-Khatib relied upon it in "his Tarikh", and others.

And the hafiz Abou Muhammad ibn Abi Hatim said in the book "Manaqib Ahmad":

Salih ibn Ahmad narrated to us, who said: I found in the book of my father his genealogy: he unfolded it up to Mazin, as it has passed, then said: son of Houdayl ibn Chayban ibn Tha'laba ibn 'Oukaba: thus he spoke: Houdayl (and this is an error): and he added after Wa'il: son of Qasit ibn Hinb ibn Afsa ibn Dou'miyy ibn Jadila ibn Asad ibn Rabi'a ibn Nizar ibn Ma'add ibn 'Adnan ibn Oudd ibn Odad ibn al-Houmayssa' ibn Nabt ibn Qaydhar ibn Isma'il ibn Ibrahim, may the prayers of Allah be upon him.

And Abou al-Qasim al-Baghaoui said: Salih ibn Ahmad narrated to us: he mentioned the genealogy, and said in it: Dhoul, on the correct form.

And thus transmitted Ishaq al-Ghasili, from Salih.

As for the word of al-'Abbas ad-Douri and of Abou Bakr ibn Abi Dawoud: the imam Ahmad

is of Banu Dhoul ibn Chayban: this is an error: al-Khatib misled both of them, and said: he is only of Banu Chayban ibn Dhoul ibn Tha'laba.

Then he said: and Dhoul ibn Tha'laba is the paternal uncle of Dhoul ibn Chayban ibn Tha'laba.

It is therefore fitting to say in this: Ahmad ibn Hanbal adh-Dhouhli, without restriction.

And Abou Abdallah al-Boukhari attributed him to both together.

As for Ibn Makoula: despite his perspicacity in this matter, he erred too.

And he said in his genealogy: Mazin ibn Dhoul ibn Chayban ibn Dhoul ibn Tha'laba: and no one followed him on that.

And Muhammad, father of Abou Abdallah, was among the soldiers of Merv: he died a young man, being about thirty years old.

And Ahmad grew up an orphan: it has been said that his mother left Merv while she carried him in her womb.

Salih said: my father said to me: I was born in rabi' al-awwal, in the year one hundred and sixty-four.

Salih said: my father was brought, a woman in labor, from Merv: his father died a young man: his mother took charge of him.

And Abdallah ibn Ahmad, and Ahmad ibn Abi Khaythama said: he was born in rabi' al-akhir.

Hanbal said: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

"I sought the hadith in the year seventy-nine: I learned of the death of Hammad ibn Zayd while I was in the circle of Houchaym."

Salih said: my father said: my mother pierced my two ears: she put in them two pearls: when I grew up, I tore them out: they were at her place: then she gave them back to me: I sold them for about thirty dirhams.

Abou Dawoud said: I heard Ya'qoub ad-Dawraqi: I heard Ahmad say:

"I was born in the month of rabi' al-awwal, in the year one hundred and sixty-four."

His teachers

He sought knowledge when he was fifteen years old, in the year in which Malik and Hammad ibn Zayd died.

He thus heard from: Ibrahim ibn Sa'd, little.

And from: Houchaym ibn Bachir: he took the most of him, and made him unique.

And from: al-'Abbas ibn al-'Abbas al-Mouhallabi, Mou'tamir ibn Soulayman at-Taymi, Soufyan ibn 'Ouyayna al-Hilali, Ayyoub ibn an-Najjar, Yahya ibn Abi Za'ida, Ali ibn Hashim ibn al-Barid, Qourran ibn Tammam, 'Ammar ibn Muhammad ath-Thawri, the qadi Abou Youssouf, Jabir ibn Nouh al-Himmani, Ali ibn Ghourab the qadi, 'Omar ibn 'Oubayd at-Tanafisi, and his two brothers: Ya'la and Muhammad.

And from al-Mouttalib ibn Ziyad, Youssouf ibn al-Majichoun, Jarir ibn Abd al-Hamid, Khalid ibn al-Harith, Bichr ibn al-Moufaddal, al-'Abbas ibn al-'Awwam, Abou Bakr ibn 'Ayyach, Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman at-Toufawi, Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd as-Samad al-'Ammi, and 'Abida ibn Soulayman.

And from Yahya ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Abi Ghaniya, an-Nadr ibn Isma'il al-Bajali, Abou Khalid al-Ahmar, Ali ibn Thabit al-Jazari, Abou 'Oubayda the blacksmith, 'Abida ibn Houmayd the cobbler, Muhammad ibn Salama al-Harrani, Abou Mou'awiya the blind, and Abdallah ibn Idris.

And from Marwan ibn Mou'awiya, Goundar, Ibn 'Oulayya, Makhlad ibn Yazid al-Harrani, Hafs ibn Ghiyath, Abd al-Wahhab ath-Thaqafi, Muhammad ibn Foudayl, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Mouharibi, al-Walid ibn Mouslim, Yahya ibn Soulaym (a single hadith), Muhammad ibn Yazid al-Wasiti, and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Mouzani al-Wasiti.

And from Yazid ibn Haroun, Ali ibn 'Asim, Chou'ayb ibn Harb, Waki' (of whom he took the most), Yahya al-Qattan (in excess), Miskin ibn Boukayr, Anas ibn 'Iyad al-Laythi, Ishaq al-Azraq, Mou'adh ibn

Mou'adh, Mou'adh ibn Hicham, Abd al-A'la as-Sami, and Muhammad ibn Abi 'Adi.

And from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mahdi, Abdallah ibn Noumayr, Muhammad ibn Bichr, Zayd ibn al-Houbab, Abdallah ibn Bakr, Muhammad ibn Idris ach-Chafii, Abou 'Asim, Abd ar-Razzaq, Abou Nou'aym, 'Affan, and al-Houssayn ibn Ali al-Jou'fi.

And from Abou an-Nadr, Yahya ibn Adam, Abou Abd ar-Rahman the reciter, Hajjaj ibn Muhammad, Abou 'Amir al-'Aqadi, Abd as-Samad ibn Abd al-Warith, Rawh ibn 'Obada, Aswad ibn 'Amir, Wahb ibn Jarir, Younous ibn Muhammad, Soulayman ibn Harb, Ya'qoub ibn Ibrahim ibn Sa'd, and from countless others.

Down to descending, in the narration, from: Qoutayba ibn Sa'id, Ali ibn al-Madini, Abou Bakr ibn Abi Chayba, Haroun ibn Ma'rouf, and a group of his contemporaries.

The number of his teachers from whom he reports in the Moussnad is thus two hundred and eighty-six.

Abdallah said: my father narrated to me, and he said: Ali ibn Abdallah narrated to us: and that before the trial.

Abdallah said: and my father reported nothing of it after the trial.

I say: Abdallah means by this word that his father took nothing from him after the trial: otherwise, the hearing of Abdallah ibn Ahmad of the rest of the Moussnad book of his father took place after the trial by several years, around the year seven and eight and twenty and two hundred: and Abdallah heard nothing from his father nor from anyone else except after the trial: for in the days of the trial he was a discerning child, whose marriage could not yet have been heard (and Allah knows better).

Reported from him: al-Boukhari one hadith, and from Ahmad ibn al-Hasan another hadith of him in the campaigns.

And reported from him: Mouslim, and Abou Dawoud in abundance.

And reported: Abou Dawoud, an-Nasa'i, at-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah, from a man, from him.

And reported from him also his two sons: Salih and Abdallah, and his first cousin: Hanbal ibn Ishaq, and his teachers: Abd ar-Razzaq,

al-Hasan ibn Moussa al-Aschyab, and Abou Abdallah ach-Chafii: but ach-Chafii did not name him: he rather said: a trustworthy man of our Companions narrated to me.

And reported from him: Ali ibn al-Madini, Yahya ibn Ma'in, Douhaym, Ahmad ibn Salih, Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari, Muhammad ibn Yahya adh-Dhouhli, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim ad-Dawraqi, and Ahmad ibn al-Fourat.

And al-Hasan ibn as-Sabbah the cloth merchant, al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn as-Sabbah az-Za'farani, Hajjaj ibn ach-Cha'ir, Raja' ibn Mourajja, Salama ibn Chabib, Abou Qilaba ar-Raqachi, al-Fadl ibn Sahl the maimed, Muhammad ibn Mansour at-Tousi, Ziyad ibn Ayyoub, and al-'Abbas ad-Douri.

And Abou Zur'a, Abou Hatim, Harb ibn Isma'il al-Kirmani, Ishaq al-Kawsaj, Abou Bakr al-Athram, Ibrahim al-Harbi, Abou Bakr al-Marroudhi, Abou Zur'a the Damascene, Baqi ibn Makhlad, Ahmad ibn Asram al-Moughaffali, Ahmad ibn Mansour ar-Ramadi, Ahmad ibn Moullab, Ahmad ibn Abi Khaythama, Moussa ibn Haroun, Ahmad ibn Ali al-Abbar, Muhammad ibn Abdallah Mouṭayyan, and Abou Talib Ahmad ibn Houmayd.

And Ibrahim ibn Hani' an-Naysabouri, and his son: Ishaq ibn Ibrahim, Badr al-Maghazili, Zakariyya ibn Yahya an-Naqid, Youssouf ibn Moussa al-Harbi, Abou Muhammad Fouran, 'Oubdous ibn Malik the grocer, Ya'qoub ibn Boukhtan, Mouhanna ibn Yahya the Syrian, Hamdan ibn Ali the copyist, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad the qadi al-Birti.

And al-Houssayn ibn Ishaq at-Toustari, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn al-Harith al-Asbahani, Ahmad ibn Yahya Tha'lab, Ahmad ibn al-Hasan ibn Abd al-Jabbar the sufi, Idris ibn Abd al-Karim the blacksmith, 'Omar ibn Hafs as-Sadoussi, Abou Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Bouchanji, and Muhammad ibn Abd

ar-Rahman as-Sami, Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Baghaoui, and many others than them.

And Abou Muhammad al-Khallal moreover gathered part of it in the naming of the reporters of Ahmad: we heard it from al-Hasan ibn Ali, from Ja'far, from as-Silafi, from Ja'far as-Sarraj, from him: and he counted in it Waki' ibn al-Jarrah and Yahya ibn Adam.

Al-Khatib said in the book "as-Sabiq": Abou Sa'id as-Sayrafi informed us: al-Asamm narrated to us: ar-Rabi' narrated to us: ach-Chafii informed us: the trustworthy man of our Companions informed us, from Yahya ibn Sa'id, from Shou'ba, from Qays ibn Mouslim, from Tariq:

that 'Omar said: the spoils are only for the one who attended the meeting.

Ibn Abi Hatim said: Abou Zur'a informed us:

that Ahmad was of Basrian origin, and his residence at Merv: and Salih narrated to us: I heard my father say:

"Houchaym died: I therefore departed to Koufa in the year eighty-three: and my first going up to Bassora was in the year six: and I departed to Soufyan in the year seven: we arrived then, and al-Foudayl ibn 'Iyad had already died.

And I performed five pilgrimages, of which three on foot: I spent in one of them thirty dirhams.

Ibn al-Moubarak arrived in the year seventy-nine: and that was my first hearing of Houchaym: I went then to the circle of Ibn al-Moubarak: they said: he has departed to Tarsous: and I had written from Houchaym more than three thousand hadiths.

And if I had had fifty dirhams, I would have departed to Jarir at ar-Rayy (I say: he heard hadiths from him)."

He said: and I heard my father say: "I wrote from Ibrahim ibn Sa'd on tablets, and I prayed behind him more than once: he greeted only once."

And Ibn Mahdi reported from Ahmad among his teachers.

I read before Isma'il ibn al-Farra: Ibn Qoudama informed us: al-Moubarak ibn

Khoudayr informed us: Abou Talib al-Youssoufi informed us: Ibrahim ibn 'Omar informed us: Ali ibn Abd al-Aziz informed us: Ibn Abi Hatim narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Sinan narrated to us: I heard Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mahdi say:

"Ahmad ibn Hanbal was at my place, and said: we have pondered on that in which Waki' contradicted you, or on that in which Waki' contradicted the people: and behold, it is sixty-seven hadiths."

Reported Salih ibn Ahmad, on the authority of his father, who said:

"Houchaym died when I was twenty years old: and I memorized what I had heard from him."

His physical description

Ibn Dharih al-'Oukbari said: I sought Ahmad ibn Hanbal: I greeted him: he was an old dyed man, tall, dark, very dark.

Ahmad said: I heard from Ali ibn Hashim in the year seventy-nine: I came to him the following circle: he was dead.

And that is the year in which Malik died: and I resided at Mecca in the year one hundred and ninety-seven: and I resided with Abd ar-Razzaq in the year one hundred and ninety-nine.

And I saw Ibn Wahb at Mecca: and I wrote nothing from him.

Muhammad ibn Hatim said: Hanbal, grandfather of the imam, left an estate at Sarakhs: and he was among the sons of the preaching: it was narrated to me that al-Moussayyab ibn Zouhayr struck him at Boukhara for having incited the soldiers to sedition.

And from the grammarian Muhammad ibn al-'Abbas, who said:

"I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal of handsome face, stocky, dyeing himself with henna with a dye that was not reddish: in his beard black hairs: and I saw his clothes thick and white: and I saw him by night, and he wore an izar."

And al-Marroudhi said: I saw Abou Abdallah: when he was in the house, his ordinary posture was sitting, legs folded, humble.

When he was outside, the intensity of his concentration was not discerned: and I would enter while the portion of the Quran was in his hand, and he was reading.

His travels and his memorization

Salih said: I heard my father say:

"I departed to Koufa: I was in a house having under my head a brick: I performed the pilgrimage, and I returned to my mother, without having asked her permission."

And Hanbal said: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

"I married when I was forty years old: Allah then granted much good."

Abou Bakr al-Khallal said in the book "Akhlaq Ahmad" (and it is bound):

"dictated to me Zouhayr ibn Salih ibn Ahmad, who said: my grandfather married 'Abbasa bint al-Fadl, of the Arabs: he fathered from her only my father; then she died: he then married Rayhana, who bore Abdallah, my uncle; then she died: he bought Husn: she bore Oumm Ali Zaynab, and bore al-Hasan and al-Houssayn twins, who died near their birth: then she bore al-Hasan and Muhammad, who lived until reaching about forty years: then she bore Sa'id."

It has been said that the mother of Abdallah was one-eyed, and she remained with him for years.

Al-Marroudhi said: Abou Abdallah said to me: I went to the school, then I went to the diwan, when I was fourteen years old.

And al-Khallal mentions accounts on the spirit of Ahmad and his life at school, and his piety in his youth.

Al-Marroudhi narrated to us: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

"Houchaym died and I was twenty years old: I departed then, I and the Bedouin (a companion whom Abou Abdallah had), who said:

we departed then on foot, and we reached Koufa (he means: in the year eighty-three): we came then to Abou Mou'awiya, and the people were with him: he gave the Bedouin a certificate for sixty dirhams: he departed then, and left me alone in a house: I was afraid, and there was with me only a waterskin in which were my books: I would set it on a brick, and set my head upon it.

And I disputed with Waki' over the hadith of ath-Thawri: he mentioned once a thing, and said: is this one with Houchaym?

I said: no.

And it happened that he mentioned the ten hadiths: I memorized them: when he stood up, they said to me: I then dictated them to them."

And Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: my father said to me:

"take whichever book you want among the books of Waki' of the work: if you want to question me on the text until I inform you of the chain; and if you want of the chain, until I inform you of the text."

And Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: I heard Soufyan ibn Waki' say:

"I have memorized from your father one question for about forty years."

He was asked about the divorce before the marriage: he said: it is reported from the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and from Ali, and from Ibn Abbas, and from twenty-six Successors who saw no harm in it.

I questioned then my father about that, and he said: he spoke true: this is what I said.

He said: and I retained that I heard Abou Bakr ibn Hammad say:

"I heard Abou Bakr ibn Abi Chayba say: one does not say to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: from where do you say?"

And I heard Abou Isma'il at-Tirmidhi mention from Ibn Noumayr, who said:

"I was at Waki's place: a man came to him (or he said: a group) of the companions of Abou Hanifa: they said to him: here is a man of Baghdad who speaks about some of the Koufiotes: Waki' did not know him: and while we were there,

Ahmad ibn Hanbal appeared: they said: here he is.

Waki' said: here he is, O Abou Abdallah.

They made room then for him, and began to mention with Abou Abdallah that which they disapproved.

And Abou Abdallah began to argue by the hadiths of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

They said to Waki': this one is in your presence: do you see what he says?

He said: a man who says: the Messenger of Allah said: what would I say to him?

Then he said: the word is only as you have said, O Abou Abdallah.

The people said to Waki': the Baghdadian has deceived you, by Allah."

'Arim said: Ahmad deposited with me his subsistence: I said to him one day: O Abou Abdallah, it has reached me that you are of the Arabs.

He said: O Abou an-Nou'man, we are a poor people.

And he did not cease pleading with me until going out: and he said nothing to me.

Al-Khallal said: al-Marroudhi informed us that Abou Abdallah said: I did not marry until after forty years.

And from Ahmad ad-Dawraqi, from Abou Abdallah, who said:

"we wrote the hadith from six faces, and seven did not fix it: how would the one who wrote it from a single face fix it?!"

Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: Abou Zur'a said to me: your father memorizes a million hadiths.

It was said to him: and how do you know it?

He said: I disputed with him: and I fixed for him the chapters.

This account is thus authentic on the extent of the knowledge of Abou Abdallah: and they counted in that repeated, the tradition, the fatwa of the Successor, the interpreted, and of such genre.

Otherwise, the elevated, strong texts do not reach the tenth of the twentieth of that.

Ibn Abi Hatim said: Sa'id ibn 'Amr said: O Abou Zur'a, who is the most memorizing: you or Ahmad?

He said: rather Ahmad.

I said: how have you known it?

He said: I saw his books: at the beginning of the parts there are not the names of those who had narrated them: he thus memorized each part according to those from whom he had heard it: and I cannot do that.

And from Abou Zur'a, who said: the books of Ahmad were counted the day of his death: they reached twelve loads and balances: there was not on the back of any book: the hadith of so-and-so, nor in its belly: so-and-so narrated to us: all of that he memorized it.

And al-Hasan ibn Mounabbih said: I heard Abou Zur'a say:

"Abou Abdallah brought out to me parts: all of them: Soufyan, Soufyan: on no hadith of them: so-and-so narrated to us: I believed then that they were from a single man: and I made my choice from them.

When he read that to me, he began to say: Waki' narrated to us, and Yahya, and so-and-so narrated to us: I was astonished then, and I could not do that."

Ibrahim al-Harbi said: I saw Abou Abdallah: as if Allah had gathered for him the knowledge of the ancients and the moderns.

And from a man, who said: I never saw more knowledgeable than Ahmad in the fiqh of the hadith and its meanings.

Ahmad ibn Salama: I heard Ibn Rahawayh say:

"I frequented Ahmad and Ibn Ma'in: we recalled to ourselves: I said: what is his fiqh? what is his interpretation?

They fell silent then, except Ahmad."

Abou Bakr al-Khallal said: Ahmad had written the books of opinion and memorized them: then he no longer turned to them.

Ibrahim ibn Chammach said: we asked Waki' about Kharidja ibn Mouss'ab: he said: Ahmad forbade me to report from him.

Al-'Abbas ibn Muhammad al-Khallal said: Ibrahim ibn Chammach narrated to us: I heard

Waki' and Hafs ibn Ghiyath say both:

"never came to Koufa the like of this young man": both speak of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

It has been said that Ahmad came to al-Houssayn al-Jou'fi with a large book to intercede for Ahmad: al-Houssayn said: O Abou Abdallah, do not put between you and me a benefactor: no one commended me to him without you being greater than him.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi narrated to us: Khoudr al-Marroudhi informed us at Tarsous: I heard Ibn Rahawayh: I heard Yahya ibn Adam say: Ahmad ibn Hanbal is our imam.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn Ali narrated to us: al-Athram narrated to us: some of those who were with Abou Abdallah narrated to me:

that they gathered at Yahya ibn Adam's place: and the debate between Ahmad and Yahya ibn Adam turned them away from the hadith: and the voice rose between the two of them: and Yahya ibn Adam was one of the singular men of his time in fiqh.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi informed us: I heard Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Qattan say:

"I saw my father magnify Ahmad ibn Hanbal: he indeed gave him his books (or he said: his hadith)."

And al-Qawariri said: Yahya al-Qattan said:

"never happened to us the like of these two: Ahmad and Yahya ibn Ma'in: and nothing of what happened to me from Baghdad is dearer to me than Ahmad ibn Hanbal."

And Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: I heard my father say:

"that grieved Yahya ibn Sa'id the day I departed from Bassora."

Amr ibn al-'Abbas: I heard Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mahdi (he mentions the people of the hadith) and said: the most knowledgeable of them in the hadith of ath-Thawri is Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

He said: Ahmad then came forward

and Ibn Mahdi said: whoever wants to look at what is between the two shoulder blades of ath-Thawri, let him look at this one.

Al-Marroudhi said: Ahmad said: "I was occupied with the hadith of Soufyan until I had written it from two men: until Yahya ibn Adam addressed us a word: and al-Achja'i addressed us a word: he would bring out to us the books, and we wrote without hearing."

And from Ibn Mahdi, who said: I never looked at Ahmad without recalling by him Soufyan.

Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: I heard my father say:

"Waki' contradicted Ibn Mahdi on about sixty hadiths of the hadith of Soufyan: I mentioned that to Ibn Mahdi: and he reported it from me."

Al-'Abbas ad-Douri: I heard Abou 'Asim say to a Baghdadian man:

"whom do you count today, among you, of the people of the hadith?

He said: we have Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Ma'in, Abou Khaythama, al-Mou'ayti, as-Souwaydi ..., until he counted him a group at Koufa also, and at Bassora.

Abou 'Asim said: I saw all those whom you mentioned, and they came to me: I never saw the like of this young man (he speaks of Ahmad ibn Hanbal)."

Chouja' ibn Makhlad said: I heard Abou al-Walid at-Tayalisi say:

"in the two sanctuaries there is no man nobler in my eyes than Ahmad ibn Hanbal."

And Soulayman ibn Harb said to a man: "ask Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and what he says on such question: for he is, in our eyes, an imam."

Al-Khallal: Ali ibn Sahl narrated to us, and he said:

"I saw Yahya ibn Ma'in at 'Affan's place, with him Ahmad ibn Hanbal: he said: there is here today no hadith.

Yahya said: you turn away Ahmad ibn Hanbal, while he has come to you?

He said: the door is closed, and the maidservant is not here.

Yahya said: it is I who open.

He spoke then on the lock with something, and opened it: 'Affan said: another juggler! and he narrated to them."

He said: and al-Marroudhi narrated to us: I say to Ahmad: "were you struck unconscious (or: betrayed) at Ibn 'Ouyayna's place?"

He said: "yes, in his vestibule: the people pressed me: I thus fainted."

And it was reported that Soufyan said that day: "how to report, while the best of people has died?"

And Mouhanna ibn Yahya said: I saw Ibn 'Ouyayna, and Waki', and Baqiyya, and Abd ar-Razzaq, and Damra, and the people: I never saw a man more complete than Ahmad in his knowledge, his detachment and his piety: and he mentions things.

And Nouh ibn Habib al-Qoumsi said: I greeted Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the year one hundred and ninety-eight, at the mosque of al-Khayf, while he was issuing extended fatwas.

And from an old man: that he had at his place a book from the hand of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and he said:

"we were at Ibn 'Ouyayna's place one year: then I missed Ahmad ibn Hanbal for days: I was shown then his place: I came: and behold him in a kind of cave among the horses: I said: the salam upon you: may I enter?

He said: no.

Then he said: enter.

I fell upon him a worn woolen cover,

I said: why have you veiled yourself from me?

He said: until I had covered myself.

I said: what is with you?

He said: my clothes were stolen.

He said: I hastened then to my dwelling: I came to him with a hundred dirhams: I presented them to him: he refused: I said: as a loan.

He refused until I reached twenty dirhams: and he refused: I stood up then, and said: it is not lawful for you to kill yourself.

He said: come back.

I came back then, and he said: did you not hear with me from Ibn 'Ouyayna?

I said: yes.

He said: would you like me to copy it for you?

I said: yes.

He said: buy me some paper.

He said: he wrote for dirhams with which he clothed himself with two garments.

Al-Hakim: I heard at Baghdad Bakran ibn Ahmad al-Hanzali the ascetic: I heard Abdallah ibn Ahmad: I heard my father say:

"I arrived at San'a, I and Yahya ibn Ma'in: I went to Abd ar-Razzaq in his village: and Yahya stayed: when I departed, I knocked at the door: a grain merchant in front of his house said to me: stop, do not knock: for the old man is feared.

I sat then until it was before the maghreb: he came out: I sprang toward him, and in my hands hadiths that I had selected: I greeted, and said: narrate to me then these, may Allah have mercy on you: for I am a foreign man.

He said: and who are you?

And he looked at me insistently: I said: I am Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

He said: he humbled himself then, received me with him, and said: by Allah, are you Abou Abdallah?

Then he took the hadiths and began to read them until the night.

He said to the grain merchant: bring the lamp: until the hour of the maghreb came out: and Abd ar-Razzaq delayed the prayer of the maghreb."

Al-Khallal: ar-Ramadi narrated to us: I heard Abd ar-Razzaq: and he mentions Ahmad ibn Hanbal: his two eyes shed tears, and he said:

"it reached me that his subsistence ran out: I took then his hand, and established him behind the door: and there was no one at our place: I said to him: the dinars do not gather at our place: when we sell the harvest, we occupy it in something: and I found with the women ten dinars: take them: and I hope that you will not spend them before something has been prepared."

He said to me: O Abou Bakr, if I had accepted from anyone a thing, I would have accepted it from you.

And Abdallah said: I say to my father: it has reached me that Abd ar-Razzaq presented you dinars?

He said: yes: and Yazid ibn Haroun gave me five hundred dirhams (I believe): I did not accept: and he gave to Yahya ibn Ma'in and to Abou Mouslim: and they took from him.

And Muhammad ibn Sahl ibn 'Askar said: I heard Abd ar-Razzaq say:

"if this man lives, he will be a Successor among the scholars."

Al-Marroudhi: narrated to me Abou Muhammad an-Nasa'i: I heard Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, who said:

"we were at Abd ar-Razzaq's place, I and Ahmad ibn Hanbal: we departed then with him to the place of prayer the day of the feast: and he did not say the takbir, nor I, nor Ahmad.

He said to us: I saw Ma'mar and ath-Thawri this very day say the takbir: and I saw you not say the takbir: I therefore did not say the takbir: why did you not say the takbir?

We say: we see the takbir: but we were occupied with what to begin of the books."

Abou Ishaq al-Jawzajani said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal prayed behind Abd ar-Razzaq: he forgot: Abd ar-Razzaq asked him: he was informed that he had eaten nothing for three days.

Al-Khallal reported it, and said: I heard the qadi Abou Zur'a the Damascene, from al-Jawzajani.

Al-Khallal said: Abou al-Qasim ibn al-Jabbouli narrated to us, from Abou Isma'il at-Tirmidhi, from Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, who said:

"I was with Ahmad ibn Hanbal at Abd ar-Razzaq's place: and I had a maidservant: and we dwelt above: and Ahmad below in the house.

He said to me: O Abou Ya'qoub, it pleases me what I hear of your movements.

He said: and I looked: and I saw him make wooden measures, and sell them: and he lived from that: this or of the kind."

Al-Marroudhi said: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

"I was in my izar, from the Yaman to Mecca: he said: did you hire yourself out to the cameleers?

He said: I hired myself out for my books: and he did not say no."

And from Isma'il ibn 'Oulayya: that the prayer was readied: he said: here is Ahmad ibn Hanbal: tell him to come forward and pray for us.

And al-Athram said: an old man informed me, having heard anciently Abdallah ibn al-Moubarak, and he said:

"we were at Ibn 'Oulayya's place: some of us laughed, and Ahmad was there.

He said: we came then to Isma'il: and we found him angry.

He said: do you laugh while Ahmad ibn Hanbal is at my place!"

Al-Marroudhi said: Abou Abdallah said to me:

"we were at Yazid ibn Haroun's place: he erred on a thing: I spoke to him about it: he brought out then his book, and found it as I had said: he corrected it: when he sat down, he said:

O son of Hanbal, come near: O son of Hanbal, come near, here he is.

And I fell ill: he visited me: the door struck him."

Al-Marroudhi: I heard Ja'far ibn Maymoun ibn al-Asbagh: I heard my father say:

"we were at Yazid ibn Haroun's place: and with him were al-Mou'ayti, and Abou Khaythama, and Ahmad: and Yazid, may Allah have mercy on him, was jesting: al-Mou'ayti disputed with him over a thing.

Yazid said to him: I have failed you: Ahmad coughed: he turned toward him, and said: who then?

They said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

He said: did you not then inform me that he is here?

Al-Marroudhi said: I heard some of the Wasitians say:

"I never saw Yazid ibn Haroun abandon jesting for anyone except Ahmad ibn Hanbal."

Ahmad ibn Sinan al-Qattan said: I never saw Yazid magnify anyone more strongly than Ahmad ibn Hanbal, nor honor anyone like him: he seated him at his side, venerated him, and did not jest with him.

And Abd ar-Razzaq said: I never saw more faqih nor more pious than Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

I say: this one said it, while he had seen the like of ath-Thawri, Malik and Ibn Jurayj.

And Hafs ibn Ghiyath said: never came to Koufa the like of Ahmad.

And Abou al-Yaman said: I compared Ahmad to Arta'a ibn al-Moundhir.

And al-Haytham ibn Jamil the hafiz said: if Ahmad lives, he will be a proof against the people of his time.

And Qoutayba said: "the best of the people of our time is Ibn al-Moubarak: then this young man (he speaks of Ahmad ibn Hanbal): and when you see a man who loves Ahmad, know that he is a man of sunna.

And had he reached the time of ath-Thawri, of al-Awza'i and of al-Layth, he would be the one among them whom one would prefer."

It is said to Qoutayba: is Ahmad attached to the Successors?

He said: to the great ones of the Successors.

And Qoutayba said: without ath-Thawri, piety would have died; and without Ahmad, they would have innovated in the religion: Ahmad is the imam of the world.

I say: Ahmad reported in his Moussnad much of Qoutayba.

And it is said to Abou Mouhir al-Ghassani: do you know who memorizes for the community the order of its religion?

He said: a young man in the region of the east (he speaks of Ahmad).

Al-Mouzani said: ach-Chafii said to me: I saw at Baghdad a young man: when he said: he narrated to us, all the people said: he spoke true.

I said: and who is he?

He said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

And Harmala said: I heard ach-Chafii say:

"I departed Baghdad: I did not leave there a man more excellent, nor more knowledgeable, nor more faqih, nor more fearing Allah than Ahmad ibn Hanbal."

And az-Za'farani said: ach-Chafii said to me:

"I never saw more intelligent than Ahmad, and Soulayman ibn Dawoud al-Hashimi."

Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Rahawayh said: my father narrated to me, and he said:

Ahmad ibn Hanbal said to me: "come, that I show you the one whose like was never seen: he led me then to ach-Chafii."

My father said: "and ach-Chafii never saw the like of Ahmad ibn Hanbal."

And without Ahmad and his sacrifice, Islam would have gone away (he speaks of the trial).

And it was reported from Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, who said: Ahmad is a proof between Allah and His creation.

And Muhammad ibn 'Oubdouwayh said: I heard Ali ibn al-Madini say:

"Ahmad is better in my eyes than Sa'id ibn Joubayr in his time: for Sa'id had equals."

And from Ibn al-Madini, who said: Allah magnified the religion by the Truthful the day of the apostasy, and by Ahmad the day of the trial.

And Abou 'Oubayd said: knowledge stopped at four: Ahmad ibn Hanbal (and he is the most faqih of them) ..., and he mentions the account.

And Abou 'Oubayd said: I devote myself by the mention of Ahmad: I never saw a man more knowledgeable of the sunna than him.

And al-Hasan ibn ar-Rabi' said: I never compared Ahmad ibn Hanbal except to Ibn al-Moubarak, in his height and his bearing.

At-Tabarani: Muhammad ibn al-Houssayn al-Anmati narrated to us, and he said:

"we were in a circle in which were Yahya ibn Ma'in and Abou Khaythama: they began to praise Ahmad ibn Hanbal: a man said: and part of that.

Yahya said: and is the multitude of the praise of Ahmad disapproved! if we held our circles by the praise of him, we would not mention his merits completely."

And al-'Abbas reported from Ibn Ma'in, who said: I never saw the like of Ahmad.

And an-Noufayli said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal was among the banners of the religion.

And al-Marroudhi said: I attended Abou Thawr: he was asked about a question: he said:

"said Abou Abdallah Ahmad ibn Hanbal, our sheikh and our imam in this: such and such."

And Ibn Ma'in said: I never saw who reported for Allah except three: Ya'la ibn 'Oubayd, al-Qa'nabi, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

And Ibn Ma'in said: they wanted that I be the like of Ahmad: by Allah, I will never be his like.

And Abou Khaythama said: I never saw the like of Ahmad, nor firmer of heart than him.

And Ali ibn Chachram said: I heard Bichr ibn al-Harith say:

"I, would I be asked about Ahmad ibn Hanbal?! Ahmad was put in the furnace, and he came out of it red gold."

And Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: the companions of Bichr al-Hafi said to him, when my father was beaten:

"if you went out and said: I am upon the word of Ahmad...

He said: do you want that I occupy the place of the prophets?!"

Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad the goldsmith: I heard al-Marroudhi say:

"I entered upon Dhou an-Noun in prison, and we were at al-'Askar: he said: what is the situation of our master?

He speaks of Ahmad ibn Hanbal."

And Muhammad ibn Hammad at-Tahrani said: I heard the faqih Abou Thawr say:

"Ahmad ibn Hanbal is more knowledgeable (or more faqih) than ath-Thawri."

And Nasr ibn Ali al-Jahdami said: Ahmad is the best of the people of his time.

Salih ibn Ali al-Halabi said: I heard Abou Hammam as-Sakouni say:

"I never saw the like of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and he himself never saw his like."

And from Hajjaj ibn ach-Cha'ir, who said: I never saw better than Ahmad: and I would not like to be killed in the path of Allah without having prayed upon Ahmad: he reaches, by Allah, in the imamate greater than what Soufyan and Malik were.

And 'Amr an-Naqid said: if Ahmad ibn Hanbal agrees with me on a hadith, I do not care about who contradicts me.

Ibn Abi Hatim said: I asked my father about Ali ibn al-Madini and Ahmad ibn Hanbal: which of the two has the better memory?

He said: the two were close in memorization, and Ahmad was more faqih: when you see one who loves Ahmad, know that he is a man of the sunna.

And Abou Zur'a said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal is greater than Ishaq and more faqih: I never saw anyone more complete than Ahmad.

And Muhammad ibn Yahya adh-Dhouhli said: I made Ahmad an imam between me and Allah.

And Muhammad ibn Mihran the camel-driver said: there remains none but Ahmad.

The imam of imams Ibn Khuzayma said: I heard Muhammad ibn Sahtouwayh: I heard Abou 'Oumayr ibn an-Nahhas ar-Ramli: and he mentions Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and said:

"may Allah have mercy on him: with this world, how patient he was! and with the departing, how he resembled them! and with the virtuous, how near he was to them! this world was presented to him: he refused it: and innovations: he rejected them."

Abou Hatim said: Abou 'Oumayr was among the worshippers of the Muslims.

He said to me: dictate to me then something of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

And he related from Abou Abdallah al-Bouchanji, who said:

"I never saw anyone more complete than Ahmad ibn Hanbal in every matter, nor more intelligent than he."

And Ibn Wara said: Ahmad was a man of fiqh, a man of memorization, a man of knowledge.

And an-Nasa'i said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal combined the knowledge of hadith, of fiqh, of piety, of detachment, and of patience.

And from Abd al-Wahhab the copyist, who said:

"when the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: return it then to its scholar: we returned it therefore to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and he was the most knowledgeable of the people of his time."

And Abou Dawoud said: Ahmad's circles were circles of the hereafter: nothing of the affair of this world was mentioned in them: I never saw him mention this world.

Salih ibn Muhammad Jazara said: the most faqih of those I reached in hadith is Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Ali ibn Khalaf said: I heard al-Houmaydi say:

"as long as I am in the Hedjaz, and Ahmad in Iraq, and Ibn Rahawayh in Khorassan, none can defeat us."

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn Yasin al-Baladi related to us: I heard Ibn Abi Oways: it was said to him: the people of hadith are gone: he said:

"Allah has not let Ahmad ibn Hanbal perish: the people of hadith are therefore not gone."

And from Ibn al-Madini, who said: my master Ahmad ibn Hanbal ordered me to narrate only from a book.

Al-Houssayn ibn al-Hasan Abou Ma'in ar-Razi: I heard Ibn al-Madini say:

"there is none among our companions with a better memory than Ahmad: and it reached me that he narrates only from a book: and in him we have a model."

And from him, who said of Ahmad: "today, he is the proof of Allah against His creation."

'Omar ibn Abd al-Moun'im informed us, from Abou al-Yumn al-Kindi: Abd al-Malik ibn Abi al-Qasim informed us: Abou Isma'il al-Ansari informed us: Abou Ya'qoub al-Qarrab informed us: Muhammad ibn Abdallah al-Jawzaqi informed us: I heard Abou Hamid ach-Charqi: I heard Ahmad ibn Salama: I heard Ahmad ibn 'Asim: I heard Abou 'Oubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam say:

"knowledge came to rest with four: with Ahmad ibn Hanbal (and he is the most faqih of them in it), and with Ibn Abi Chayba (and he is the one with the best memory of them), and with Ali ibn al-Madini (and he is the most knowledgeable of them), and with Yahya ibn Ma'in (and he is the most given to copying of them)."

Ishaq al-Minjaniqi: al-Qasim ibn Muhammad the pedagogue related to us, from Muhammad ibn Abi Bichr, who said:

"I came to Ahmad ibn Hanbal with a question: he said: go to Abou 'Oubayd: for he has an exposition that you do not hear from anyone but him.

I came therefore to him: his answer delighted me: I informed him therefore of the words of Ahmad: he said: this one is a man of the workers of Allah: may Allah unfold the garment of his deed, and He has stored up nearness with Him: do you not see him loved and familiar? my eye never saw in Iraq a man in whom were united qualities such as are in him: may Allah bless him for what He gave him of forbearance, knowledge and understanding: he is truly as it was said:

He beautifies himself, whether he is absent from you: if he draws near / you see for him a face that rejoices you, coming forward

He teaches this creation what is strange to them / of courtesy unknown, like cavern and fortress

And he is beautiful, in the possession of divinity, when he sees / an oppressed one, defender of the people of right, who does not weary of the trial

And his nearest brothers, each favored, clear-sighted / in the order of Allah, rises above the heights"

And by my chain to Abou Isma'il al-Ansari: Isma'il ibn Ibrahim informed us: Nasr ibn Abi Nasr at-Tousi informed us: I heard Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Chouchaych: I heard Abou al-Hadid the sufi, in Egypt: from his father: from al-Mouzani, who says:

"Ahmad ibn Hanbal on the day of the trial, is Abou Bakr on the day of the apostasy, and Omar on the day of the Saqifa, and Outhman on the day of the house, and Ali on the day of Siffin."

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ar-Rouchdini said: I heard Ahmad ibn Salih the Egyptian say:

"I never saw in Iraq the like of these two: Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Noumayr: two complete men: I never saw their like in Iraq."

And Ahmad ibn Salama an-Naysabouri related, from Ibn Wara, who said:

"Ahmad ibn Hanbal in Baghdad, and Ahmad ibn Salih in Egypt, and Abou Ja'far an-Noufayli in Harran, and Ibn Noumayr in Koufa: these are the pillars of the religion."

And Ali ibn al-Jounayd ar-Razi said: I heard Abou Ja'far an-Noufayli say:

"Ahmad ibn Hanbal was among the banners of the religion."

And from Muhammad ibn Mouss'ab the worshipper, who said: the whip that struck Ahmad ibn Hanbal for Allah is greater than the days of Bichr ibn al-Harith.

I say: Bichr is of great worth like Ahmad: and we do not know the weighing of deeds: Allah alone knows that.

Abou Abd ar-Rahman an-Nahawandi said: I heard Ya'qoub al-Fasawi say:

"I have written from a thousand shaykhs: my proof between me and Allah is of two men: Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and Ahmad ibn Salih."

And by the chain to the Ansari, shaykh of Islam: Abou Ya'qoub informed us: Mansour ibn Abdallah adh-Dhouhli informed us: Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Boukhari related to us: I heard Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Bouchanji (and he mentions Ahmad ibn Hanbal): and said:

"in my eyes, he is better and more faqih than Soufyan ath-Thawri: and that because Soufyan was not tried as Ahmad was: and the knowledge of Soufyan and of the one preferred among the fuqaha of the lands is not like the knowledge of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: for he combined them all: and saw their errors, their truthful ones and their liars."

He said: and it reached me from Bichr ibn al-Harith that he said:

"Ahmad occupied the place of the prophets: and Ahmad is, in our eyes, the one who was tried by prosperity and adversity: and in them he was the one who held fast to Allah."

Abou Yahya an-Naqid said: we were at Ibrahim ibn 'Ar'ara's: they mentioned Ya'la ibn 'Asim: a man said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal weakened him.

A man said: and what would that do to him, if he is reliable?

Ibn 'Ar'ara said: by Allah, if Ahmad spoke of Alqama and al-Aswad, it would harm them.

And al-Hounayni said: I heard Isma'il ibn al-Khalil say:

"if Ahmad ibn Hanbal had been among the Banu Israil, he would have been a sign."

And from Ali ibn Chou'ayb, who said: "we have among us the example that was among the Banu Israil: that the saw was set upon the top of the head of one of them, without that turning him away from his religion: and had it not been that Ahmad took charge of this affair, there would be shame upon us that a people be knowingly combined, and that no one come out of it."

Ibn Salm said: I heard Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi say: "I went many times to the house of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and asked him questions: it was said to him: was he more hadith than Ishaq?

He said: rather Ahmad is more hadith and more pious: Ahmad surpassed the people of his time."

I say: Ahmad was of great reach, a leader in hadith and in fiqh and in worship: people among his opponents praised him: what then to think of his brothers and his contemporaries? !

He was majestic in the possession of divinity, to the point that Abou 'Oubayd said: I never dreaded anyone in a question as I dreaded Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

And Ibrahim al-Harbi said: the scholar of his time: Sa'id ibn al-Moussayyib in his time, and Soufyan ath-Thawri in his time, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his time.

I read before Ishaq al-Asadi: Ibn Khalil informed you: al-Labban informed us, from Abou Ali al-Haddad: Abou Nou'aym informed us: Abou Bakr ibn Malik informed me: Muhammad ibn Younous related to me: Soulayman ach-Chadhakouni related to me, and he said:

"is Ali ibn al-Madini compared to Ahmad ibn Hanbal? Far from it! nothing resembles sugar to the sweet: I witnessed, of his piety, a thing in Mecca:

he pawned a bucket with a Fami: he took something from it to strengthen himself: he returned: he gave him its ransom: so he brought out two buckets to him: he said: look which of the two is your bucket?

He said: I do not know: you are free of responsibility for it, and for what I gave you: and he did not take it.

The Fami said: by Allah, it is indeed his bucket: I only wanted to test him in that."

And on that, at Abou Nou'aym's: Soulayman ibn Ahmad related to us: al-Abbar related: I heard Muhammad ibn Yahya an-Naysabouri (when the death of Ahmad reached him) say:

"it befits every inhabitant of a house in Baghdad to keep the mourning women upon him in their dwellings."

I say: adh-Dhouhli spoke according to what grief requires, not according to what the Law requires.

Ahmad ibn al-Qasim the reciter said: I heard al-Houssayn al-Karabisi say:

"the position of those who mention Ahmad ibn Hanbal is the position of a people who would come to Abou Qoubays wanting to demolish it with their sandals."

At-Tabarani: Idris ibn Abd al-Karim the reciter related to us, and he said:

"I saw our scholars, like al-Haytham ibn Kharidja, and Mouss'ab az-Zoubayri, and Yahya ibn Ma'in, and Abou Bakr ibn Abi Chayba, and his brother, and Abd al-A'la ibn Hammad, and Ibn Abi ach-Chawarib, and Ali ibn al-Madini, and al-Qawariri, and Abou Khaythama, and Abou Ma'mar, and al-Warkani, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ayyoub, and Muhammad ibn Bakkar, and 'Amr an-Naqid, and Yahya ibn Ayyoub al-Maqabiri, and Sourayj ibn Younous, and Khalaf ibn Hicham, and Abou ar-Rabi' az-Zahrani, among those I could not count: magnify Ahmad, venerate him, respect him, glorify him, and aim for his door to greet him."

Abou Ali ibn Chadhan said: Muhammad ibn Abdallah ach-Chafii said to me:

"when Sa'id ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal died, Ibrahim al-Harbi came to Abdallah ibn Ahmad: so Abdallah rose toward him: he said: do you rise toward me?

He said: by Allah, if my father had seen you, he would have risen toward you.

Ibrahim said: and by Allah, if Ibn 'Ouyayna saw your father, he would have risen toward him."

Muhammad ibn Ayyoub al-'Oukbari said: I heard Ibrahim al-Harbi say:

"the Taba'ites all, and their last is Ahmad ibn Hanbal (and he is, in my eyes, the noblest of them) say: whoever swears by divorce not to do a thing, then does it in forgetfulness: they all render the divorce binding upon him."

And from al-Athram, who said: I debated with a man: he said: who said this question?

I said: the one who has no like in the east nor in the west.

He said: who?

I said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

And a group of the allies of Allah praised Abou Abdallah, and sought blessing through him.

That was related by: Abou al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi, and the shaykh of Islam: and the chain of some of that is not established.

Isma'il ibn 'Oumayra informed us: Ibn Qoudama informed us: Abou Talib ibn Khoudayr informed us: Abou Talib al-Youssoufi informed us: Abou Ishaq al-Barmaki informed us: Ali ibn Abd al-Aziz informed us: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim informed us: Abou Zur'a related to us: and it was said to him: is the preference of Ahmad and Ishaq dearer to you, or the saying of ach-Chafii?

He said: rather the preference of Ahmad and Ishaq: to my knowledge, there is not among our companions a black head more faqih than Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and I never saw anyone more complete than he.

His merit, his worship and his qualities

And on that, Ibn Abi Hatim said: Salih ibn Ahmad related to us, and he said:

"I entered upon my father one day, in the days of al-Wathiq (and Allah knows in what state we were): he had gone out for the al-'asr prayer: he had a cushion of wool on which he sat: many years had passed over it until it wore out: and beneath it a book, a purse in which:

it has reached me, O Abou Abdallah, what you suffer of hardship, and what is upon you of debt: I have therefore sent to you four thousand dirhams by the hand of so-and-so: and it is neither alms nor zakat: it is a thing I inherited from my father. I read therefore the book, and set it down,

when he entered, I said: O my father, what is this book?

His face reddened: he said: I returned it to him.

Then he said: will you go answer him?

He wrote therefore to the man: your book has reached me: and we are in good health.

As for the debt: it is with a man who does not harass us: and as for our family: it is in the grace of Allah.

I carried therefore the book to the man who had forwarded the book of the man: after a moment, the book of the man arrived likewise: he answered him therefore with the like of what he had answered.

When a year or so had elapsed, we mentioned it: he said: had we accepted it, it would already be gone.

And I witnessed Ibn al-Jarawi, having come after the maghreb: he said to my father: I am a famous man: and I came to you at this hour: and I have a thing I prepared for you: it is an inheritance: I wish that you accept it.

He did not cease speaking to him of it: when he had insisted much, he rose and entered.

Salih said: I was informed by Ibn al-Jarawi that he said:

"I said to him: O Abou Abdallah, these are three thousand dinars.

So he rose and left me."

Salih said: a man of China sent a paper of China to a group of the mouhaddiths, and sent a tapestry to my father: he returned it: and a child was born to me: a friend gifted me a thing: then a month passed over that: and he wanted to leave for Bassora: and he said to me: will you speak to Abou Abdallah that he write for me to the shaykhs of Bassora?

I spoke to him of it: he said: had he not gifted you, I would have written to him.

And on that, Ibn Abi Hatim said: Ahmad ibn Sinan related to us, and he said:

"it reached me that Ahmad ibn Hanbal pawned his sandal with a baker in the Yaman: and he hired himself out to camel-drivers upon his departure: and Abd ar-Razzaq presented him with sound dirhams: he did not accept them.

And Ibn Tahir sent, at the death of Ahmad, shrouds and hanout: so Salih refused to

accept it, and said: my father prepared his shroud and his hanout.

And he returned it: he spoke to him of it again: he said: the Commander of the Believers has dispensed Abou Abdallah from what he disapproves: and this is of what he disapproves: so I do not accept it.

And on that, Salih related to us, and he said: my father said:

"Yahya ibn Yahya came to me (my father said: Khorassan never produced after Ibn al-Moubarak a man resembling Yahya ibn Yahya): so his son came to me: and he said: my father stored up for you a lining, and said: it reminds me of you.

I said: bring it.

So he came with a bundle of garments: I said to him: go, may Allah have mercy on you (he says: and he did not accept it).

I say: and it was said: that he took from it a single garment.

And on that, Salih related to us, and he said: I said to my father: Ahmad ad-Dawraqi received a thousand dinars.

He said: O my son: {And the provision of your Lord is better and more lasting} (surah Taha, verse 131).

And on that: my father related to us: Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari related to us: Oubayd the reader related to me, and he said:

"his uncle entered upon Ahmad: he said: O son of my brother, what is this grief?"

And what is this grief?

So he raised his head, and said: O my uncle, happy is the one whose mention Allah has eclipsed.

And on that: I heard my father say:

"Ahmad, when you saw him, you knew that he did not make devotion appear: I saw upon him a sandal not resembling the sandals of the readers of the Quran: he had a big curly head: its strap hung down: and I saw him with an izar and a striped burd cloak."

That is to say: he was not of the stuff of the readers.

And on that, Salih related to us: my father said to me:

"yesterday evening there came to me a man I wished you would see: while I was sitting at the corner of the zahir: behold, a man who greeted at the door: my heart was as if soothed by it: I opened therefore: and behold, a man upon whom a fur, and on his head a rag: under his fur no shirt: and he had neither waterskin, nor bag, nor staff: the sun had made him bronzed: I said:

enter.

He entered into the vestibule: I said: from where have you come?

He said: from the region of the east, heading to the shore: and were it not for your place, I would not have entered this city: I formed the intention to greet you.

I said: in this state?

He said: yes: what is the detachment from this world?

I said: the brevity of hope.

He said: so I began to wonder at it: I said within myself: I have neither gold nor silver.

I entered therefore into the house: I took four loaves: I went out to him: he said: would it delight you that I accept this, O Abou Abdallah?

I said: yes.

So he took them, placed them under his arm, and said: I hope they will suffice me until ar-Raqqa: I entrust you to Allah.

And he mentioned him often."

And on that: Abdallah ibn Ahmad wrote to me: I heard my father: and he mentions this world: he said: its little suffices, and its much does not suffice.

And my father said (and poverty was mentioned before him): he said: poverty with good.

And on that: Salih related to us, and he said:

"my father abstained from corresponding with Ibn Rahawayh, when he presented his book to Abdallah ibn Tahir and he read it."

And on that, he said: Abdallah ibn Abi 'Omar al-Bakri mentioned: I heard Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-Hamid al-Maymouni, who said:

"to my knowledge, I never saw anyone purer of body, nor more careful of himself in his mustache and the hair of his head and his body hair, nor whiter of garment in vivid whiteness than Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah be pleased with him.

His garments were between the two: his cover was worth fifteen dirhams: and the stuff of his shirt was bought at about a dinar: he had neither condemned fineness, nor condemned thickness: and his cover was neat."

And on that: Salih related to us, and he said:

"it happened that I saw my father take the crumbs: shake off their dust, put them in a bowl, pour water over them, then eat them with salt: and I never saw him buy a pomegranate nor a quince nor anything of the fruits, unless it were a melon (he ate it

with bread), and grapes and dates.

And he said to me: your mother spun, in the dark, a fine thread: she sold the veils for two dirhams, less or more: that was our food: and when we bought something, we hid it from him, for fear that he would see it and reproach us for it: and sometimes bread was made for him: he put in a pot lentils, fat and chihriz dates: the children came: he called some of them: he held it out to them: they laughed and did not eat.

And he often made his supper with vinegar.

He said: and my father said: when there was not in my house a morsel, I rejoice.

And when he performed his ablutions, he did not let anyone draw water for him: and sometimes I was ill: he would take a cup containing water: he would read into it: then he would say: drink of it: and wash your face and your hands.

And he had a cap he sewed with his hand, in which cotton: when he rose at night, he wore it.

And sometimes he took the axe, and went out to the charcoal house: he did a thing with his hand.

And he fell ill, and treated himself.

And sometimes he went out to the grocer: he bought the firewood and the thing: and he carried it with his hand.

And he walked in the house.

He said to me, on a winter day: I want to enter the hammam after the maghreb: say it then to the master of the hammam.

Then he sent word to me: I abstained from entering.

And he walked in the house.

And I often heard him say: O Allah, grant safety: grant safety.

And on that: Ahmad ibn Sinan related to us, and he said:

"was sent to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, wherever he was,

with us, in the days of Yazid, walnuts and many jujubes: he accepted: and he said to me: eat this."

Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father related to us (and ach-Chafii, may Allah have mercy on him, was mentioned before him): and he said: he never took from us more than we took from him.

Then Abdallah said: everything in the book of ach-Chafii: a reliable one related to me: is from my father.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi related to us, and he said:

"a man of the detached ones arrived: I brought him in to Ahmad: and upon him a worn fur, and a hole upon his head: and he was barefoot in an intense cold: he greeted, and said: O Abou Abdallah, I come from a distant place: and I wanted only the salam upon you: and I am heading for 'Abbadan: and I wish, if I return, to greet you.

He said: if it is so decided.

So the man rose and greeted: and Abou Abdallah was sitting: I never saw anyone rise from Abou Abdallah's place without it being he who rose, except this man.

So Abou Abdallah said to me: what do you see: how he resembled the abdal! or he said: I recall the abdal through him.

And Abou Abdallah brought out to him four loaves measured by the camakh: and said: if there were anything in our house, we would have been generous to you.

And al-Marroudhi informed us: I said to Abou Abdallah: how abundant the invoker is for you!

He said: I fear that it be a manna: in what does it consist?

And I said to him: a man of Tarsous arrived: he said: we were in the lands of the Byzantines on expedition: when the night grew calm, they raised their voices in invocation: invoke then for Abou Abdallah: and we stretched the ballista, and we shot in the name of Abou Abdallah.

And a stone was shot at him: and the armor upon the fortress, covered with a shield: it carried off his head with the shield.

He said: the face of Abou Abdallah changed therefore, and he said: would to Allah that it be not a manna.

I said: no.

And from a man, who said: among us, in Khorassan, they think that Ahmad does not resemble humans: they think he is of the angels.

And another said: a glance from us toward Ahmad equals the worship of a year.

I say: this is an excess that does not befit: but what provokes it is the love of the ally of Allah for Allah.

Al-Marroudhi said: I saw a Christian physician leaving Ahmad's house with a monk: he said: he asked me to come with me to see Abou Abdallah.

And I brought in a Christian upon Abou Abdallah: he said to him: "I have desired to see you for years: your perseverance is of benefit not for the Muslims alone: but for the whole creation: and there is none of our companions but he was content with you."

I said therefore to Abou Abdallah: I hope that invocation will be made for you in all the lands.

He said: O Abou Bakr, when man knows himself: of what use to him are the words of people?

Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father went to Tarsous on foot: and he performed two or three pilgrimages on foot: and he was the most patient of people at solitude: and Bichr could not bear solitude: he went out to the one and to the other.

And al-'Abbas ad-Douri said: Ali ibn Abi Fazara related to us (our neighbor): and he said:

"my mother was crippled for about twenty years: she said to me one day: go to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: ask him then to invoke for me.

I came therefore: I knocked gently upon it while he was in his vestibule: he said: who is this?

I said: a man: my mother, who is crippled, asked me to ask you for invocation.

I heard therefore his speech, speech of an angry man: he said: we are the most in need that you invoke Allah for us."

So I turned away leaving: an old woman came out: she said: I left him invoking for her: I came therefore to our house,

and I knocked at the door: my mother came out on her two feet walking.

This event, two reliable ones related it, from al-'Abbas.

Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father prayed each day and night three hundred inclinations: when he fell ill from those whip blows, they weakened him: he prayed therefore each day and night one hundred and fifty inclinations.

And from Abou Isma'il at-Tirmidhi, who said: a man brought to Ahmad ten thousand from the profit of his trade: he refused them.

And it was said: that a money-changer offered Ahmad five hundred dinars: he did not accept them.

His courtesies

Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: I saw my father take a hair from the hair of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: place it on his mouth: and kiss it.

And I think I saw him place it on his eye: and dip it into the water and drink it: seeking by that the blessing.

And I saw him take the bowl of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: wash it out of love of the water: then drink from it: and I saw him drink of the water of Zamzam seeking by it the blessing, and pass his two hands and his face over it.

I say: where then is the one who affects to disapprove of Ahmad: when it is established that Abdallah asked his father about the one who touches a pomegranate of the minbar of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and touches the prophetic chamber: and he said: I see no harm in that.

May Allah preserve us, and you, from the opinion of the Kharidjites and the innovations.

Ahmad ibn Sa'id ad-Darimi said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal wrote to me: to Abou Ja'far, may Allah honor him: from Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Oubaydallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman az-Zouhri said: my father related to us, and he said:

"my uncle Ahmad ibn Sa'd went to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and greeted him: when he saw him, he rose standing and honored him."

And al-Marroudhi said: Ahmad said to me:

"I never wrote a hadith without having acted upon it: until it reached me that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had himself cupped: and gave Abou Tayba a dinar: I gave therefore the cupper a dinar when I had myself cupped."

And from al-Marroudhi: Abou Abdallah did not enter the hammam: and he walked in the house: and I repaired more than once the sweat-room: and I bought him a leather for his hand, so that he put his hand in it and walked.

And Hanbal said: I saw Abou Abdallah, when he wanted to rise, say to his familiars: whenever you wish.

Al-Marroudhi said: I saw Abou Abdallah leave for a circumcised boy two dirhams in the basin.

And Abdallah said: I never saw my father narrate from anything but a book, except less than a hundred hadiths: and I heard my father say:

ach-Chafii said: "O Abou Abdallah, when the hadith is authentic with you, inform us so that we may return to it: you are more knowledgeable than we of the authentic reports: when therefore there is an authentic report, inform me of it so that I go to it: whether Koufiote, or Bassorien, or Syrian."

I say: he had no need to say: Hijazi: for he saw clearly the hadith

of the Hedjaz: nor did he say: Egyptian: for one other than the two was more seated in the hadith of Egypt than the two.

At-Tabarani: Moussa ibn Haroun related to us: I heard Ibn Rahawayh say:

"when Ahmad left for Abd ar-Razzaq, his provision was cut off from him: he hired himself out therefore to some of the camel-drivers until he reached San'a: and his companions offered him solidarity: he did not take it."

Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: Isma'il ibn Abi al-Harith related to me, and he said:

"Ahmad passed near us: we said to a man: follow him, and see where he goes.

He said: he came to Hannak al-Marwazi: hardly an hour passed before he came out.

I then said to Hannak: did Abou Abdallah come to you?

He said: he is my friend: and he borrowed from me two hundred dirhams: so he came to me with them: and I said: I did not form the intention to take them.

He said: and I too formed the intention only to return them to you."

Abou Nou'aym: at-Tabarani related to us: Muhammad ibn Moussa al-Barbari related to us, and he said:

"al-Hasan al-Jarawi was brought his inheritance from Egypt: one hundred thousand dinars: he came to Ahmad with three thousand dinars: he did not accept them."

Abou Nou'aym: al-Houssayn ibn Muhammad related to us: Chakir ibn Ja'far related to me: I heard Ahmad ibn Muhammad at-Toustari say:

"they mentioned that three days came upon Ahmad ibn Hanbal without his eating in them: he sent therefore to a friend of his: and borrowed flour from him: they prepared it with speed: he said: how is this?

They said: the oven of Salih is closed: and we baked in it.

He said: remove it then.

And he ordered a door to be walled up between him and Salih."

I say: because he had taken the gift of the mutawakkil.

Yahya ibn Ma'in said: I never saw the like of Ahmad: we kept his company for fifty years: he never gloried before us in anything of the good that was in him.

Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father read each day a seventh: and he slept a nap

light after the isha: then he rose until the morning: praying and invoking.

And Salih said: when a man invoked for him, my father said:

"the believer has never fortified himself but by his grave: deeds are according to their ends."

And my father said in his illness: bring out the book of Abdallah ibn Idris: he said: read me then the hadith of al-Layth: that Tawous disapproved of groaning in illness.

I never heard my father groan until his death.

And his son Abdallah heard him say: "I have wished for death: and this is a matter more painful for me than that: that one was the trial of the whip and the prison, which I bore: and this one is the trial of this world."

Ahmad ad-Dawraqi said: when Ahmad ibn Hanbal returned from Abd ar-Razzaq: I saw on him, in Mecca, white hairs: the strain and fatigue showed upon him: I spoke to him of it: he said: light, in what we drew from Abd ar-Razzaq.

Abdallah said: my father said: "we wrote from Abd ar-Razzaq from his memorization only the first circle: and that because we entered by night: he dictated to us therefore seventy hadiths: whereas he had kept the company of Ma'mar nine years: and he wrote from him everything he said."

Abdallah said: whoever heard from Abd ar-Razzaq after the two hundred: his audition is weak.

Moussa ibn Haroun said: Ahmad was asked: where do we seek the substitutes?

So he kept silent: then he said: if he is not of the people of hadith: I do not know.

Al-Marroudhi said: when Abou Abdallah mentioned death: the tears choked him.

And he said: "fear prevents me from eating the food and drinking: and when I mention death: every affair of this world becomes easy to me: it is but a food in place of a food, and a garment in place of a garment: and these are days

few: I would replace nothing with poverty: and if I found the way, I would go out until having no more mention."

And he said: "I want to be in a ravine in Mecca without being recognized: I have been tried by fame: I wish for death morning and evening."

Al-Marroudhi said: it was mentioned to Ahmad that a man wants to meet him: he said: "have not some of them disapproved of meeting, that I adorn myself for him and he adorns himself for me.

He said: I have found rest: deliverance came to me only since I swore not to narrate anymore: would that we were left alone: the way is the one upon which was Bichr ibn al-Harith."

I said therefore to him: so-and-so said: Abou Abdallah did not detach himself from dirhams alone.

He said: he detached himself from people.

He said: and who am I then, that I detach myself from people? people want to detach themselves from me.

And I heard him disapprove for man the sleep after al-'asr: he fears for his mind.

And he said: none prospers who gives himself to kalam: and he is not safe from falling into damnation.

And he was asked about recitation with melodies: he said: this is an innovation that one does not listen to.

His conduct

Al-Khallal said: I said to Zouhayr ibn Salih: did you see your grandfather?

He said: yes: he died when I was ten years old: we entered upon him each Friday, I and my sisters: and there was between us and him a door: and he would write for each of us two grains, two grains of silver, on a paper, to a Fami who honored it.

And I sometimes passed near him while he sat in the sun: his back uncovered: there appeared clearly on it the mark of the blow: and I had a brother younger than I called Ali: my father wanted to circumcise him: he prepared therefore much food, and invited people.

My grandfather addressed him therefore: "it has reached me what you have done for this: and you have exaggerated: begin then with the poor and the weak."

When it was the next day, came the cupper: and came our folk: my grandfather came until sitting near the child: and he brought out a small purse: he held it out to the cupper: and he rose: the cupper looked into the purse: and behold, a single dirham.

And we had taken out much of the beds: and the child was upon a platform raised with colored garments: he did not disapprove of that at all.

There came to me from Khorassan the cousin of my grandfather: he stayed at my father's: I entered therefore with him upon my grandfather: came the maidservant with a platter of leather: and upon it bread, herbs and salt: and a small jug: she placed it before us: there was in a dish meat and much broth: he ate therefore with us: and he asked his cousin about those who remained of his family in Khorassan, during the meal: sometimes

the Persian escaped him: my grandfather spoke to him therefore in Persian: and placed the meat before him and before.

Then he took a dish beside him: dates and walnuts were placed in it: and he began to eat and to hand to the man.

Al-Maymouni said: often I asked Abou Abdallah a thing: he said: at your service: at your service.

And from al-Marroudhi, who said: I never saw the poor man in a circle more honored than he in the circle of Ahmad: he inclined toward them: and deprived himself for the people of this world: and he had forbearance: and he was not of the jealous: and he was very humble: composure and gravity dominated him: when he sat in his circle after al-'asr for fatwas: he did not speak before being asked: and when he went out toward his mosque, he did not put himself at the head.

Abdallah said: I saw my father urge the ants to leave his house: I saw therefore the ants leave afterward: a black ant: I did not see them after that.

His generosity

Al-Khallal: Abdallah ibn Ahmad related to us, and he said:

Abou Sa'id ibn Abi Hanifa the pedagogue said: "I would go to your father: he held out to me three dirhams, less or more: and sat with me: and conversed: and sometimes he gave me the thing: and said: I have given you half of what we have.

I came therefore one day: and the sitting lingered for me, I and he.

He said: then he went out, and with him, under his cloak, four loaves: he said: here is the half of what we have.

I said: they are dearer to me than four thousand, without you."

Al-Marroudhi said: I saw Abou Abdallah: there came to him a part of his kin: he gave him two dirhams: and there came to him a man: he sent therefore to the grocer: and he gave him half a dirham.

And from Yahya ibn Hilal, who said: I came to Ahmad: he gave me four dirhams.

And Haroun al-Moustamli said: I met Ahmad ibn Hanbal: I said: we have nothing.

So he gave me five dirhams, and said: we have none other than them.

Al-Marroudhi said: I saw Abou Abdallah give as alms to a man his shirt: and he said: sometimes he was generous with his food.

And when an affair of the affairs of this world preoccupied him: he did not break his fast and performed the wisal.

And there came to him Abou Sa'id the blind: and he had composed a qaṣida against Ibn Abi Dawoud: he complained therefore of it to Abou Abdallah: he said: O Abou Sa'id: we have only this young sheep.

So a donkey was brought: he said: I sold it for nine dirhams and two danq.

And Abou Abdallah was of great modesty: noble of character: generosity charmed him.

Al-Marroudhi said: I heard Abou al-Fawaris, neighbor of my father Abou Abdallah, say:

Abou Abdallah said to me: O Muhammad: the child threw the saw into the well.

So I went down: and I brought it out.

So he wrote to the grocer for me: give him half a dirham.

I said: this is not worth a qirat: and by Allah I did not take it.

He said: afterward, he called me: and said: how much is your wage?

I said: three months.

He said: you are free of responsibility.

Then Abou Bakr al-Khallal said: meditate then, O people of intellect and knowledge: do you find the one of whom you were told to have these traits? !!

Ali ibn Sahl ibn al-Moughira related to us, and he said: we were at 'Affan's with Ahmad ibn Hanbal and their companions: and 'Affan brought them a load of raisins and faloudhaj: Ahmad began therefore to eat of everything they presented: except the faloudhaj.

I asked him therefore: he said: it was said: this is what makes the food rise: he does not eat it therefore.

And in another narration: he ate a morsel of faloudhaj.

And from Ibn Subh, who said: I attended upon Abou Abdallah over food: rice was brought: Abou Abdallah said: what good food: if it is eaten at the beginning of the meal, it satiates: and if

it is eaten at its end, it is digested.

And it was transmitted from Abou Abdallah the acceptance of an unsolicited invitation.

Hamdan ibn Ali said: the garment of Ahmad was not luxurious: except that it was a fine cotton.

Al-Fadl ibn Ziyad said: I saw upon Abou Abdallah, in winter, two shirts and a colored cloak between the two of them: and sometimes a shirt and a heavy fur: and I saw him with a turban above the cap: and a heavy garment.

And I heard Abou 'Imran al-Warkani say to him one day: O Abou Abdallah: is this all this garment?

So he laughed: then he said: I am thin-skinned in the cold: and sometimes he wore the cap without a turban.

Al-Fadl ibn Ziyad said: I saw upon Abou Abdallah, in summer, a shirt, trousers and a cloak: and he was often clothed over the shirt.

Al-Khallal: al-Maymouni informed us:

"I never saw upon Abou Abdallah a tail nor a cloak: it was only a small izar."

And Abou Dawoud said: "I used to see Abou Abdallah's buttons undone: and I saw upon him sandals and boots, other than matched pairs: I never saw upon him any dye, nor anything symmetrical."

And Abou Dawoud said: I saw upon Abou Abdallah two reddish sandals having a single strap.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn al-Houssayn related to us that Abou Bakr al-Marroudhi related to them courtesies of Abou Abdallah: and he said:

"Abou Abdallah was not ignorant: and if he was treated with ignorance, he was forbearing

and bore it: and he said: Allah will suffice.

And he was neither resentful nor jealous: very humble: of beautiful character: constantly smiling: gentle of side: without being brutal: and he loved for Allah: and hated for Allah: and when he was in an affair of the religion: his anger hardened over it: and he bore the harm of neighbors."

Hanbal said: "I prayed al-'asr with Abou Abdallah: and there prayed with us a man called Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Khuttali: and he knew him by the sunna: so Abou Abdallah sat after the prayer: and I remained, I and he, and al-Khuttali, in the mosque: having with us no fourth person: he said to Abou Abdallah: did you forbid Zayd ibn Khalaf to speak?

He said: the people of the frontier had me write asking me about his affair: so I wrote to them: and informed them of his doctrine and of what he had innovated: and ordered them not to sit with him: so al-Khuttali threw himself upon Abou Abdallah: and said: by Allah, I will certainly return you to your prison: and break your ribs ...: in many words.

So Abou Abdallah said to me: do not speak to him: and do not answer him.

And Abou Abdallah took his two sandals: and rose: and entered: and said: order the servants not to speak to him: nor to answer him.

So he did not cease shouting: then left: after that, this Khuttali went to Chou'ayb, who was named to the judgment of Baghdad: and he had in his hands a bequest: he asked him therefore about it: then Chou'ayb said to him: O enemy of Allah: you testified against Ahmad yesterday: then you come asking for the bequest: you only want by that to gain my favor.

So he looked at him insistently: then had him rise: and he then went out to the hisba of the army."

And al-Khallal unrolled accounts of the one who gifted a thing to Ahmad: and who was recompensed with more than his gift.

Al-Khallal said: Ibrahim ibn Ja'far ibn Hatim related to us: Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Jounayd related to me: from Haroun ibn Soufyan al-Moustamli, who said:

"I came to Ahmad ibn Hanbal at the moment when he wanted to distribute the dirhams that came to him from al-Moutawakkil: so he gave me

two hundred dirhams: I said: they do not suffice me.

He said: there is no other here: but behold: I employ you for a thing: I give you three hundred for you to distribute.

He said: when I took them: I said: I will not give, by Allah, to anyone anything of them: so he smiled."

Abdallah said: I never saw my father enter the hammam.

Al-Khallal: Abdallah ibn Hanbal related to us: my father related to me, and he said:

"it was said to Abou Abdallah, when he was beaten then healed: and his hand was painful from the leeches: and it was struck upon: they mentioned therefore to him the hammam: and pressed him: he said to my father: O Abou Youssouf: speak to the master of the hammam to reserve it for me.

So he did it: then he abstained from it: and said: I do not want to enter the hammam."

Zouhayr ibn Salih: my father related to us, and he said:

"I heard my father often reciting the surah of the cave: and often I heard him say: O Allah, grant safety: grant safety."

And he related to us from Younous ibn Muhammad, from Hammad ibn Zayd, from Yahya ibn Sa'id ibn al-Moussayyib that he said: O Allah, grant safety: grant safety.

Abd al-Hafiz ibn Badran informed us: Moussa ibn Abd al-Qadir informed us: Sa'id ibn Ahmad informed us: Ali ibn Ahmad informed us: al-Moukhallis informed us: Abou al-Qasim al-Baghaoui related to us:

"I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say in the year eight and twenty and two hundred, and he had just narrated the hadith of Ma'ouna about the trial: O Allah, accept us: O Allah, accept us."

And al-Marroudhi said: I saw Abou Abdallah rise for his need toward almost the middle of the night until approaching the dawn: and I saw him bow between the maghreb and the isha.

And Abdallah said: it happened that I heard my father at dawn invoke for people by their names: and he multiplied the invocation and hid it: and he prayed between the two ishas: when he had prayed the second isha: he bowed sound inclinations: then he performed the witr: and slept a light nap: then he rose and prayed.

And his recitation was gentle: sometimes I did not understand a part of it: and he fasted and devoted himself to it: then broke his fast what Allah willed: and he did not leave the fast of Monday and Thursday: and the white days: when he returned from the army: he devoted himself to fasting until his death.

Al-Marroudhi said: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

"I performed the pilgrimage on foot twice: and fourteen dirhams sufficed me until Mecca."

His deference to the elders

From Muhammad ibn Yahya, servant of al-Mouzani, from him, who said:

ach-Chafii said: "when I entered upon ar-Rachid: he said: the Yaman needs a governor: look then for a man whom we shall name to it.

When ach-Chafii returned to his circle: and saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal the most exemplary of them: he spoke to him therefore of that: and said: prepare yourself until I bring you in upon the Commander of the Believers.

He said: I came only to ask you for knowledge by allusion: and you order me to enter into judgment!

And he rebuked him: ach-Chafii was therefore ashamed of it."

I say: its chain is obscure.

Ibn al-Jawzi said: it is said that this was in the time of al-Amin.

And Ibn Nasir informed us: Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad informed us: al-Barmaki informed us: Abou Bakr Abd al-Aziz informed us: al-Khallal informed us: Muhammad ibn Abi Haroun informed us: al-Athram related to me, and he said:

"I was informed that ach-Chafii said to Abou Abdallah: the Commander of the Believers (he means Muhammad) asked me to seek for him a qadi for the Yaman: and you, you wish to set out for Abd ar-Razzaq: you have thus attained your need: and you will judge with equity.

He said therefore to ach-Chafii: O Abou Abdallah: if I hear that from you a second time: you will not see me again at your house."

I reckoned therefore that Abou Abdallah was thirty years old: or twenty-seven.

As-Sandali: Abou Ja'far at-Tirmidhi related to us: Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Balkhi informed us:

that ach-Chafii was often with Muhammad son of Zoubayda (he means: of al-Amin): and Muhammad mentioned to him one day his concern for a man fit for judgment: a man of the sunna.

He said: you have found him.

He said: and who is he?

He mentioned therefore Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

He said: Ahmad met him therefore: and said: eclipse this then: and dispense me: otherwise I leave the city.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: Ishaq ibn Rahawayh wrote to me:

"the emir Abdallah ibn Tahir sent for me: I entered therefore upon him: having in my hand the book of Abou Abdallah: he said: what is this?

I said: the book of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

So he took it: and read it: and said: I love it,

And I love Hamza ibn al-Haytham al-Bouchanji: because both of them did not meddle in the affair of the sovereign.

He said: my father therefore abstained from corresponding with Ishaq.

Ibrahim ibn Abi Talib said: I heard Ahmad ibn Sa'id ar-Ribati say:

"I came to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: he kept not raising his head towards me: I said:

ô Abou Abdallah: it is written about me in Khorassan: and if you treat me with this treatment: they will slander my hadith.

He said: ô Ahmad: will it be required, on the Day of Resurrection, that it be said: where is Abdallah ibn Tahir and his followers? So look then at where you will be with that."

Abdallah ibn Bichr at-Talqani said: I heard Muhammad ibn Tariq al-Baghdadi say:

"I said to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: I ask you for a loan of your inkwell.

He looked at me therefore: and said: this has not reached my piety, nor your piety this one: and he smiled."

Al-Marroudhi said: I said to Abou Abdallah: "it is said to the face of the man: you have loved the sunna."

He said: this corrupts his heart.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn Moussa informed me, and he said:

"I saw Abou Abdallah: a Khorassanian had said to him: praise to Allah who has seen you.

He said: sit down: what is this? who am I?

And from a man, who said: I saw the trace of grief on the face of Abou Abdallah: while he had been praised: and it was said to him: may Allah reward you on behalf of Islam with good.

He said: rather, may Allah have rewarded Islam through me with good: who am I? and what am I? !

Al-Khallal: Ali ibn Abd as-Samad at-Tayalisi informed us, and he said:

"I passed my hand over Ahmad ibn Hanbal: while he was looking: he therefore became angry: and began to shake his hand: and to say: from whom have you taken this?"

And Khattab ibn Bichr said: I asked Ahmad ibn Hanbal about a thing of piety: the preoccupation appeared

on him as if he despised himself.

And al-Marroudhi said: I heard Abou Abdallah mention the characters of the pious: and he said: I ask Allah not to hate us: where are we from these? !!

Al-Abbar said: I heard a man ask Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who said: I have sworn an oath: I do not know which one it is?

He said: may it please you, when you will have known it, that I had known it.

Ibrahim al-Harbi said: Ahmad answered the invitation of weddings and of circumcision: and he ate.

And he mentioned another, that Ahmad sometimes asked to be excused from the response.

And when he saw a vessel of silver: or a reprehensible thing: he went out.

And he loved withdrawal and isolation from people: and he visited the sick: and he disapproved of walking in the markets: and preferred solitude.

Abou al-'Abbas as-Sarraj said: I heard Fath ibn Nouh: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

"I desire what is not: I desire a place in which there would be none of the people."

And al-Maymouni said: Ahmad said: I saw retreat more restful for my heart.

Al-Marroudhi said: Ahmad said to me:

"say to Abd al-Wahhab: it eclipses your mention: for I myself was tried by fame."

And Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Haroun said: I saw Abou Abdallah, when he walked on the road: disapprove that anyone followed him.

I say: the preference of withdrawal: and humility: and the frequency of fear: are among the signs of piety and of salvation.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: when a man invoked for him, my father said: deeds are according to their ends.

And Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: I heard my father say:

"I would wish that I had survived this affair with just what is necessary: without power nor domination."

And from al-Marroudhi, who said: I brought Ibrahim al-Housri in to Abou Abdallah (and he was a virtuous man): he said: my mother saw for you a dream: which is such and such: and she mentioned Paradise.

He said: ô my brother: Sahl ibn Salama: people were informed of things like this: and he went out towards the effusion of blood: and said: the dream rejoices the believer: and does not deceive him.

Al-Marroudhi said: Abou Abdallah urinated, in the illness of death, blood: I therefore showed him the physician: he said: this one is a man whose grief (or fear) has dissected his interior.

And it was reported from al-Marroudhi, who said: I said to Ahmad: how did you wake up?

He said: "how does he wake whose Lord demands of him the acquittal of the obligations: and his prophet demands of him the acquittal of the sunna: and the two angels demand of him the correction of the deed: and his soul demands of him its passion: and Iblis demands of him obscenity: and the angel of death lies in wait for the taking back of his soul: and his family demands of him the subsistence? !"

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi informed us, and he said:

"I passed by: and Abou Abdallah was leaning on my hand: a woman came towards us, with in her hand a tambourine: I therefore took it: and broke it: and began to trample it: and Abou Abdallah was standing, head lowered.

He therefore said nothing: and the matter of the tambourine spread.

Abou Abdallah said: I never knew that you had broken a tambourine until this hour."

Al-Maymouni said: the qadi Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Idris ach-Chafii said to me:

"Ahmad said to me: your father is one of the six for whom I invoke as a charm."

And from Ibrahim ibn Hani an-Naysabouri, who said: "Abou Abdallah was hidden from the sovereign at my house ..., and he mentions of his effort in worship an astonishing thing.

He said: and I could not with him more than him in worship: and he broke his fast one single day: and had himself cupped."

Al-Khallal said: Muhammad ibn Ali narrated to us: al-'Abbas ibn Abi Talib narrated to us: I heard Ibrahim ibn Chammach, who said:

"I knew Ahmad ibn Hanbal being a boy: and he made the night live."

Omar ibn Muhammad ibn Raja said: Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us, and he said: "when Abou Zur'a arrived: he lodged at my father's house: and he was much in discussion with him: I therefore heard my father one day say: I have prayed today nothing except the obligation: I preferred the discussion of Abou Zur'a to my optional prayers."

And from Abdallah ibn Ahmad, who said: "there was in our vestibule a stall: when came the one who wanted from my father a private matter, he seated him there: and if he did not want it: he took the lintel of the door: and spoke to him.

One day therefore, came a man who said to me: say: Abou Ibrahim the traveler.

He said: my father said: greet him: for he is among the best of the Muslims.

I greeted him therefore: my father said to him: tell me, ô Abou Ibrahim.

He said: I departed towards a place: an illness seized me: I said: if I approached the convent: perhaps the monks who are there would treat me.

And behold a great lion aiming at me: it therefore carried me on its back until it set me down near the convent: the monks therefore saw this: they all embraced Islam: and they were four hundred.

Then he said to my father: tell me, ô Abou Abdallah.

He said: I saw the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: he said: ô Ahmad: pilgrimage.

I awoke therefore: and put in the waterskin a little flour: and set out towards Koufa: when a part of the day had passed: behold me at Koufa: I entered the great mosque: and behold a young man with a beautiful face, of good smell.

I greeted therefore: and said the takbir: when I had finished my prayer: I said: is there anyone remaining who sets out towards the pilgrimage?

He said: wait until there comes a brother of our brothers: and behold a man in a state like mine.

We therefore kept walking: the one who was with me said to him: may Allah have mercy on you: be gentle with us.

The young man said: if Ahmad ibn Hanbal is with us: he will surely be gentle with us.

It fell therefore in my heart that this was al-Khidr: I said to the one who was with me: do you want some food? He said: eat of what you

know: and I eat of what I know.

When we had eaten: the young man disappeared: then he returned after we had finished: after three: behold us at Mecca.

This narrative is munkar.

The qadi Abou Ya'la said: I transmitted from the writing of Abou Ishaq ibn Chaqla:

Omar ibn Ali informed me: Ja'far ar-Razzaz narrated to us (our neighbor): I heard Abou Ja'far Muhammad ibn al-Mawla: I heard Abdallah ...: and he mentions it.

It is perhaps from the forging of ar-Razzaz.

Ibn al-Jawzi informed us: Abd al-Wahhab ibn al-Moubarak informed us: al-Moubarak ibn Abd al-Jabbar informed us: Ibrahim ibn Omar al-Barmaki informed us: Muhammad ibn Isma'il the copyist informed us: Abdallah ibn Ishaq al-Baghaoui narrated to us: Abou Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ya'qoub as-Saffar narrated to us, and he said:

"we were at Ahmad ibn Hanbal's: I said: invoke Allah for us.

He said: ô Allah, You know that You have over us more rights than what we love: so do with us what You love: ô Allah, we ask You by the power by which You said to the heavens and the earth: {Come the two of you willingly or by force: they said: we come obedient} (surah Fussilat, verse 11): ô Allah, grant us success in Your approval: ô Allah, we seek refuge with You against poverty, otherwise than towards You: and against abasement, otherwise than towards You."

Its reporters are imams up to the Saffar: and I do not know it.

And it is munkar.

Omar ibn al-Qawwas informed us, from al-Kindi: al-Karoukhi informed us: the sheikh of Islam al-Ansari informed us: Abou Ya'qoub informed us: Zahir ibn Ahmad informed us: Ali ibn Abdallah ibn Mouchachchir narrated to us: I heard ar-Ramadi: I heard Abd ar-Razzaq (and he mentions Ahmad: his eye shed a tear): and he said:

"it happened: and it reached me that his subsistence was exhausted: I took therefore ten dinars: and presented them to him: he smiled: and said: ô Abou Bakr: if I had accepted from people something: I would have accepted it from you: and he did not accept from me anything whatsoever."

Al-Khallal: Abou Ghalib Ali ibn Ahmad informed me: Salih ibn Ahmad narrated to me,

and he said: Husn came to me: she said: a man came with a sack containing dried fruits: and a book.

I arose therefore: and I read the book: and behold in it: ô Abou Abdallah: I sent you merchandise to Samarcand: and I made profit: I therefore sent to you for this four thousand: and fruits: which I gleaned from my orchard: which I inherited from my father.

He said: I gathered therefore the children: and we entered: and I wept: and I said: ô my father: what delights you of the food of the zakat?

Then he uncovered the head of the children: and I wept.

He said: from where have you known? leave until I had consulted Allah this night.

He said: when it was of the morrow: he said: I consulted Allah: it is therefore resolved for me not to take them.

And he opened the sack: and distributed it to the children: and he had at his home a garment of fringed wool: he therefore sent to the man with it: and returned the wealth.

Abdallah ibn Ahmad: I heard Fouran say:

"Abou Abdallah fell ill: the people visited him (he means: before the two hundreds): and Ali ibn al-Ja'd visited him: he left near his head a purse: I asked him therefore about it: he said:

I did not see it: go therefore: and return it to him."

Abou Bakr ibn Chadhan: Abou Isa Ahmad ibn Ya'qoub narrated to us: Fatima bint Ahmad ibn Hanbal narrated to me, and she said:

"the fire broke out in the house of my brother Salih: and he had married a young girl: there was brought to him a trousseau worth about four thousand dinars: the fire consumed it: Salih therefore began to say: nothing grieved me of what is gone except a garment for my father in which he prayed: I seek it in blessing: and I pray in it.

She said: the fire was extinguished therefore: and they entered: and they found the garment on a bed: the fire had consumed what surrounded it: and it was sound."

Ibn al-Jawzi said: it reached me from the qadi of the qadis Ali ibn al-Houssayn az-Zaynabi:

that he reported that the fire broke out in their dwelling: and burned what was in it except a book in which was a thing from the hand of the imam Ahmad.

He said: and when the drowning came at Bagdad in the year 554: and drowned

my books: there remained to me a volume in which are two sheets from the hand of the imam.

I say: and likewise it was widely transmitted: and it was established that the drowning that occurred after seven hundred twenty at Bagdad stopped opposite the cemetery of the cemetery of Ahmad: and that the water entered the vestibule at the height of a cubit: and stopped by the power of Allah: and remained the walls around the tomb of the imam with their dust: and that was a sign.

Abou Talib: al-Marroudhi narrated to us: I heard Moujahid ibn Moussa say:

"I saw Ahmad while he was young: and on his face no strength: and he is mentioned."

And Harami ibn Younous reported, from his father: I saw Ahmad in the days of Houchaym: and he had a rank.

Ahmad ibn Sa'id ar-Ribati said: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

"we took this science with humiliation: we therefore render it only with humiliation."

Muhammad ibn Salih ibn Hani: Ahmad ibn Chihab al-Isfarayini narrated to us:

"I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and he was asked: from whom do we write on our path? he said:

hold to Hennad, and to Soufyan ibn Waki', and to Makki ibn Abi 'Omar: and beware of writing (he means: from one of the companions of the passions, little or much): hold to the people of the traditions and of the sounans."

Abdallah ibn Ahmad: al-Fath ibn Chakhraf wrote to me that he heard Moussa ibn Hizam at-Tirmidhi say:

"I was going to Abou Soulayman al-Jawzajani in the books of Muhammad: Ahmad ibn Hanbal met me: he said: towards where?

I said: towards Abou Soulayman.

He said: the astonishment of you! you left to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: Yazid, from Houmayd, from Anas: and you turned towards three up to Abou Hanifa, may Allah have mercy on him: Abou Soulayman: from Muhammad: from Abou Youssouf: from him!

He said: I therefore went down to Yazid ibn Haroun."

Ibn 'Adi: Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad informed us: Salih ibn Ahmad narrated to us:

I heard my father say:

"by Allah, I gave the utmost effort of myself: and I would wish that I saved myself with just what is necessary."

Al-Hakim: the hafiz Abou Ali narrated to us: I heard Muhammad ibn al-Moussayyib: I heard Zakariyya ibn Yahya the blind say:

"I said to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: how much suffices the man of hadith until he were a mufti? do one hundred thousand suffice him?

He said: no.

... until he said: do five hundred thousand hadiths suffice him?

He said: I hope."

The trial: Ahmad and the mihna

Amr ibn Hakkam said: Chou'ba narrated to us, from Qatada, from 'Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: let not (the fear of the people) restrain one of you from speaking a right that he knows.

'Amr was alone in it: and it is not a proof.

And Soulayman, son of the daughter of Chourahbil, said: Isa ibn Younous narrated to us, from Soulayman

at-Taymi, from Abou an-Nadr, from Abou Sa'id:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: let not the veneration of the people restrain one of you from saying the right when he sees it or hears it.

Gharib, singular.

And Hammad ibn Salama, and Mou'alla ibn Ziyad (and here is his wording): from Abou Ghalib, from Abou Oumama:

that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: the most beloved of jihad to Allah is a word of right said to an unjust sovereign.

Ishaq ibn Moussa al-Khatmi: Abou Bakr ibn Abd ar-Rahman narrated to us: Ya'qoub ibn Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman the reader narrated to us, from his father, from his grandfather:

that Omar wrote to Mou'awiya: afterwards: hold to the right: the right will place you at the stations of the people of the right: a day when none will judge but by the right.

And by an exhausted chain, from Abou Dhar: the right refused to leave him a friend.

The breach by the right is great: it has need of strength and of sincerity: the sincere without strength is powerless to hold to it: and the strong without sincerity is abandoned: whoever therefore holds to it with the two complete is a truthful one: and the one who weakens, nothing is lesser than the pain and the disavowal by the heart: behind that is not the faith: there is no strength except by Allah.

Soufyan ath-Thawri: from al-Hasan ibn 'Amr, from Muhammad ibn Mouslim, mawla of Hakim ibn Hizam, from Abdallah ibn 'Amr, who said:

the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: when you see my community fearing that the unjust one say to it: you are unjust: farewell was made to them.

Thus reported it: a group, from Soufyan.

And an-Nadr ibn Isma'il reported it, from al-Hasan: he said: from Moujahid, from Abdallah ibn 'Amr: raised.

And Sayf ibn Haroun reported it, from al-Hasan: he said:

from Abou az-Zoubayr: I heard Abdallah ibn 'Amr: raised.

Soufyan ath-Thawri: from Zoubayd, from 'Amr ibn Mourra, from Abou al-Bakhtari,

from Abou Sa'id, who said:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: let none of you despise his own soul, upon seeing a command of Allah in which there is something to say: without saying it: and that it be said to him: what prevented you?

And that he say: the fear of the people.

And that He say: it is I then whom you should have feared.

Reported it: al-Firyabi, and Abou Nou'aym, and Khallad, from him.

Hammad ibn Zayd: from Ayyoub, from Abou Qilaba, from Abou Asma, from Thawban, who said:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: "what I fear most for my community: are the imams who lead astray: and when the sword is laid upon them, it is not lifted from them until the Day of Resurrection: and there will not cease from the community a troop upon the right, manifest: he who contradicts them does not harm them, nor forsake them, until there comes the command of Allah."

Al-Houssayn ibn Moussa: al-Houssayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali narrated to us: Abd al-Aziz ibn Yahya the Meccan narrated to us: Soulaym ibn Mouslim narrated to us: from Ibn Jurayj, from

'Ata, from Ibn Abbas, who said:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: "Allah has, at the establishment of every innovation plotting against Islam, an ally who defends His religion" ..., the hadith.

This is forged: Ibn Jurayj never reported it.

The people were a single community: and their religion subsisted under the caliphate of Abou Bakr and of Omar.

When there was martyred the clasp of the door of the trial: Omar, may Allah be pleased with him: and when the door broke: sprang up the heads of evil upon the martyr Outhman until he was slaughtered with patience: and the word dispersed: and occurred the battle of the Camel: then that of Siffin.

The Kharidjites therefore appeared: and declared the chiefs of the Companions unbelievers: then appeared the Rafidites and the Nawasib.

And at the end of the time of the Companions appeared the Qadarites: then appeared the Mou'tazilites at Bassora: and the Jahmites and the Anthropomorphites in Khorassan, in the middle of the era of the Taba'ites, with the presence of the sunna and of its people until after the two hundreds: appeared therefore al-Ma'moun the caliph (and he was an intelligent theologian, having a look into the rational): he requisitioned therefore the books of the ancients: and had the wisdom of Greece arabized: and in this he rose and sat: and plotted and forged: and the Jahmiyya and the Mou'tazila raised their heads: and even the chiites: for it was thus.

And the affair came to that he charged the community with the saying according to which the Quran is created: and tried the scholars: and no delay was given.

And he died in his year: and left after him evil and trial in the religion: the community did not cease to be upon the fact that the sublime Quran is the word of Allah, the Most High, and His revelation and His sending down: they knew nothing other: until there arose among them the saying that it is the word of Allah: created: established: and that it is attributed to Allah, the Most High, only with an attribution of glorification: like the house of Allah: and the she-camel of Allah.

The scholars therefore disapproved of this.

And the Jahmiyya did not show itself under the rule of al-Mahdi, of ar-Rachid and of al-Amin: when al-Ma'moun governed: he was of it: and he made appear the opinion.

Reported Ahmad ibn Ibrahim ad-Dawraqi, from Muhammad ibn Nouh:

that ar-Rachid said: it reached me that Bichr ibn Ghiyath al-Marisi said: the Quran is created: to Allah then my debt

if I triumph over him: I will surely kill him.

Ad-Dawraqi said: he hid himself in the days of ar-Rachid: when ar-Rachid died: he appeared: and called to misguidance.

I say: then al-Ma'moun meditated in theology: and debated: and remained hesitant in the call to his innovation.

Abou al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi said: there frequented him people of the Mou'tazila: they therefore embellished to him the saying on the creation of the Quran: and he hesitated: and respected the remains of the ancients: then his design strengthened: and he tried the people.

Al-Moussallam ibn Muhammad informed us in his book: Abou al-Yumn al-Kindi informed us: Abou Mansour ach-Chaybani informed us: Abou Bakr al-Khatib informed us: Abou Bakr al-Hiri informed us: Abou al-'Abbas al-Asamm informed us: Yahya ibn Abi Talib informed us: al-Hasan ibn Chadhan al-Wasiti narrated to me: Ibn 'Ar'ara narrated to me: Ibn Aktham narrated to me, and he said:

al-Ma'moun said to us: had it not been the rank of Yazid ibn Haroun: I would have made appear that the Quran is created.

One of his familiars said: ô Commander of the Believers: and who is Yazid that he be feared?

He said: woe to you! I fear that, if I make it appear, he refutes me: the people diverge: and there be trial: and I disapprove of the trial.

The man said: it is I then who inform you of him.

He said to him: yes.

He departed therefore to Wasit: and came to Yazid: and said: ô Abou Khalid: the Commander of the Believers conveys to you the salam: and says to you: I want to make appear the creation of the Quran.

He said: you have lied against the Commander of the Believers: the Commander of the Believers does not charge the people with what they do not know: if you are truthful: sit down therefore: when the people have gathered in the circle: speak.

He said: when it was of the morrow: they gathered: he rose therefore: and said according to his opinion.

Yazid said: you have lied against the Commander of the Believers: he does not charge the people with what they do not know: nor with what no one has ever spoken.

He said: he came therefore: and said: ô Commander of the Believers: you were the most knowledgeable: and he unrolled it to him.

He said: woe to you: he plays with you !!

Salih ibn Ahmad said: I heard my father say:

"when we entered upon Ishaq ibn Ibrahim for the trial: he read upon us the book of the one who departed to Tarsous (he means: al-Ma'moun): and it figured among what was read upon us: {There is nothing like Him} (surah ach-Choura, verse 11): {And He is the creator of every thing} (surah al-An'am, verse 102).

I say: {And He is the Hearer, the Seer}.

Salih said: the people were therefore tried: and there was directed towards whoever abstained the prison: the people therefore all answered, except four: my father, Muhammad ibn Nouh, al-Qawariri, and al-Hasan ibn Hammad the carpet merchant.

Then these two answered: and remained my father and Muhammad in the prison of the days: then came a letter from Tarsous ordering their transport in chains, compañeros.

At-Tabarani: Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: Abou Ma'mar al-Qati'i narrated to me, and he said:

"when we were brought to the house of the sovereign, in the days of the trial: and Ahmad ibn Hanbal had been brought: when he saw the people answer: and he was a gentle man: his two cheeks therefore swelled: and his eyes reddened: and this gentleness went away.

I say: he became angry therefore for Allah: I say: rejoice: Ibn Foudayl narrated to us, from al-Walid ibn Abdallah ibn Joumay', from Abou Salama, who said:

he was of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, the one who, when something of the affair of his religion was wanted from him: you saw the veins of his two eyes turn upon his head, like a madman."

Omar ibn al-Qawwas informed us: from al-Kindi: al-Karoukhi informed us: the sheikh of Islam informed us: Abou Ya'qoub informed us: al-Houssayn ibn Muhammad the leather merchant narrated to us: I heard Ibn Abi Usama say:

"it was reported to us that it was said to Ahmad, in the days of the trial: ô Abou Abdallah: do you not then see the right: how falsehood prevailed over it?

He said: no: the prevailing of falsehood over the right is that the hearts migrate from the straight path towards misguidance: and our hearts remain attached to the right."

Al-Asamm: al-'Abbas ad-Douri narrated to us: I heard Abou Ja'far al-Anbari say:

"when Ahmad was carried towards al-Ma'moun: I was informed: I crossed therefore the Euphrates: and behold him sitting in the caravanserai: I greeted him: he said: ô Abou Ja'far: you have given yourself trouble.

I said: ô you: you are today a chief: and the people take model upon you: and by Allah: if you answer to the creation of the Quran: a creation will surely answer: and if you do not answer: a great number of the people will surely abstain from it: and with that: if the man does not kill you: you will die: death is inevitable: fear Allah therefore: and do not answer.

Ahmad therefore began to weep: and say: as Allah willed.

Then he said: ô Abou Ja'far: renew it upon me.

I renewed it therefore upon him: and he said: as Allah willed."

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Adami said: al-Fadl ibn Ziyad narrated to us: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

"the first day Ishaq tried me was when he went out of his house: and that in joumada al-akhira, in the year eight and ten and two hundred: he sat therefore in his mosque: and a group said to him: inform us of who answered.

It appeared therefore heavy to him: and they spoke to him likewise.

He said: none of our companions answered (and praise to Allah).

Then he mentions who answered: and who swore to them the oath upon the greatest part of what they wanted: and he said: it is established, innovated.

And he tried them time after time: and tried me two times two times: and he said to me: what do you say of the Quran?

I said: the word of Allah, not created.

He therefore made me remain standing: and sit me in a corner: then questioned them: then sent me back a second time: and questioned me: and engaged me in the likeness.

I said: {There is nothing like Him: and He is the Hearer, the Seer} (surah ach-Choura, verse 11).

He said to me: and what is the Hearer the Seer?

I said: thus said the Most High.

Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Bouchanji said: they did not cease discussing with Abou Abdallah the complaisance in the taqiyya: and what was reported concerning it.

He said: what will you do then of the hadith of Khabbab: "those who were before you: one of them was sawed by the saw: that did not turn him away at all from his religion"?

And far be it from us!

And he said: "I care not for the prison: it is only my dwelling: a single one: nor of being killed by the sword: I fear only the trial of the whip."

Someone of the people of the prison heard him therefore: he said: care not for it, ô Abou Abdallah: they are only two strokes of the whip: then you know not where falls the rest: and it was as revealed of him.

He said: and narrated to me the one in whom I trust, from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Mouss'ab: who was that day chief of the police of al-Moutasim in delegation of his brother Ishaq ibn Ibrahim: he said:

"I never saw one who had never dealt with the sovereign: nor frequented the kings: firmer of heart that day than Ahmad: we are in his eyes only flies."

And narrated to me some of our companions, from Abou Abd ar-Rahman ach-Chafii: or it is he who narrated to me:

that they sent him towards Ahmad in his prison: to speak to him of the meaning of the taqiyya: perhaps he would answer.

He said: I went therefore to him to speak to him: until I had much insisted: and that he answered me not.

Then he said to me: what is your word today on the two prostrations of forgetfulness?

And they sent him to Ahmad only for the familiarity that was between him and Ahmad, in the days when they followed ach-Chafii.

For Abou Abd ar-Rahman was that day of those who devoted themselves and wore the wool: and he was the most memorizing of the companions of ach-Chafii of the hadith, before he sank into his blameworthy doctrines.

Abou Abdallah reported nothing more after what I informed you that he had narrated to me, at the beginning of the caliphate of al-Wathiq: then interrupted it until his death: except what was at the time of al-Moutawakkil.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: my father and Muhammad ibn Nouh were carried from Bagdad in chains: we departed therefore with them two towards al-Anbar.

Abou Bakr al-Ahwal asked therefore my father: ô Abou Abdallah: if you were presented to the sword: would you answer?

He said: no.

Then they were taken away: and I heard my father say: "we arrived at ar-Rahba: and departed from it in the middle of the night: a man appeared to us: he said: which of you is Ahmad ibn Hanbal?

It was said to him: this one.

He said to the camel driver: at your tether.

Then he said: ô you: nothing prevents you from being killed here: and from entering Paradise?

Then he said: I entrust you to Allah: and he went away.

I inquired therefore about him: it was said to me: this one is a man of the Arabs, of Rabi'a: he makes charcoal in the desert: called Jabir ibn 'Amir: mentioned in good."

Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari: Ibrahim ibn Abdallah narrated to us, and he said:

Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: "I never heard a word, since I was thrown into this affair: stronger than the word of a Bedouin who said it to me within the space of a collar.

He said: ô Ahmad: if the right kills you: you die a martyr: and if you live: you live praised.

And it strengthened my heart."

Salih ibn Ahmad said: my father said:

"when we arrived at Adhana: and departed from it in the middle of the night: and its gate was opened to us: behold a man already entered: he said: the good news! the man is dead (he means: al-Ma'moun).

My father said: and I was invoking Allah not to see him."

Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Bouchanji said: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

"I clearly knew the answer in two invocations: I invoked Allah that He not bring together between me and al-Ma'moun:

and I invoked Him not to see al-Moutawakkil."

And I never saw al-Ma'moun: he died at al-Badhandoun: I say: and it is the river of the Byzantines.

And Ahmad remained detained at ar-Raqqa until allegiance was sworn to al-Moutasim following the death of his brother: Ahmad was therefore sent back to Bagdad.

As for al-Moutawakkil: he promised in mentioning the imam Ahmad: and sought the meeting with him: when Ahmad came therefore to the house of the caliphate at Samarra to instruct the son of al-Moutawakkil and bless him: al-Moutawakkil sat for him in a portico: until he and his mother looked at him from there: and Ahmad did not see him.

Salih said: when my father and Muhammad ibn Nouh departed towards Tarsous: they were sent back in their chains.

When he arrived at ar-Raqqa: they were carried in a ship: when they reached 'Ana: Muhammad died: his chain was opened: and my father prayed over him.

And Hanbal said: Abou Abdallah said: I never saw anyone, in the youth of his age and the measure of his science, more firmly established in the command of Allah than Muhammad ibn Nouh: I hope that he was sealed in good.

He said to me one day: ô Abou Abdallah: Allah: Allah: you are not like me: you are a man of whom one takes model.

The creation has stretched their necks towards you: as to what will be of you: fear Allah therefore: and be firm in the command of Allah: or the like.

He died therefore: and I prayed over him: and I buried him.

I think he said: at 'Ana.

Salih said: my father came therefore to Bagdad in chains: he remained at al-Yasiriyya some days:

then he was detained in a rented house near the house of 'Oumara: then he was transferred to the prison of the police in the street of the Mossouliotes.

He said: I prayed with the people of the prison: while I was in chains.

When it was in ramadan of the year nineteen (I say: and that fourteen months after the death of al-Ma'moun): I was transferred to the house of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim (he means: the lieutenant of Bagdad).

As for Hanbal: he said: Abou Abdallah was detained in the house of 'Oumara at Bagdad: in the stable of the emir Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, brother of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim: and he was in a narrow prison: and he fell ill in ramadan.

Then he was transferred shortly after to the prison of the police: and he remained in the prison about thirty months.

And we came to him: and he read to me the book "of the irja" and other: in the prison: and I saw him pray with them in the chains: he took out his foot from the ring of the chain at the time of the prayer and of the sleep.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: my father said: each day there were directed towards me two men: one called Ahmad ibn Ahmad ibn Rabaah: and the other Abou Chou'ayb the bloodletter: they did not cease debating with me: when they rose: a chain was called for: and it was added to my chains: and there became in my two legs four chains.

When it was the third day: he entered upon me: and disputed with me: I said to him:

what do you say of the knowledge of Allah?

He said: created.

I said: you have disbelieved, by Allah.

The messenger who came on behalf of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim said: this one is the messenger of the Commander of the Believers.

I said: this one has disbelieved.

When it was the fourth night: he directed (he means: al-Moutasim) Bouga al-Kabir towards Ishaq: and ordered him my transport towards him: I was therefore brought in upon Ishaq: he said:

ô Ahmad: it is well, by Allah, your own soul: he will not kill you by the sword: he has sworn (if you answer him not) to strike you blow upon blow: and to kill you in a place where one sees neither sun nor moon: Allah, the Most High, has He not said: {We

have made it an Arabic Quran} (surah az-Zoukhrouf, verse 3): could it be established other than created?

I said: the Most High said: {He made them like chewed straw balls} (surah al-Fil, verse 5): did He then create them?

He said: he fell silent.

When we arrived at the known place of the gate of the orchard: I went out: and there was brought a mount: and I mounted with the chains: having no one with me to hold me: and I nearly more than once fell upon my face, for the heaviness of the chains.

I was therefore carried to the house of al-Moutasim: I was brought into a chamber: then brought into a house: and the door was closed upon me in the middle of the night, without lamp.

I wanted therefore to make my ablutions: I stretched my hand: and behold me with a vessel containing water: and a basin set down: I therefore made my ablutions: and I prayed.

When it was of the morrow: I took out my bar: and I tightened with it the chains that I carried: and I rolled up my trousers.

The messenger of al-Moutasim came therefore: and said: answer.

He took my hand: and brought me in to him: and the bar in my hand: I carried with it the chains: and behold him sitting: and Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud present: and he had gathered many people of his companions.

Al-Moutasim said to me: bring him near: bring him near.

He did not cease bringing me near until I was close to him: then he said: sit down.

I sat down therefore: and the chains had weighed me down: I remained a little: then

I said: am I permitted to speak?

He said: speak.

I said: towards that towards which Allah and His messenger have called?

He therefore fell silent a moment: then said: towards the attestation that there is no deity but Allah.

I said: I attest therefore that there is no deity but Allah.

Then I said: your grandfather Ibn Abbas said:

when the delegation of Abd al-Qays arrived to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: they asked him about the faith: he said: do you know what the faith is?

They said: Allah

and His messenger know better.

He said: "the attestation that there is no deity but Allah, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah: the establishment of the prayer: the giving of the zakat: and that you give the fifth of the booty."

My father said: he said (he means: al-Moutasim): if I had not found you in the hands of the one who was before me: I would not have presented that to you.

Then he said: ô Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ishaq: did I not order you to lift the trial?

I said: Allah is greater! there is in this a deliverance for the Muslims.

Then he said to them: examine him: and speak to him: ô Abd ar-Rahman: speak to him.

He said: what do you say of the Quran?

I said: what do you say of the knowledge of Allah?

He fell silent: and some of them said to me: Allah, the Most High, has He not said: {Allah is the creator of every thing} (surah ar-Ra'd, verse 16): and is the Quran not a thing?

I said: Allah said: {destroying every thing} (surah al-Ahqaf, verse 25): did it then destroy everything except what Allah willed?

Some of them said: {of a new remembrance coming from near their Lord} (surah al-Anbiya, verse 2): could it be new if not created?

I said: Allah said: {Sad: by the Quran containing the remembrance} (surah Sad, verse 1): the remembrance is therefore the Quran: and this one has in it neither alif nor lam.

And some mentioned the hadith of Imran ibn Houssayn: Allah created the remembrance,

I say: this is an error: more than one narrated to us: Allah inscribed the remembrance.

And they argued by the hadith

of Ibn Mas'oud: Allah created neither the Garden nor the Fire nor heaven nor earth greater than the verse of the Throne.

I say: creation bears only upon the Garden and the Fire and the heaven and the earth: and it does not bear upon the Quran.

Some of them said: the hadith of Khabbab: "ô wretched one: draw near to Allah as much as you can: for you will not draw near to Him by anything dearer to Him than His word."

I say: so it is.

Salih said: and Ibn Abi Dawoud began to look at my father as an angry man.

My father said: this one spoke: and I answered him: and that one spoke: and I answered him: when the man broke off from them: Ibn Abi Dawoud intervened: and said:

ô Commander of the Believers: this one is, by Allah, astray, leading astray, innovator!

And he said: speak to him: examine him.

This one spoke to me therefore: and I answered him: and that one spoke to me: and I answered him: when they broke off: al-Moutasim said: woe to you, ô Ahmad! what do you say?

I said therefore: ô Commander of the Believers: give me a thing from the book of Allah

or from the sunna of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: so that I say by it.

Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud said therefore: you say only what is in the Book or the sunna?

I said to him: you have interpreted an interpretation: and you are the most knowledgeable: and I have not interpreted in what one is detained: nor in what one is in chains.

Hanbal said: Abou Abdallah said: they argued against me with a thing that my heart cannot sustain: nor my tongue pronounce in reporting it.

They disapproved of the traditions: and I would never have believed them capable of that until I had heard it: and they began to cajole: the opponent said such and such: and I argued therefore against them by the Quran: by His word: {ô my father: why do you worship what neither hears nor sees} (surah Maryam, verse 42): is this then disapproved in your eyes?

They said: he has made the likeness: ô Commander of the Believers: he has made the likeness.

Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Bouchanji said: some of our companions narrated to me:

that Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud advanced towards Ahmad to speak to him: he did not turn towards him: until al-Moutasim said: ô Ahmad: do you not speak to Abou Abdallah?

I said: I do not recognize him among the people of science to speak to him !!

Salih said: and Ibn Abi Dawoud began to say:

ô Commander of the Believers: by Allah: if he answers you: he is dearer to me than a thousand dinars: and one hundred thousand dinars: and he counts of this what Allah wills that it be counted.

He said: if he answers me, I free you both of him from my hand: and I will surely go up towards him with my army: and I will certainly tread his heels.

Then he said: ô Ahmad: by Allah I am indeed compassionate towards you: and I indeed have pity on you

as you have pity on my son Haroun: what do you say?

I said therefore: give me a thing from the book of Allah: and the sunna of His messenger.

When the circle was long: he grew weary of it: and said: rise: and he detained me (he means: near him): and Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ishaq spoke to me: and he said: woe to you! answer me.

And he said: woe to you! did you not come towards us?

Abd ar-Rahman said to him: ô Commander of the Believers: I know him since thirty years: he sees your obedience: and the pilgrimage: and the jihad with you.

He said therefore: by Allah: he is very knowledgeable: and he is indeed a faqih: and it does not displease me that he be with me: repelling from me the people of the religions.

Then he said: did you not know Salih the Rachidi?

I said: I have heard of him.

He said: he was my tutor: and he was sitting in this place (and he pointed to a direction of the house): he questioned me therefore on the Quran: and contradicted me: I gave order concerning him: he was trampled and dragged! ô Ahmad: answer me towards a thing in which your deliverance is nearer: so that I free you from my hand.

I said: give me a thing from the book of Allah: and the sunna of His messenger.

The circle was therefore long: he rose: and I was sent back to the place.

When it was after the maghreb: he directed towards me two men of the companions of Ibn Abi Dawoud: passing the night near me: and debating with me: and remaining with me: until came the time of the breaking of the fast: the food was brought: and they pressed upon me to break: and I did not do it (I say: and these were my nights of ramadan).

He said: and al-Moutasim directed towards me, by night, Ibn Abi Dawoud: he said: the Commander of the Believers says to you: what do you say?

And I answered him approximately what I answered.

Ibn Abi Dawoud said: by Allah

he has indeed inscribed your name among the seven: Yahya ibn Ma'in and other: and I erased it: and their act of having taken you displeased me.

Then he said: the Commander of the Believers has sworn to strike you blow upon blow: and to throw you in a place where you will not see the sun.

And he said: if he answers me, I come to him in order to free him from my hand: then he departed.

When we had passed the night: came his messenger: he took my hand until he brought me to him: he said to them: examine him: and speak to him.

They therefore began to debate with me: and I answered them: when they came with a thing of the theology of what is not in the Book and the sunna: I said: I do not know what it is.

He said: they say therefore: ô Commander of the Believers: when the proof is directed towards us: he stands firm: and when we speak to him of a thing: he says: I do not know what it is.

He said: examine him.

A man said: ô Ahmad: I see you mention the hadith and adopt it.

I said: what do you say of His word: {Allah recommends to you concerning your children: to the male, the share of two females} (surah an-Nisa, verse 11)?

He said: Allah specified it to the believers.

I said: what do you say: if it were a murderer, or an unbeliever?

He fell silent: and I did not argue with them by this except because they argued by the apparent of the Quran.

When therefore he said to me: I see you adopt the hadith: I argued by the Quran (he means: and it is the sunna that specified the murderer and the unbeliever: and made them go out from the generality).

He said: they did not cease being thus until the approach of the decline of the day.

When he grew weary of it: he said: rise.

Then he sequestered me, I and Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ishaq: and he did not cease speaking to me: then he rose and entered: and I was sent back to the place.

He said: when it was the third night: I said: it behooves that tomorrow come of my affair

something: I said therefore to the guardian charged with me: I want a thread.

He came therefore to me with a thread: and I tightened with it the chains: and I put back the bar in my trousers: for fear that of my affair should come a thing: and that I be stripped.

When it was of the morrow: I was brought into the house: and behold it full of people: I was therefore made to enter from a place towards a place: and people having with them the swords: and people having with them the whips: and other than that.

And, during the two days that had passed, there was not among all these men a single one of the greats. So when I arrived at him, he said: sit down.

Then he said: examine him: speak to him.

So they began to debate with me: this one spoke: and I answered him: and that one spoke: and I answered him: and my voice rose above their voices.

One of those who stood at my head began to beckon to me with his hand: when the circle grew long, he pushed me aside: then he remained alone with them: then he pushed them aside: and brought me back to his side: and said: woe to you, O Ahmad! answer me: so that I may release you from my hand.

So I repeated my answer to him: he said: upon you be... and he mentioned the curse. Seize him: drag him: strip him.

So I was dragged: and stripped.

He said: there had reached me hairs of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, in the amount of my shirt: upon my arrival, Ishaq ibn Ibrahim sent me someone to say: what is this tied bundle?

I said: hairs of the hairs of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. One of them tried to tear my shirt.

Al-Moutasim said: do not tear it.

So it was taken off: and I thought that it was because of the hairs that the shirt had been spared from being torn.

He said: al-Moutasim sat on a seat: then he said: the two stocks and the whips.

So the two stocks were brought: my hands were stretched out: one of those who stood behind me said: take the ends of the two pieces of wood with your hands: and grip them.

I did not understand what he said: so my hands were crushed.

Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Bouchanji said: they related that al-Moutasim had softened in the matter of Ahmad when he was suspended between the two stocks: and that he saw his steadfastness: and his resolve: and his uprightness: until Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud incited him to it: and said: O Commander of the Believers: if you leave him, it will be said: he has abandoned the doctrine of al-Ma'moun: and he has become angry at his word.

So this excited him to beat him.

Salih said: my father said: when the whips were brought: al-Moutasim looked at them: and said: bring me others.

Then he said to the two executioners: step forward.

So the man among them began to step toward me: and strike me two blows: and he (al-Moutasim) would say to him: strike hard: may Allah cut off your hand!

Then he would step aside: and another would step forward: and strike me two blows: and he said during all of that: strike hard: may Allah cut off your hand!

When I had received seventeen blows: he (al-Moutasim) rose toward me: and said: O Ahmad: why do you kill your soul? By Allah, I feel compassion for you.

And 'Oujayf began to prick me with the point of his sword: and said: do you want to overcome all of these?

And some said: woe to you! your imam stands above your head.

And some said: O Commander of the Believers: his blood is upon my neck: kill him.

And they would say: O Commander of the Believers: you are fasting: and you stand under the sun!

So he said to me: woe to you, O Ahmad: what do you say?

So I said: give me a thing from the Book of Allah: or from the sunna of the Messenger of Allah: that I may speak by it.

He turned back: sat down: and said to the executioner: step forward: and cause pain: may Allah cut off your hand.

Then he rose a second time: and began to say: woe to you, O Ahmad! answer me.

They would step toward me: and say: O Ahmad: your imam stands above your head!

And Abd ar-Rahman would say: which of your companions has done, in this matter, what you do?

And al-Moutasim said: answer me toward a thing in which your deliverance

is nearer: so that I may release you from my hand.

Then he turned back: and said to the executioner: step forward.

So he began to strike me two blows: and to step aside: saying during this: strike hard: may Allah cut off your hand.

My mind went away: then I regained consciousness: and behold, the chains had been loosened from me.

A man of those who were present said to me: we turned you over on your face: and threw on your back a water skin: and wet you!

My father said: I felt nothing of that: some sawiq was brought to me: and they said: drink: and make yourself vomit.

I said: I do not break my fast.

Then I was taken back to the house of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim: I was present at the dhuhr (noon prayer): Ibn Sama'a stepped forward: and prayed: when he turned away from his prayer: he said to me: you prayed: and the blood flows in your garment?

I said: 'Omar prayed: and his wound gushed with blood.

Salih said: then he was released: and he returned to his abode.

And his duration in prison, from his arrest until he was beaten and released: was twenty-eight months.

And one of the two men who were with him related to me: he said: O son of my brother: may Allah have mercy on Abou Abdallah: by Allah I never saw anyone resembling him: and I would say to him, at the moment when the food was directed to us: O Abou Abdallah: you fast: and you are in a place of filth. And he grew thirsty: and said to the one holding the drink: pass it to me.

So a cup in which there was water and ice was passed to him: he took it: looked at it: then returned it: and did not drink: I did not cease to marvel at his patience before hunger and thirst: amid the horror he was going through.

Salih said: I sought and schemed to get food to him: or a bread, during those days: and I did not manage it.

A man who was present informed me that he visited him during the three days: while they debated with him: and he never stumbled in a single word.

He said: I would never have thought that anyone could be of such courage: and of such strength of heart.

Hanbal said: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

my mind went away many times: when the whip was raised from me: my soul returned to me: and when I collapsed and fell: the whip was raised: that happened to me many times.

And I saw him, he (al-Moutasim), sitting under the sun without shelter: I heard him, while I had regained consciousness, say to Ibn Abi Dawoud: I have certainly committed a sin in the matter of this man.

He said: O Commander of the Believers: this one is, by Allah, a disbelieving polytheist: he associated partners without any foundation.

So he did not cease clinging to him: until he turned him away from what he wanted.

Yet he had wanted to detain me without the whip: but he did not let him do it: nor did Ishaq ibn Ibrahim.

Hanbal said: it reached me that al-Moutasim said to Ibn Abi Dawoud, after Abou Abdallah had been beaten: how many blows did he receive?

He said: forty: or about thirty-four lashes.

Abou al-Fadl 'Obaydallah az-Zouhri said: al-Marroudhi said:

I said, while Abou Abdallah was between the two stocks: O my master: Allah, the Most High, said: {do not kill yourselves} (surah an-Nisa, verse 29).

He said: O Marroudhi: go out: and look.

So I went out to the courtyard of the house

of the house of the caliphate: and I saw a crowd that Allah alone can count: with sheets in their hands: and reeds for writing and inkwells. So al-Marroudhi said to them: what are you doing?

They said: we watch what Ahmad says: and we write it.

He entered: informed him: and he said: O Marroudhi! would I lead all these people astray?!

So this is a broken account (not continued).

Ibn Abi Hatim said: 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Asadi related to us: he said:

when Ahmad was taken away to be beaten: they came to Bishr ibn al-Harith: and said: it has become obligatory upon you to speak.

He said: do you want from me that I stand as the prophets stood? that is not with me. May Allah preserve Ahmad from before him and from behind him.

Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn 'Outhman al-Fasawi: Dawoud ibn 'Arafa related to us: Maymoun ibn Asbagh related to us: he said:

I was in Baghdad: and Ahmad was being put to the trial: so I took money that involved a risk: and set off with it toward the one who could get me into the circle.

So I was brought in: and behold, the swords were drawn: and the lances planted: and the shields aligned: and the whips laid down: I was dressed in a black cloak with a belt and a sword: and I was placed where I could hear the speech.

So the Commander of the Believers came: sat on a seat: and Ahmad was brought: and he said to him:

by my kinship with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: I will certainly strike you with the whips: or you will say as I say.

Then he turned to an executioner: and said: take him to your house.

So he took him: when the first blow struck him: he said: in the name of Allah.

When the second struck him: he said: there is no power and no strength except by Allah.

When the third struck him: he said: the Quran is the word of Allah: uncreated.

When the fourth struck him: he said: {say: nothing will befall us: except what Allah has written for us} (surah at-Tawba, verse 51). So he received twenty-nine lashes.

And his belt was the hem of a garment: so it broke: and the trousers slid down to his ankles: I said: in a moment he will be uncovered.

So he cast a glance toward the sky: and moved his lips: and nothing was swifter than that the trousers remained: without coming down.

I visited him after seven days: and said: O Abou Abdallah! I saw you when your trousers had come undone: and you had raised your gaze toward the sky: what did you say?

He said: I said: O Allah: I ask You by the Name with which You have filled the Throne: if You know that I am upon the right way: then do not tear for me a veil.

This is a repudiated account: I fear that Dawoud forged it.

Ja'far ibn Ahmad ibn Faris al-Isbahani said: Ahmad ibn Abi 'Obaydallah related to us: he said:

Ahmad ibn al-Faraj said: I witnessed the scene of Ahmad ibn Hanbal when he was beaten: Abou ad-Danni stepped forward: and struck him about ten blows: so blood gushed from his shoulders: and he was wearing trousers: their thread broke: and it came down.

I fixed my gaze on him while he moved his lips: and the trousers returned as they were: I questioned him: he said:

I said: my Allah and my master: You have made me hold this position: would You uncover me before the heads of the creatures!

And this account does not prove true.

And the author of the Hilya cited here, among the gross absurdities, what it is shameful to mention.

Among that, he said: al-Housayn ibn Muhammad related to us: Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim the judge related to us: Abou Abdallah al-Jawhari related to me: Youssouf ibn Ya'qoub related to me: I heard 'Ali ibn Muhammad al-Qourachi say:

when Ahmad was stripped to be beaten: and he remained only in his trousers: while he was beaten: his trousers came undone: so he moved his lips: and I saw two hands come out from under him: which tightened the trousers.

When they finished beating him: we questioned him: he said:

I said: O You whom the Throne does not know where He is, if not Him: if I am upon the truth: then do not expose my nakedness.

Al-Bayhaqi related it in the merits of Ahmad: and did not dare to declare its abnormality: rather, he related: from Abou Mas'oud al-Bajali: from Ibn Jahdam, that liar: Abou Bakr an-Najjad related to us: Ibn Abi al-'Awamm ar-Riyahi related to us, something similar.

And in this account: his belt shook: he moved his lips: and I saw a palm of gold come out from under his belt, by the power of Allah: and the common people cried out.

Ibn al-Farra informed me: Ibn Qoudama related to us: Ibn Khoudayr related to us: Ibn Youssouf related to us: al-Barmaki related to us: 'Ali ibn Mardak related to us: Ibn Abi Hatim related to us: Ahmad ibn Sinan related to us:

that it reached him that al-Moutasim, at the moment of beating him, looked at something tied in his sleeve: and said: what is this thing?

He said: hairs of the hairs of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

He said: give it to me: and he took it from him.

Then Ahmad ibn Sinan said: he should have had mercy on him when he saw a hair of the hair of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, with him in that state.

Likewise, Ibn Abi Hatim said: Abou al-Fadl Salih said:

he was released: and returned to his abode: and he was sent to the physician: a man was brought to him who knew how to examine blows and treat them: he looked at his wounds: and said: I have seen men beaten with a thousand lashes: I have never seen blows resembling these: they were undeniably inflicted from behind him: and from before him. Then he took a probe: and inserted it into some

of these wounds: looked at it: and said: has this not yet festered?

And he did not cease coming to him: and treating him.

Moreover, a blow had reached his face: and he remained face down on the ground as long as Allah willed.

Then he said to him: there is a thing here that I want to cut.

An instrument of iron was brought: so he began to suspend the flesh with it: and to cut it with a scalpel he had: and he (Ahmad) remained patient before that: proclaiming aloud the praise of Allah during it. He healed from that: and the pain did not cease returning to him in certain places: and the mark of the blows remained clear on his back until he passed away.

I entered one day: and said to him: it reached me that a man came to you: and said: absolve me of my oath of allegiance: for I did not rise to help you.

And you said: I do not absolve anyone of his oath.

My father smiled: and fell silent: and I heard my father say: I held the deceased quits because he struck me.

Then he said: I came upon this verse: {whoever pardons and makes amends: his reward rests with Allah} (surah ash-Shura, verse 40). So I looked into its exegesis: and behold, it was what Hachim ibn al-Qassim informed us: al-Moubarak ibn Fadala informed us: he said:

I was informed of the one who heard al-Hasan say: when the Day of Resurrection comes: all the nations will be prostrate before Allah: the Lord of the worlds: then it will be proclaimed that none will rise but he whose reward rests upon Allah: so none rises but he who pardoned in this world.

He said: so I held the deceased quits.

Then he said: it does not befit a man to make it so that Allah punishes no one because of him.

Likewise, Ibn Abi Hatim said: Ahmad ibn Sinan related to me: he said:

it reached me that Ahmad ibn Hanbal held al-Moutasim quits on the day of the conquest of the fortress of Babak: when he triumphed over him: or at the

conquest of 'Ammourriya: he said: he is quit of my whip.

And I heard my father, Abou Hatim, say:

I went to Abou Abdallah three years after he had been beaten: or thereabouts: the mention of the blows came up: and I said to him: has the pain of the blows gone away from you?

So he stretched out his hands: gripped his right and left arms: and said: this: as if he said: it was crushed: and he still feels from the two of them the pain of that.

Likewise, Ibn Abi Hatim said: Muhammad ibn al-Mouthanna, the companion of Bishr, related to us: he said:

Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: it was said to me: write three phrases: and your path will be relaxed.

I said: bring them.

They said: write: Allah is ancient: He has never ceased to be.

He said: so I wrote it.

They said: write: everything besides Allah is created.

And they said: write: Allah is the Lord of the Quran.

I said: as for this one: no. And I threw away the reed for writing.

Bishr ibn al-Harith said: had he written it: he would have given them what they wanted.

Likewise, he said: and Ibrahim ibn al-Harith al-'Obadi said, and he had accompanied us to the land of the Byzantines:

Abou Muhammad at-Toufawi attended upon Ahmad ibn Hanbal: a hadith was mentioned to him: and Abou Abdallah said: I inform you of its like. When we had set out: I began to reflect on what we

were in: until we arrived at the Rahba: we were made to dismount at its edge: so I cast my gaze: and behold a thing about which I did not feel safe: it kept drawing closer: and behold a bedouin who began to stride over those loads of camels until he reached me: he stood over me: greeted me: then said: are you Ahmad ibn Hanbal?

I fell silent in astonishment!! Then he repeated: I fell silent: so he crouched on his knees: and said: are you Abou Abdallah Ahmad ibn Hanbal?

I said: yes.

He said: good news: and be patient: it is only a blow here: and you will enter the Garden there.

Then he left. At-Toufawi said: O Abou Abdallah! you are praised among the common people.

He said: I praise Allah for my religion: this is only religion: if I said to them (what they want): I would have become a disbeliever.

At-Toufawi said: inform me of what they did to you?

He said: when I was struck with the whips: I began to recall the word of the bedouin: then came this long-of-beard, I mean 'Oujayf: and struck me with the edge of the sword: then came that one: and I said: the relief has come: he will strike my neck: and I will rest.

Ibn Sama'a said to him: O Commander of the Believers: strike his neck: and his blood is upon my neck.

Ibn Abi Dawoud said: no, O Commander of the Believers: do not do it: if he is killed: or dies in your house: the people will say: he persevered until he was killed: so they will take him as imam: and remain firm upon what they are upon: but release him at once: if he dies upon leaving your abode: the people will doubt his matter: and some will say: he answered: and some will say: he did not answer.

At-Toufawi said: and what would befall you if you said it?

Abou Abdallah said: if I said it: I would have become a disbeliever.

Likewise, Ibn Abi Hatim said: I heard Abou Zour'a say:

al-Moutasim called Ahmad's uncle: then said to the people: do you know him?

They said: yes: this is Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

He said: look at him: is he not sound of body?

They said: yes. Except that he did this: I would fear that there should befall a thing that could not be repaired.

He said: and when he said: I have handed him over to you sound of body: the people were appeased: and calmed down.

I say: he only said that, with his power in the caliphate: and his courage: because of a great matter: as if he feared dying under the blows: and that the common people should rise against him.

And had the common people of Baghdad risen against him: perhaps he would have been helpless before them.

Hanbal said: when al-Moutasim ordered the release of Abou Abdallah: lined garments were carried to him: and a shirt: and a head veil: and a cap: and boots.

We were at the door of the house: and the people on the square: and in the streets: and elsewhere: and the markets were closed: when Abou Abdallah came out upon a mount from the house of al-Moutasim with these clothes: and Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud at his right: and Ishaq ibn Ibrahim, I mean the governor of Baghdad, at his left.

When he was in the corridor before going out: Ibn Abi Dawoud said to them: uncover his head.

So they uncovered it, I mean of the head veil: and began to lead him along the edge of the square toward the road of the prison: Ishaq said to them: take him this way, he means the Tigris.

So they led him to the boat: and he was transported to the house of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim: he remained there until the dhuhr (noon prayer) was prayed: then he sent for my father: and for our neighbors: and the elders of the quarters: they were gathered: and brought in before him: and he said to them: this is Ahmad ibn Hanbal: if there is among you one who knows him: otherwise let him know him.

Ibn Sama'a, at the moment the group entered, said to them: this is Ahmad ibn Hanbal: the Commander of the Believers watches over his matter: and he has relaxed his path: and here he is. He was brought out upon a horse of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim at sunset: and he returned to his abode: with the escort: and the people: and he was bent: when he went to dismount: I embraced him without knowing: my hand fell upon the place of the blows: and he cried out: I withdrew my hand: he dismounted leaning on me: the door was closed: and we entered with him: and he threw himself on his face: unable to move except with effort,

he took off what had been carried to him: ordered its sale: and gave its price as charity.

Al-Moutasim had ordered Ishaq ibn Ibrahim not to cut off from him the news of his state: so he was left, according to what was related to us, in despair about him.

It reached us that al-Moutasim repented: and he was left in his hand until his recovery: the bearer of the news of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim came to our house every day to inquire about his state: until he healed: and his two thumbs remained dislocated: they were rubbed (massaged) over them in the cold: water was heated for him: and when we wanted to treat him: we feared that Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud might slip a poison to the healer: so we prepared the remedy and the ointment in our abode.

And I heard him say: whoever mentions me, I hold him quits: except an innovator: and I held Abou Ishaq, I mean al-Moutasim, quits: and I saw Allah say: {and let them pardon and overlook: do you not love that Allah should forgive you?} (surah an-Nur, verse 22). And the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, ordered Abou Bakr to pardon in the story of Mistah.

Abou Abdallah said: and what does it avail you that Allah punish your Muslim brother because of you?!!

Hanbal said: Abou Abdallah said: Bourgouth said, on the day of the trial: O

Commander of the Believers: this one is a disbeliever whose blood is lawful: strike his neck: and his blood is upon my neck.

And Chou'ayb said the like too: take charge of my blood. And Abou Ishaq did not turn toward the two of them.

Abou Abdallah said: among the people, there were none harder in declaring me a disbeliever than those two: as for Ibn Sama'a, he said:

O Commander of the Believers: this one is of a noble house: of standing: perhaps he will return to what the Commander of the Believers is upon: as if he softened at that instant: and when Ibn Abi Dawoud spoke to me: I paid no attention to his word: and when Abou Ishaq spoke to me: I softened the word for him.

He said: thus, on the third day, he said: answer me O Ahmad: it reached me that you love preeminence: and that when his heart was sharpened against me.

And Bourgouth began to say: al-Jabri said such and such words: that is disbelief in Allah.

So I began to say: I do not know what it is: only that I know that He is One: self-sufficient: without likeness: nor equal: and He is as He described Himself: so he fell silent.

Abou Ishaq said to me: O Ahmad: I feel compassion for you as my compassion for my son Haroun: answer me: by Allah I would have loved never to have known you O Ahmad: Allah: Allah: concerning your blood.

When this came at the end of it: he said: may Allah curse you: I had hoped that you would answer me.

Then he said: take him: and drag him.

So I was seized: then stripped: two stocks were brought: and whips: and I had with me hairs of the hair of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: then I was placed between the two stocks: and I said: O Commander of the Believers: Allah: Allah: the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: the blood of a man who testifies that there is no god but Allah: and that I am the Messenger of Allah: is not lawful except for one of three things. O Commander of the Believers: by what do you make my blood lawful? Allah: Allah: do not meet Allah while there is between me and you a claim: remember, O Commander of the Believers, your standing before Allah, the Most High, as my standing before you: and fear Allah.

As if he restrained himself: Ibn Abi Dawoud feared that there might be from him tenderness: or compassion: and said: this one is a disbeliever in Allah: astray, leading astray.

Hanbal said: when we wanted to treat him: we feared that Ibn Abi Dawoud might slip to the healer: casting into his remedies a poison: so we prepared the remedy and the ointment in our house: it was in a jar: when he treated him: we raised it.

He said: when the cold reached him: (hot water) was dashed on him.

And he said: I thought I had given the utmost of my soul.

The Trial of al-Wathiq

Hanbal said: Abou Abdallah, after healing from the blows: did not cease attending the Friday prayer: and the prayer in congregation: narrating: and giving legal opinions: until al-Moutasim died: and his son al-Wathiq succeeded him: who manifested what he manifested of trial: and of inclination toward Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud: and his companions.

When the matter became hard for the people of Baghdad: and the judges manifested the trial of the creation of the Quran: and the separation was imposed between Fadl al-Anmati: and his wife: and between Abou Salih: and his wife: Abou Abdallah attended the Friday prayer: and repeated it upon his return: and said: the Friday prayer is attended for its merit: and the prayer is repeated behind the one who holds this doctrine.

News reached Abou Abdallah: and they said: this matter has spread: and has worsened: and we fear that it (may reach) further than that: and they mentioned Ibn Abi Dawoud: and the fact that he was on the point of ordering the schoolteachers to teach the children in the writing schools: the Quran is this and that (created). So we do not consent to his emirate.

So he prevented them from it: and watched over them.

And Ahmad stated his intention in the confrontation with them: and ordered them patience. He said: thus,

we were in the days of al-Wathiq: when Ya'qoub came, by night, with the letter of the prince Ishaq ibn Ibrahim to Abou Abdallah:

the prince says to you: the Commander of the Believers has mentioned you: that no one gather with you: nor dwell in any land: nor any city where I am: so go wherever you want of the land of Allah.

So Abou Abdallah went into hiding during the rest of the life of al-Wathiq.

And that was the trial: and Ahmad ibn Nasr al-Khouza'i was killed.

And Abou Abdallah remained hidden in the house: going out to no prayer: nor to anything else: until al-Wathiq perished.

And from Ibrahim ibn Hani, who says: Abou Abdallah hid with me three (days): then said: find me a place.

I say: I cannot guarantee you (safety).

He said: do it: and when you have done it: I will benefit you (reveal to you).

So I found him a place: when he went out: he said: the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, hid in the cave three days: then he moved on.

The astonishment at Abou al-Qassim 'Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Hafiz: how did he mention the biography of Ahmad at length, according to his habits: without relating a single word of the matter of the trial with the soundness of its chains: while Hanbal compiled them in two fascicles.

And likewise Salih ibn Ahmad: and a group.

Abou al-Housayn ibn al-Mounadi said: my grandfather related to me, Abou Ja'far: I met Abou

Abdallah: and I saw in his hands a brazier heating a cloth: which he then placed on his side, at the place of the blows: and he said:

O Abou Ja'far: among the people, there was none more compassionate toward me than al-Moutasim.

And from Abou Abdallah al-Bouchanji, who says: Ahmad narrated in Baghdad aloud when al-Moutasim died.

So I returned from Koufa: and I caught up with him in Rajab of the year twenty-seven: and he was narrating: then he cut off the hadith for the remaining three (days) of Cha'ban: without any prohibition (from the authorities).

Nay more: al-Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn al-Ja'd, the judge of Baghdad, wrote to Ibn Abi Dawoud:

Ahmad has begun to spread the hadith. That reached Ahmad: who therefore cut off the hadith until his death.

The imam under al-Moutawakkil

Hanbal said: al-Moutawakkil Ja'far succeeded: Allah manifested the sunna: and relieved the people: and Abou Abdallah narrated to us: and narrated to his companions in the days of al-Moutawakkil.

And I heard him say: the people were never more eager for the hadith: and for knowledge: than their eagerness for it in our era.

Hanbal said: then al-Moutawakkil mentioned him: and wrote to Ishaq ibn Ibrahim for his departure toward him: so the messenger of Ishaq came to Abou Abdallah: ordering him the presence: Abou Abdallah departed: then returned: my father asked him: for what had he been summoned?

He said: he read me the letter of Ja'far ordering me to set out toward the camp, I mean: joy to him who saw him.

He said: Ishaq ibn Ibrahim said to me: what do you say about the Quran?

I said: the Commander of the Believers has forbidden that.

He said: and Ishaq set out toward the camp: and installed his son Muhammad as his deputy in Baghdad.

Abou Abdallah said: Ishaq ibn Ibrahim said to me: let no one know that I questioned you about the Quran!

I said to him: a question of a man seeking guidance: or a question of a stubborn man?

He said: rather of a man seeking guidance.

I said: the Quran is the word of Allah: uncreated.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: my father said: Ishaq ibn Ibrahim said to me: absolve me of my presence at your whipping.

I said: I held quits every man who attended upon me.

And he said to me: from whom do you narrate that it is not created?

I said: Allah said: {is not to Him the creation: and the command} (surah al-A'raf, verse 54): so He distinguished between the creation: and the command.

Ishaq said: the command is created.

He said: Glory to Allah! would a created thing create a creation?!!

I say: he means: He created not the beings except by His command: which is His word: Be (surah al-An'am, verse 73).

He said: then he said to me: from whom do you narrate that it is not created?

I say: from Ja'far ibn Muhammad: who said: it is neither creator: nor created.

Hanbal said: Abou Abdallah had nothing to provide himself with: or spend: I had a hundred dirhams: so I carried them to my father: who carried them to him: he repaired with it what he needed: rented himself an abode: and went out: he did not go to Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim: nor greet him.

Muhammad wrote that to his father: so Ishaq conceived rancor against him: and said: O Commander of the Believers! Ahmad has left Baghdad: and did not come to your client Muhammad.

Al-Moutawakkil said: he will be brought back: even if he tread upon my carpet, and Ahmad had already reached Bousra.

So he was brought back: he returned: and abstained from the hadith: except for his son: and for us: and sometimes he recited to us at our abode.

Then an informer denounced to al-Moutawakkil: Ahmad has housed an 'Alawi in his abode: intending to bring him out: and pledge allegiance to him.

He said: we had no knowledge: we were asleep one night in summer: we heard the tumult: and saw the flames in the abode of Abou Abdallah: so we hastened,

and behold him sitting in an izar: with Mouzaffar ibn al-Kalbi, the bearer of the report: and a group with them: the bearer of the report read the letter of al-Moutawakkil:

it has reached the Commander of the Believers that with you is an 'Alawi whom you have housed to pledge allegiance to him: and to manifest him... in a long discourse.

Then Mouzaffar said to him: what do you say?

He said: I know nothing of that: and I see for him the listening: and the obedience in my hardship: and my ease: my vigor: and my laziness: and the preference over me: and I pray Allah for him: for uprightness: and success: night: and day... in many words.

Mouzaffar said: the Commander of the Believers has ordered me to make you swear.

So he made him swear by the triple divorce that what was in his house were not agents of the Commander of the Believers.

Then they searched the abode of Abou Abdallah: the cellar: the rooms: the roofs: they searched the chest of books: they searched the women: and the houses: they saw nothing: and sensed nothing: Allah repelled those who disbelieve in their fury: it was written to al-Moutawakkil: who fell into a good position: and knew that Abou Abdallah was slandered.

And the one who had denounced him was a man of the people of innovations: and he did not die before Allah made clear his matter to the Muslims: he is Ibn ath-Thalji.

When days passed: we were sitting at the door of the house: and behold Ya'qoub, one of the chamberlains of al-Moutawakkil, came: he sought permission from Abou Abdallah: entered: my father and I entered: with certain of his servants a litter upon a mule: and with him the letter of al-Moutawakkil: he read it to Abou Abdallah:

the purity of your court has been established before the Commander of the Believers: and he has directed to you this wealth

with which you may help yourself.

So he refused to accept it: and said: I have no need of it.

He said: O Abou Abdallah: accept from the Commander of the Believers what he has ordered you: it is better for you with him: if you send it back: I fear he will think ill of you.

So he accepted it at that moment.

When he went out: he said: O Abou 'Ali.

I said: here I am at your service.

He said: lift this litter: and place it, I mean the badra (the litter), underneath.

I did so: and we went out.

When night came: behold the mother of the son of Abou Abdallah knocking at our wall: and she said: my master calls you, O uncle.

So I informed my father: and we went out: and we entered upon Abou Abdallah: that in the middle of the night: he said: O uncle! sleep has seized me.

He said: and why?

He said: because of this money.

And he began to suffer from taking it: while my father soothed him: and made it easy for him: and said: until you spend the night: and see your opinion on it: for this is night: and the people are in their abodes.

So he held to it: and we went out: at dawn: he directed toward 'Abdous ibn Malik: and toward al-Hasan ibn al-Bazzar: they came: and a group attended, among them: Haroun al-Hammal: and Ahmad ibn Mani': and the son of ad-Dawraqi: and my father: and I: and Salih: and 'Abdallah: and we began to write down those they mentioned, among the people of piety: and uprightness: in Baghdad: and in Koufa: so he directed toward Abou Kurayb: and toward al-Achajj: and toward those who knew his need: and he distributed all that among fifty: and a hundred: and two hundred: to the point that not a dirham remained in the purse.

When it was after that: the prince Ishaq ibn Ibrahim: and his son Muhammad died: then 'Abdallah ibn Ishaq governed Baghdad: so a messenger came to Abou Abdallah: who went to him: and read him the letter of al-Moutawakkil: and said to him: he orders you to set out, I mean toward Samarra.

He said: I am a weak and suffering old man.

So 'Abdallah wrote the answer that was given to him: the answer of the letter arrived: the Commander of the Believers orders him to set out.

So 'Abdallah directed soldiers: who camped at our door for days: until Abou Abdallah prepared to set out: he went out with Salih: and 'Abdallah: and my father: and Zoumayla.

Salih said: the transport of my father to al-Moutawakkil was in the year thirty-seven: then, until the death of my father, hardly a day passed without the messenger of al-Moutawakkil coming to him.

Salih said: Ishaq directed to my father: stay in your house: and go out neither to an assembly: nor to the Friday prayer: otherwise there will befall you what befell you in the days of Abou Ishaq.

Ibn al-Kalbi said: I want your abode: and the abode of your son to be searched.

So Mouzaffar and Ibn al-Kalbi rose: with two women with them: and searched: and lowered a candle into the well: and looked: then came out: when it was after two days: the letter of 'Ali ibn al-Jahm returned: your innocence has been confirmed before the Commander of the Believers: and he mentioned something of the narration of Hanbal.

Hanbal said: my father informed me: saying:

we entered the camp: and behold an immense procession advancing: when it lined up before us: they said: this is Wasif.

And behold a horseman advancing: who said to Abou Abdallah: the prince Wasif conveys to you the greeting: and says to you: Allah has given you power over your enemy, I mean Ibn Abi Dawoud: and the Commander of the Believers accepts from you: so do not leave anything that you have not said.

Abou Abdallah answered him nothing: and I began to invoke for the Commander of the Believers: and I invoked for Wasif: so we departed: and we were lodged in the house

of Itakh: and Abou Abdallah did not know it: he asked afterward: whose is this house?

They said: it is the house of Itakh.

He said: move me: rent me a house.

They said: here is a house where the Commander of the Believers has lodged you.

He said: I do not spend the night here.

He did not cease until we rented him a house: and there came to us each day a table with varieties that al-Moutawakkil ordered: and ice: and fruits: and other than that: Abou Abdallah tasted nothing of it: and did not look at it: and the expense of the table was one hundred and twenty dirhams a day.

And Yahya ibn Khaqan: and his son 'Obaydallah: and 'Ali ibn al-Jahm came to Abou Abdallah with the messages of al-Moutawakkil: and the illness persisted in Abou Abdallah: and he grew very weak.

And he fasted continuously: and he remained eight days without eating: nor drinking: on the eighth: I entered upon him: and he was on the point of being extinguished: I said: O Abou Abdallah! Ibn az-Zoubayr fasted seven days in a row: and behold today is your eighth day!

He said: I am capable of it.

I said: by my right over you.

He said: then I will do it.

So I brought him some sawiq: and he drank: al-Moutawakkil directed to him an immense wealth: he returned it: 'Obaydallah ibn Yahya said to him: the Commander of the Believers orders you to hand it to your child: and your family.

He said: they are in no need of it.

So he returned it to him: 'Obaydallah took it: and divided it among his children: then al-Moutawakkil had paid out to his family: and to his children: every month: four thousand: so Abou Abdallah sent to him: they have sufficiency: and have no need of it.

Al-Moutawakkil sent to him: this is only for your children: what do you have against that?

So Abou Abdallah held to it: and it did not cease being paid out to us until the death of al-Moutawakkil.

And many words were exchanged between Abou Abdallah and my father: and he said: O uncle! of our remaining lifespans: as if the decree had descended upon you: Allah: Allah then: for our children want only to eat with us: and they are only short days: and this is a trial.

My father said: I say: I hope Allah puts you in safety from what you guard against.

He said: how, while you leave neither their food: nor their gifts? If you left them: they would leave you. What are we waiting for? It is only death: either toward a Garden: or toward a Fire: blessed then is he who has advanced upon good.

He said: I say: have you not been ordered to take this money when it comes: without personal interest: nor request?

He said: I took once without regard to my interest: and the second: and the third? Has your soul not consulted itself?

I said: did not Ibn 'Omar: and Ibn 'Abbas take?

He said: what is this and that!

And he said: if I knew that this money is taken from its lawful source: without injustice: nor wrong in it: it would not touch me.

Hanbal said: when the illness of Abou Abdallah grew long: al-Moutawakkil sent Ibn Masawayh the physician: who prescribed remedies for him: and he did not have himself treated: Ibn Masawayh entered: and said: O Commander of the Believers: Ahmad has no illness: it is only the little food: and fasting: and worship.

Al-Moutawakkil fell silent.

The news of Abou Abdallah reached the mother of al-Moutawakkil: who said to her son: I desire to see this man.

So al-Moutawakkil sent to Abou Abdallah: begging him to enter upon his son al-Moutazz: to invoke for him: to greet him: and to take him into his lap (as master).

He refused: then he consented: hoping to be released: and to go down to Baghdad: so al-Moutawakkil directed to him a robe of honor: and a mount was brought for him to ride to al-Moutazz: he refused: he was wearing sandals of tiger skins: so a merchant's mule was presented: and he rode it: al-Moutawakkil sat with his mother in a chamber of the place: and over the chamber a fine veil: so Abou Abdallah entered upon al-Moutazz: and al-Moutawakkil: and his mother looked at him.

When she saw him: she said: O my son: Allah: Allah concerning this man: this one is not of those who want what you have: and it is not of interest to detain him far from his abode: so allow him to leave.

So Abou Abdallah entered upon

al-Moutazz: and said: peace be upon you.

And he sat: without greeting him as emir: I afterward heard Abou Abdallah say:

when I entered upon him: and sat: his tutor said: may Allah restore the prince: is this the one whom the Commander of the Believers has ordered to educate you: and teach you?

The child said: if he teaches me a thing: I will learn it.

Abou Abdallah said: I marveled at his intelligence: and at his answer: despite his smallness: he was small.

The illness of Abou Abdallah persisted: and al-Moutawakkil learned his state: Yahya ibn Khaqan also spoke to him: and informed him that he was a man not wanting this world: so he authorized his departure: 'Obaydallah ibn Yahya came at the time of the asr: and said: the Commander of the Believers has authorized you: and ordered that a boat be prepared for you in which you go down.

Abou Abdallah said: find me a boat: that I may go down at once.

So they found him a boat: and he went down at his time.

Hanbal said: we learned nothing of his arrival until it was said: he has arrived.

I met him near the Qati'a: he had come out of the boat: I walked with him: and he said to me: go ahead: so that the people do not see you: and recognize me: so I went ahead of him.

He said: when he arrived: he threw himself on his face: from fatigue: and exhaustion.

And it happened to him that he would borrow a thing from our abode: or from the abode of his son: when there came to him from the money of the authorities what came: he abstained from it: to the point that there was prescribed for him, in his illness, a ewe's head to roast: it was roasted in the oven of Salih: he learned of it: and did not use it: and things of that kind are many.

Salih mentioned the story of his father's setting out toward the camp: and his return: and the search of their houses over the 'Alawi: and the arrival of Ya'qoub with the litter: and that some of the amounts were two hundred dinars: and that he wept: and said: I was safe from them: until, at the end of my life: I was tried by them: I resolve that you distribute it tomorrow.

When he spent the night: al-Hasan ibn al-Bazzar came to him: and he said: bring me, O Salih, a scale: direct it toward the sons of the emigrants: and of the auxiliaries: and toward so-and-so.

Until he distributed all of it: while we were in a state Allah knows best: a son of mine came to me: asking for a dirham: I took out a coin: and gave it to him: the chief of the post wrote: he gave all of it as charity, that very day: down to the purse.

'Ali ibn al-Jahm said: I say: O Commander of the Believers: he has given it as charity: and the people know that he accepted from you: and what would Ahmad do with money?! His sustenance is only a bread.

He said: you have spoken truly.

Salih said: then my father was made to go out by night: with guards with us: at morning: he said: do you have dirhams?

I said: yes.

He said: give them.

And Ya'qoub began to walk with him: and said to him: O Abou Abdallah: Ibn ath-Thalji, it reached me that he used to mention you.

He said: O Abou Youssouf: ask Allah for acceptance.

He said: O Abou Abdallah: do you want us to carry for you a message to the Commander of the Believers?

He fell silent: then said: 'Abdallah ibn Ishaq informed me that al-Wabisi said to him: I bear witness against him that he said: Ahmad worships Mani!

He said: O Abou

Youssouf: Allah suffices (against him).

Ya'qoub grew angry: turned toward me: and said: I have never seen anything more astonishing than what we are in: I ask him to pronounce for me a word by which I inform the Commander of the Believers: and he does not do it.

He said: Ya'qoub directed to al-Moutawakkil what he had done: and we entered the camp: with my father head lowered: and covered: Ya'qoub said to him: uncover your head.

He uncovered it: then Wasif came wanting the house: and Yahya ibn Harthama was directed to my father: who said: the Commander of the Believers conveys to you the greeting: and says: praise to Allah who did not permit the people of innovations to rejoice over you: you have known the state of Ibn Abi Dawoud: so it befits you to speak of him as Allah requires.

Yahya departed: and my father was lodged in the house of Itakh: 'Ali ibn al-Jahm came: and said: the Commander of the Believers has ordered you ten thousand in exchange for what he distributed: and that your grandfather know nothing of that: for fear that he grieve.

Then Muhammad ibn Mou'awiya came to him: and said: the Commander of the Believers mentions you often: and says: stay here: and narrate.

He said: I am weak.

Yahya ibn Khaqan came to him: and said: O Abou Abdallah: the Commander of the Believers has ordered me to come to you: so that you ride to his son al-Moutazz.

And he said to me: the Commander of the Believers has ordered me: four thousand are paid out for him: and for your parents.

Then Yahya returned the next day: and said: O Abou Abdallah: will you ride?

He said: that depends on you.

He put on his izar: and his boots: and the boots had been with him for fifteen years: patched with several pieces: Yahya signaled that he wear a cap.

I said: he has no cap... until he said: he entered the house of al-Moutazz: who was

sitting on a bench in the house: he went up: and sat: Yahya said to him: O Abou Abdallah: the Commander of the Believers has brought you to rejoice at your nearness: and to place his son 'Abdallah in your lap.

Certain of the servants informed me that al-Moutawakkil was sitting behind a veil: and said to his mother: O mother: the house has been illuminated.

Then a servant came with a handkerchief: Yahya took the handkerchief: and he related an account of the dressing of Abou Abdallah in the shirt: and the cap: and the head veil: while he did not move his hand: then he went away.

They had moreover related: that he would make him wear black.

When he came: he took off the clothes: and began to weep: and said: I was safe from these for sixty years: until, at the end of my life: I was tried by them! I did not think I would be safe from my entering upon this boy: how then from the one whose counsel is obligatory upon me?! O Salih: direct these clothes toward Baghdad: let them be sold: and their price given as charity: and let none of you buy anything of them.

I directed them to Ya'qoub ibn Boukhtan: who sold them: distributed their price: and the cap remained with me.

He said: and he remained fifteen days: breaking his fast every third day with two mouds of sawiq: then after that he broke it one night with a bread: and one night he did not break it: and when the table was brought: it was placed in the corridor: so that he did not see it: and when the heat exhausted him: he wet a cloth: and placed it on his chest: each day Ibn Masawayh was directed to him: to look at him: and he said: O Abou Abdallah: I incline toward you: and toward your companions: and you have no illness: except weakness: and the meagerness of the food.

He said: Ya'qoub: and Ghiyath would come to him: and say to him: the Commander of the Believers says to you: what do you say of Ibn Abi Dawoud: and of his money?

He answered nothing.

Ya'qoub: and Yahya would inform him of what took place in the matter of Ibn (Abi) Dawoud.

Then he sent toward Baghdad: after having made him attest the sale of his goods: and it happened that Yahya ibn Khaqan came while Abou Abdallah prayed: and sat in the corridor: until he had finished the prayer.

Al-Moutawakkil ordered that a house be bought for us: he said: O Salih.

I said: here I am.

He said: if you confirm for them the purchase of a house: the quarter will be between me and you: they only want to make of this city for me a refuge.

So he did not cease opposing the purchase of the house: until it was abandoned.

The messengers of al-Moutawakkil would come to him: ask him about his state: and return: saying: he is weak.

And during that they said: O Abou Abdallah: he absolutely must see you.

Ya'qoub came to him: and said: the Commander of the Believers suffers from your absence: and says: find a day when you would go, whatever the day: so that I inform him of it.

He said: that depends on you.

He said: Wednesday: and he went out.

When it was the next day: he came: and said: good news O Abou Abdallah! the Commander of the Believers conveys to you the greeting: and says: I have exempted you from wearing black: and from riding to the princes of the oath: and to the palace: so wear what you want.

He began to praise Allah for that.

Then Ya'qoub said: I have a son whom I cherish: and he has in my heart a place: I would love that you narrate hadiths to him.

He fell silent: when he went out: he said: does he not see what I am in?!!

He would complete the Quran from one Friday to the next: and when he completed it: he invoked: and we

said amine: when it was the morning of Friday: he directed toward me: and toward my brother.

When he finished: he began to supplicate: and we said amin: when he had finished: he began to say: I consult Allah many times.

I began to say: what does he want?

Then he said: I give Allah a pledge: and His pledge is exacted: the Most High said: {O you who believe: fulfill the covenants} (surah al-Ma'ida, verse 1). I will never narrate a hadith in full: until I meet Allah: and I do not exclude any of you.

We went out: 'Ali ibn al-Jahm came: we informed him: and he said: we belong to Allah: and to Him we return.

Al-Moutawakkil was informed of it.

He said: they only want me to narrate: and this city would be my prison: and the case of those who resided in this city: when they were given they accepted: and they were ordered and they narrated: by Allah I wished death in the affair that was: and I wish death in this and that: this is the trial of the worldly life: and that was the trial of religion.

Then he began joining his fingers: and saying: if my soul were in my hand: I would send it.

Then he would open his fingers.

Al-Moutawakkil multiplied the questioning about him: and during that he ordered for us money: and said: let their grandfather not know: for fear that he grieve. What does he want from them? If it is he who does not want the worldly life: why did he prevent them from it?!

And they said to al-Moutawakkil: he does not eat of your food: and does not sit on your couch: and he considers unlawful what you drink.

He said: if al-Moutasim resurrected me: and said something in that: I would not accept from him.

Salih said: then I went down to Baghdad: and left 'Abdallah with him: and there was 'Abdallah arrived: I said: what is with you?

He said: he ordered me to go down.

And he said: say to Salih:

do not go out: for you were my scourge: by Allah had I anticipated of my affair what I did not anticipate: I would not have brought out a single one of you with me: without you, for whom would this table be set: and the couches spread: and the drinks poured?

So I wrote to him about it: informing him of what 'Abdallah had said to me: he wrote me therefore with his own hand:

may Allah beautify your end: and turn away from you everything hateful: and everything dreaded: what led me to write to you what I said to 'Abdallah (is that) none of you come toward me: in the hope that my mention cease: and fade: and when you are here: my mention spreads: and people used to come toward you who carried our news: and there was only good: if you reside: neither you: nor your brother come toward me: that is my contentment: and put in your soul nothing but good: and peace be upon you.

He said: and when we traveled: the table was lifted: and the couches: and everything that was set up for us.

Salih said: al-Moutawakkil sent to my father a thousand dinars for him to divide them: 'Ali ibn al-Jahm came therefore in the middle of the night: and informed him that he was preparing a boat for him: then 'Obaydallah came with a thousand dinars: and said: the Commander of the Believers has authorized you: and ordered you this.

He said: the Commander of the Believers has dispensed me from what I disapprove of.

He returned it: and said: I am sensitive to cold: and the dhuhr is sweeter to me.

A safe-conduct was therefore written for him: and it was written to Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah about his kindness: and his care.

He came to us: then said: O Salih.

I said: here I am.

He said: I would like you to abandon this stipend: you only take it because of me.

He fell silent: then said: what is with you?

I said: I disapprove of giving you (my word) with my tongue: and of contradicting you toward other than him: and among the people there is no one with more dependents than me: and I am not excused: and I complained to you: and you said: your affair is bound to mine: and perhaps Allah will untie for me this knot: and you supplicated for me: so I hope that Allah answered you.

He said: by Allah do not do it.

I said: no.

He said: why? That Allah treated you: and He has treated!!

And he mentioned a story of the entry of his brother 'Abdallah upon him: and of his word: and of his answer to him: then of the entry of his uncle upon him: and of his disavowal of the taking.

He said: my father therefore boycotted us: and closed the doors between us and him: and our dwellings avoided one another: then he was informed that his uncle had taken: and he said: you broke your faith toward me: and you lied to me!!

Then he boycotted him: and left the prayer in the mosque: and went out to another mosque where he prayed.

Then he mentioned a story of his supplication for Salih: and of his reproach to him: then of his writing to Yahya ibn Khaqan that he leave the stipend of his children: and of the fact that the news reached al-Moutawakkil: who ordered the transport to them of what had accumulated for them over ten months: namely forty thousand dirhams.

And that Abou Abdallah was informed of it: fell silent a little: and lowered his head: then said: what recourse have they left me: if I want one thing: and Allah wills another thing?!

Salih said: the messenger of al-Moutawakkil used to come to my father: conveying to him the greeting: and asking him about his state.

He said: a shiver seized him until we warmed him: then he said: by Allah if my soul were in my hand: I would send it.

The messenger of al-Moutawakkil came to him saying: if anyone among the people is safe: you are safe. A man has informed: that an 'Alawi arrived from Khorassan: and that you directed toward him someone to meet him: and that the man was sequestered: and that you wanted to beat him: I disapprove that you be distressed: order therefore in his affair.

He said: this is false: let his way be relaxed for him.

Then Salih mentioned a story of the coming of al-Moutawakkil to Baghdad: and of the sign of Abou Abdallah to Salih not to go to them: and of the coming of Yahya ibn Khaqan from al-Moutawakkil's,

and of his saying: the Commander of the Believers has dispensed me from everything I disapprove of: and of the sending of the prince of Baghdad Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah ibn Tahir toward Ahmad so that he assist him: and of the refusal of Ahmad: and of his saying: I am a man who never frequented power: and the Commander of the Believers has dispensed me from what I disapprove of: and this is part of what I disapprove of.

He said: he had taken up the habit of fasting when returning from Samarra: and stopped eating fat: and before that suet was bought for him for a dirham: and he ate of it for a month!!

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn al-Housayn narrated to me that al-Marroudhi had narrated them: saying:

Abou Abdallah was at the camp: and said: look: do you find any baqilla water? Sometimes I moistened his bread with water: and he ate it with salt.

From our entry into the camp until our exit: he tasted no cooked dish: nor any fat.

From al-Marroudhi: who says: Abou Abdallah woke me one night: having fasted continuously: and said: I am being shaken by hunger: feed me therefore something.

So I came to him with less than a bread: he ate it: and said: were it not that I fear harming myself: I would not have eaten.

And he would rise to go to the privy: and sit to rest from hunger: to the point that I moistened the cloth: and threw it upon his face: so that his soul return to him: to the point that he wrote his testament out of weakness: without illness: I heard him say, and we were at that camp:

What Ahmad ibn Muhammad bequeathed: he bequeathed that he bear witness that there is no god but Allah: alone: without associate: and that Muhammad is His servant: and His messenger.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father bequeathed this:

this is what Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal bequeathed: he bequeathed that he bear witness that there is no god but Allah... until he says:

and he bequeathed that there is owed to Fouran about fifty dinars: and he was truthful in what he said: and this will be paid from the revenue of the house: when it is complete: the children of 'Abdallah: and of Salih: every male: and female: will be given ten dirhams.

Witnesses: Abou Youssouf: and 'Abdallah: and Salih: the two sons of Ahmad.

We were informed by the one who heard Abou 'Ali the reciter: Abou Nou'aym informed us: Soulayman ibn Ahmad narrated to us: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: saying:

'Obaydallah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan wrote to my father: informing him that the Commander of the Believers ordered me to write to you: to question you about the Quran: not as a question of examination: but as a question of knowledge: and discernment.

My father dictated to me therefore: to 'Obaydallah ibn Yahya: in the name of Allah: the Merciful: the All-Merciful: may Allah beautify your end O Abou al-Hasan in all the affairs: and turn away from you the hateful things by His mercy: I wrote to you, may Allah approve you, of what the Commander of the Believers questioned about the Quran: according to what is present to me: and I ask Allah to perpetuate the success of the Commander of the Believers: the people were floundering in the false: and in a violent disagreement into which they sank: until the caliphate had fallen to the Commander of the Believers: Allah banished therefore by him every innovation: and turned away from the people what they were going through of humiliation: and of the narrowness of prisons: Allah turned away therefore all that: and it went away with the Commander of the Believers: and this fell among the Muslims like an immense event: and they supplicated Allah for the Commander of the Believers: and I ask Allah to answer in the Commander of the Believers a sound supplication: and to accomplish that for the Commander of the Believers,

and to increase in his intention: and to assist him upon what he is upon.

It has been mentioned from Ibn 'Abbas that he said: do not strike the book of Allah: one part against another: for it casts doubt into your hearts.

And it is mentioned from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr: that a group was sitting at the door of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: and some of them said: did Allah not say this?

And others said: did Allah not say that?

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, heard that: and came out as if pomegranate seeds were bursting upon his face: and said: is it with this that you were ordered to strike the book of Allah: one part against another? The nations before you were only led astray in the like of this. You are not of anything of what is here: look at what you were ordered: and act by it: and look at what you were forbidden: and leave it.

It is narrated from Abou Hourayra, from the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: dispute over the Quran is unbelief.

And it is narrated from Abou Jouhaym:

from the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: do not quarrel over the Quran: quarreling over it is unbelief.

Ibn 'Abbas said: a man came to 'Omar: and 'Omar began to question him about the people: and he said: O Commander of the Believers: such and such of them have recited the Quran.

Ibn 'Abbas said: I say: by Allah I do not like that they hasten, in their day, into this haste about the Quran.

'Omar then struck me with his glance: and said: enough.

I left toward my dwelling sullen: and saddened: while I was thus: a man came to me: and said: answer the Commander of the Believers.

So I went out: and there he was at the door awaiting me: he took my hand: remained alone with me: and said: what did you disapprove of?

I said: O Commander of the Believers: when they hasten into this haste: they will fall out with one another: and when they fall out: they will dispute: and when they dispute: they will diverge: and when they diverge: they will kill one another.

He said: blessed be your father! By Allah I was hiding this from the people: until you brought it out.

It is narrated from Jabir: who says:

the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, presented himself to the people at the station: and said: is there a man who carries me to his people: for Quraysh prevented me from conveying the word of my Lord.

It is narrated from Jouhayr ibn Noufayr:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: you will not return toward Allah with a thing better than what came out of Him.

He means: the Quran.

It is narrated from Ibn Mas'oud: who says: strip the Quran bare: write in it nothing but the speech of Allah.

It is narrated that 'Omar said: this Quran is the speech of Allah: place it in its places.

A man said to al-Hasan: O Abou Sa'id: when I read the book of Allah: and ponder it: I am on the point of despairing: and of my hope being cut off.

He said: the Quran is the speech of Allah: and the deeds of the son of Adam are destined to weakness: and insufficiency: act then: and receive the good news.

Farwa ibn Nawfal al-Achja'i said: I was a neighbor of Khabbab: I went out one day with him toward the mosque: holding my hand: and he said: well done: draw near to Allah with what you can: you will certainly draw near to Him by nothing dearer to Him than His word.

A man said to al-Hakam: what led the people of passions to this?

He said: the disputes.

Mou'awiya ibn Qourra said: beware of these disputes: they annihilate the deeds.

Abou Qilaba said: do not keep company with the people of passions, or he said: with the people of disputes: I cannot guarantee that they do not engulf you in their misguidance: and that they do not clothe upon you some of what you know.

Two men of the people of passions entered upon Muhammad ibn Sirin: and said: O Abou Bakr: shall we narrate to you a hadith?

He said: no.

They said: shall we read to you a verse?

He said: no: you will rise from me: or I will rise.

So they rose.

Some of the people said: O Abou Bakr: and what would be upon you if a verse were recited to you?

He said: ..., and he said: I feared that a verse would be recited: and that they would falsify it: and that it would settle in my heart.

A man of the people of innovations said to Ayyoub: O Abou Bakr: may I ask you about a word?

He turned away: saying with his hand: no: nor even half a word.

Ibn Tawous said to his son, while a man of the people of innovations was speaking to him: O my son: insert your two fingers into your two ears: so that you do not hear what he says.

Then he said: press: press.

'Omar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz said: whoever makes his religion an object of disputes multiplies wandering.

Ibrahim an-Nakha'i said: nothing of these people was reserved that was hidden from you out of favor toward you.

Al-Hasan used to say: the worst of evils that touches a heart: are the passions.

Houdayfa said: fear Allah: and follow the way of those who were before you: by Allah if you are upright: you have taken a far advance: and if you abandon it to the right: and to the left: you have gone astray

far, or he said: manifestly.

My father said: I left out the chains for what precedes, of the oath I swore and which the Commander of the Believers knew: and without that I would have mentioned them with their chains: Allah, the Most High, said: {and if any one of the polytheists seeks your asylum: grant him asylum: until he hears the word of Allah} (surah at-Tawba, verse 6).

And He said: {is it not to Him that belong the creation: and the command} (surah al-A'raf, verse 54).

He therefore informed that the command is not the creation.

And He said: {the Most Merciful: He taught the Quran: He created man: He taught him eloquence} (surah ar-Rahman, verses 1 to 4).

He therefore informed that the Quran is of His knowledge.

And the Most High said: {and the Jews: and the Christians will never be satisfied with you: until you follow their religion: say: the guidance of Allah: it is the guidance: and if you followed their passions: after what has come to you of knowledge: you would have against Allah: neither ally: nor helper} (surah al-Baqara, verse 120).

And He said: {and even if you were to come to those who were given the Book: with every proof: they would not follow your qibla} (surah al-Baqara, verse 145).

And up to His saying: {and if you followed their passions: after what has come to you of knowledge: you would be of the unjust} (surah al-Baqara, verse 145).

The Quran is therefore of the knowledge of Allah.

And in the verses there is a proof that what came to him is the Quran.

It has been narrated from the early generations that they said: the Quran is the speech of Allah: uncreated: and that is what I incline to: I am not a man of kalam (theological discourse): and I see no discourse about anything of that: except what proceeds from the book of Allah: or from a hadith of the Prophet: or of his companions: or of the successors: as for other than that: discourse in it is not praised.

This letter has its chain like the sun: look then at this luminous breath: and not like the letter of al-Istakhri: nor like the refutation of the Jahmites forged against Abou Abdallah: for the man was pious: and fearing Allah: he would not pronounce the like of that.

Perhaps he said it: and likewise the letter of the man at fault in the prayer is null.

What is established from him: in principles: and in branches: is a sufficiency of it: and among what is established from him: the question of faith: and he compiled on it.

His doctrine: faith and the Quran

Abou Dawoud said: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

faith is speech: and deed: it increases: and decreases: uprightness in its entirety is of faith: and the disobediences decrease faith.

Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Baghawi said: I heard Ahmad say:

whoever says: the Quran is created: he is an unbeliever.

And Salama ibn Chabib heard Ahmad say that: and this is mutawatir (mass-transmitted) from him.

Abou Isma'il at-Tirmidhi said: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

whoever says: the Quran is recent: he is an unbeliever.

Isma'il ibn al-Hasan as-Sarraj said: I asked Ahmad about the one who says: the Quran is created: he said: an unbeliever.

And about the one who says: my utterance (lafz) of the Quran is created: he said: a Jahmite.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: it reached my father that Abou Talib narrates that he said: my utterance of the Quran is not created.

So I informed my father of that: and he said: who narrated to you?

I said: so-and-so.

He said: send for Abou Talib.

So I sent to him: and he came: and Fouran came: and my father said to him: is it I who said to you: my utterance of the Quran is not created?!

He became angry: thundering: and said: I recited to you: {say: He is Allah: One} (surah al-Ikhlas, verse 1): and you said to me: this is not created.

He said: why did you narrate from me that I said: my utterance of the Quran is not created? It reached me that you wrote that to people: erase it: and write to them that I did not say it to you.

So Fouran began to apologize to him: Abou Talib returned: and mentioned that he had narrated that: and wrote to the people saying: I erred concerning Abou Abdallah.

I say: that upon which the state settled: is that Abou Abdallah used to say:

whoever says: my utterance of the Quran is not created: he is an innovator: and he said: whoever says: my utterance of the Quran is created: he is a Jahmite.

He was, may Allah have mercy on him, not to say this: nor that: and sometimes he clarified that: by saying:

whoever says: my utterance of the Quran is created, meaning by it the Quran: he is a Jahmite.

Ahmad ibn Zanjouya said: I heard Ahmad say: the doctrine of the utterance is worse than the Jahmiyya.

Salih said: I heard my father say:

the Jahmiyya are three factions: one faction said: the Quran is created: and one faction said: it is the speech of Allah: and fell silent: and one faction said: our utterance of it is created.

Then my father said: one does not pray behind a wafifi (one who suspends): nor behind a lafzi (man of the utterance).

Al-Marroudhi said: I informed Abou Abdallah:

that Abou Chou'ayb as-Soussi ar-Riqqi had separated his daughter from her husband when he suspended (his judgment) regarding the Quran: he said: he did well, may Allah grant him approval.

And he began to supplicate for him.

Al-Marroudhi said: when Ya'qoub ibn Chayba manifested the suspension: Abou Abdallah warned against him: and ordered his boycott.

The question of the utterance (lafz)

Abou Abdallah has, in the question of the utterance, several refutations: the first to manifest the question of the utterance was Houssayn ibn 'Ali al-Karabisi: who was among the vessels of knowledge: he composed a book on the dissimulators: in which he attacks a group: affirming in it that Ibn az-Zoubayr is of the Kharijites.

And it contains hadiths by which the Rafidites are strengthened. Ahmad was informed of it: and warned against him: this reached al-Karabisi: who conceived resentment over it: and said: I will pronounce a doctrine until Ibn Hanbal speaks against it: and becomes an unbeliever.

So he said: my utterance of the Quran is created.

Al-Marroudhi said in the book of narratives: I mentioned to Abou Abdallah that al-Karabisi said: my utterance of the Quran is created: and that he said: I say: the Quran is the speech of Allah: uncreated: under all aspects: except that my utterance of it is created: and that whoever does not say: my utterance of the Quran is created: is an unbeliever.

Abou Abdallah said: rather it is he the unbeliever, may Allah fight him! And what did the Jahmites say: other than this? And how does it avail him: whereas his last word annulled his first word?!

Then he said: what is the news of Abou Thawr: am I in agreement with him on this?

I said: he boycotted him.

He said: good: the people of kalam will not succeed.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father was questioned: and I was listening: about the doctrine of the utterance: and the suspenders (Waqifiyya): he said: the one among them who is skilled in kalam: he is a Jahmite.

Al-Hakam ibn Ma'bad: ad-Dawraqi narrated to me: I said to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: what do you say of these ones who say: my utterance of the Quran is created?

So I saw him rise up: compose himself: and say: this is worse than the word of the Jahmiyya.

Whoever claims that: has claimed that Jibril spoke with created (speech): and brought to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, created (speech).

This imam therefore saw no good in venturing into this debate: for fear that it be used to declare the Quran created: and abstaining from this is more just: we believe in Allah, the Most High: and in His angels: and in His books: and His messengers: and His decrees: and the resurrection: and the presentation before Allah: on the Day of religion.

If this line were deployed: clarified: and established with its proofs: it would come in five volumes: rather: this exists explained for whoever seeks it: and the Quran in this is healing: and mercy for the believers: it is known that the utterance is a thing acquired by the reader: other than the uttered: and the recitation is other than the thing recited: and the reading: and its beauty: and its tajwid: are other than the recited: and the voice of the reader belongs to his acquisition: he therefore produces the utterance: and the voice: and the movement: and the articulation: and the issuing of words from his created instruments: and he does not produce the words of the Quran: nor its ordering: nor its composition: nor its meanings.

The imam Abou Abdallah therefore acted excellently when he forbade venturing into the question from both sides: since everyone, affirming creatureliness or denying it of the utterance, is a deceiver: and no book: nor sunna brought it: what is not doubted is that the Quran is the speech of Allah: sent down: uncreated, and Allah is the most knowing.

Al-Hakim: al-Asamm narrated to us: I heard Muhammad ibn Ishaq as-Saghani: I heard Fouran, the companion of Ahmad, say:

al-Athram: and Abou Abdallah al-Mou'ayti asked me to seek a private interview with Abou Abdallah: so that I might question him during it about our companions who distinguish between the utterance: and the recited content.

So I questioned him: and he said: the Quran, whatever turning one makes of it in speech: and deeds: is not created.

As for our deeds: they are created.

I said: does the doctrine of the utterance then count them, O Abou Abdallah, among the Jahmiyya?

He said: no: the Jahmites are those who said: the Quran is created.

Likewise, he said: and I heard Fouran say:

Ibn Chaddad came to me with a sheet in which there were questions: and there figured in it: my utterance of the Quran is not created: Ahmad ibn Hanbal crossed it out: and wrote: the Quran, whatever the turning: is not created.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: I heard my father say: whoever claims that the names of Allah are created: has committed unbelief.

Al-Marroudhi said: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

whoever takes to kalam does not succeed: whoever takes to kalam: never fails to become a Jahmite.

Hanbal said: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

whoever loves kalam does not succeed: for it brings their affair to perplexity: take then the sunna: and the hadith: and beware of venturing into controversy: and quarrel: the people did not attain: and they do not know this discourse: the outcome of kalam does not come back to good.

The imam Ahmad has, in warning against the innovations: and their people, many sayings: and words on the sunna.

Whoever looks in the book of the Sunna of Abou Bakr al-Khallal sees in it an abundant knowledge: and a numerous transmission.

I have narrated a collection of them in the biography of Abou Abdallah in Tarikh al-Islam: and in the book al-'Izza li-l-'Ali al-'Azim.

The absence of intent turned me away from its repetition here.

Let us therefore ask Allah for guidance: and the good intent. To the imam Ahmad arrives the summit in

the knowledge of the sunna: in knowledge: and in deed: and in the knowledge of the hadith: and of its disciplines: and in the knowledge of the fiqh: and of its branches.

And he was a chief in asceticism: and piety: and worship: and truthfulness.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: al-Moutawakkil arrived: and alighted at ach-Chammasiyya: wanting to go to al-Mada'in: my father said to me: I would like you not to go to them: so as not to draw attention to me.

When it was after a day: I was sitting: it was a day of rain: and there was Yahya ibn Khaqan arriving in an immense cortege: with the rain upon him: he said to me: glory to Allah! you did not come to us to convey to the Commander of the Believers the greeting about your grandfather: until he sent me: then he dismounted out of the passage: I pressed him to enter upon the mount: and he did not do it: he began wading in the rain.

When he arrived: he removed his cloak: and entered: my father was in the corner wearing a garment: he greeted him: kissed his forehead: asked about his state: and said: the Commander of the Believers conveys to you the greeting: and said: how are you in your soul: and what is your state? Your absence hurt me: and he asks you to supplicate for him.

He said: no day passes upon me: without my supplicating Allah for him.

Then he said: he sent with me a thousand dinars: for you to distribute among the people of need.

He said: O Abou Zakariyya: I am in a secluded house: and he has dispensed me from everything I disapprove of: and this is part of what I disapprove of.

He said: O Abou Abdallah: the caliphs do not bear this.

He said: O Abou Zakariyya: be delicate in this.

He supplicated for him: then rose: when he returned to the house: he came back: and said: so, if one of your brothers sent it to you: would you do that?

He said: yes.

When we reached the corridor: he said: the Commander of the Believers ordered me to hand it to you: for you to distribute it.

I said: it can stay at your place: until these days pass.

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Housayn ibn Mou'awiya ar-Razi: Bakr ibn 'Abdallah

ibn Habib narrated to us: I heard al-Mis'ari Muhammad ibn Wahb say:

I was the pedagogue of al-Moutawakkil: when he was instituted caliph: he brought me close: and he would question me: and I answered him according to the way of the hadith: and of knowledge.

He sat one day for the inner circle: then rose: and entered into a house of his in glass: its ceiling: and its walls: and its floor: with water flowing in it in which he moved about.

Whoever entered it: was as if seated amid the water.

Seated at his right: al-Fath ibn Khaqan: and 'Obaydallah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan.

And at his left: Bouga l'Ancien: and Wasif: and I stood standing: when he laughed: the people murmured: and he said:

do you not ask me about the reason for my laughter?! One day I was standing at the head of al-Wathiq: who had sat for the inner circle: then entered here: I wanted to enter: and I was prevented: I stood where this servant stood: and beside him: Ibn Abi Dawoud: and Ibn az-Zayyat: and Ishaq ibn Ibrahim.

Al-Wathiq said: I reflected on that for which I called the people: namely that the Quran is created: and on the swiftness of the answer of the one who answered us: and on the vigor of the opposition of the one who opposed it: despite the whip: and the sword: I found the one who answered us covetous of what is in our hands: and I found the one who opposed it being held back by religion: and piety: there entered therefore into my heart, of that: a doubt: and a suspicion: until I had resolved to abandon that.

Ibn Abi Dawoud said: Allah: Allah O Commander of the Believers! to kill a sunna you revived: and annul a religion you established.

They fell silent: and Ibn Abi Dawoud became afraid: and said: by Allah O Commander of the Believers: this word toward which you call the people is the religion Allah chose for His prophets: and His messengers: and with which He sent His prophet: but the people were blind to accepting it.

Al-Wathiq said: they then hurled at me a challenge about that.

Ahmad said: may Allah strike him with paralysis: if what he says is not true.

Ibn az-Zayyat said: and he: may Allah nail his body with nails in this worldly life: before the other world: if what the Commander of the Believers says is not true: namely that the Quran is created.

Ishaq ibn Ibrahim said: and he: may Allah make his smell fetid in this worldly life: if what he says

is not true.

Najah said: and he: may Allah kill him in the narrowest prison.

Itakh said: and he: may Allah drown him.

Al-Wathiq said: and he: may Allah burn his body by the fire: if what he says is not true: namely that the Quran is created. So I laughed that there remained that day none of them: whose supplication was not answered.

As for Ibn Abi Dawoud: Allah struck him with paralysis: as for Ibn az-Zayyat: it is I who had him seated in an iron oven: and nailed his body with nails: as for Ishaq: in his illness he began to sweat a fetid sweat: until his relatives: and his neighbors had fled far from him: as for Najah: it is I who built over him a house one cubit by two cubits: until he died: as for Itakh: I wrote to Ishaq ibn Ibrahim when he had returned from the pilgrimage: he chained him: and drowned him: as for al-Wathiq: he loved union: and said: O Mikail: find me a remedy against impotence.

He said: O Commander of the Believers: your body: do not lay it waste: especially when man forces union.

He said: there is no way to escape it: and that there is, between his thighs with that, a slave girl.

He said: who can endure the like of that?

He said: take lion meat: one pound is taken: it is boiled seven boilings with vinegar of old wine: when you sit at your drink: take from it the weight of three dirhams: you will find your desire.

So he took it for some days: and said: bring me lion meat at once.

A lion was then brought out to him: which was slaughtered: and he used it.

He said: his belly swelled: the physicians were therefore gathered: and agreed that he had no remedy: except that an oven be heated for him with olive wood: until it was filled with embers: then what is in it is swept out: and it is lined with date paste: and he sat in it three hours: if he asks for water: it is not given to him: then he goes out: experiencing a violent pain: and he is not brought back to the oven: before two hours: for this water flows: and exits by the passages of urine.

If he is given drink: or brought back to the oven: he perishes.

He said: an oven was heated for him: then the embers were taken out: and placed on the top of the oven: then it was lined with wet paste.

Al-Wathiq was therefore stripped: and made to sit inside: he cried out: and said: you have burned me: give me water.

He was prevented from it: his whole body swelled in bumps like the watermelon: then he was taken out: having nearly burned: the physicians seated him.

When he felt the air: the pain worsened upon him: he began therefore to cry out

and to bellow like a bull: saying:

bring me back to the oven: his wives: and his inner circle gathered: and brought him back to the oven: and hoped for relief.

When it heated: his cry calmed: and these bumps burst: he was taken out: burned: and blackened: and he passed away after an hour.

I say: I do not know its narrator.

From Jarir ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud, who says: my father said:

I never saw a heart stronger than this one, I mean Ahmad. We began to speak to him: the caliph began to speak to him: calling him now by his name: now by his kunya: while he said:

O Commander of the Believers: I found nothing from the book of Allah: nor from the sunna of His messenger: by which to answer you.

Abou Ya'qoub al-Qarrab: Abou Bakr ibn Abi al-Fadl informed us: Muhammad ibn Ibrahim as-Sarram narrated to us: Ibrahim ibn Ishaq narrated to us: al-Hasan ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Jarawi narrated to me: saying:

I: and al-Harith ibn Miskin entered upon Ahmad in the immediate wake of his flogging: he said to us: I was struck: and I fell: and I heard that one, I mean Ibn Abi Dawoud, say:

O Commander of the Believers: this one is, by Allah, astray: leading astray.

Al-Harith said to him: Youssouf ibn 'Omar informed me, from Malik: that az-Zouhri was pursued: until he was beaten with the whips.

And it is said: his books were hung around his neck.

Then Malik said: Sa'id ibn al-Mousayyib was beaten: his head: and his beard shaved: Abou az-Zinad was beaten: Muhammad ibn al-Mounkadir was beaten: and companions of his in a bath: with the whips.

And Malik did not mention himself: Ahmad wondered at the word of al-Harith.

Makki ibn 'Abdan said: Ja'far ibn Soulayman beat Malik with ninety lashes in the year 147.

And it is narrated from Muhammad ibn Abi Samina: from Chabas the penitent: who says:

It is said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal was beaten with eighty lashes: had you struck an elephant with that: it would have felled it.

Al-Bayhaqi: al-Hakim informed us: Hassan ibn Muhammad the faqih narrated to us: I heard

Ibrahim ibn Abi Talib say:

I entered upon Ahmad ibn Hanbal after the trial many times: hoping to take from him a hadith: until I said: O Abou Abdallah: the hadith of Abou Salama, from Abou Hourayra:

that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: Oumrou l-Qays is the chief of the poets toward the Fire.

He said: it is said: from az-Zouhri: from Abou Salama. I said: who from az-Zouhri?

He said: Abou al-Jahm.

I said: who narrated it from Abou al-Jahm?

He fell silent: when I returned to him about this: he said: O Allah: preserve.

Al-Maymouni said: Ahmad said to me: O Abou al-Hasan: beware of speaking of a question for which you have no imam.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi narrated to us: Abou Abdallah said to me:

I never wrote a hadith without acting by it: until it reached me that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had himself cupped: and had given Abou Tayba a dinar: so I had myself cupped: and I gave the cupper a dinar.

A group informed us by license, from Ibn al-Jawzi: Ibn Nasir informed us: Abou al-Housayn ibn 'Abd al-Jabbar informed us: Abou Bakr Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Khayyat informed us: Ibn Abi al-Fawaris narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Ja'far ibn Salm narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Khaliq informed us: al-Marroudhi narrated to us:

I said to Abou Abdallah: the one who dies upon Islam: and upon the sunna: does he die upon good?

He said: be quiet: rather he dies upon all the good.

Mousa ibn Haroun al-Bazzaz said: Ahmad was questioned: where do we seek the supplicants?

He fell silent: then said: if they are not companions of the hadith: I do not know.

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Adami said: al-Fadl ibn Ziyad informed us: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

whoever rejects the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: is on the edge of ruin.

Abou Mouzahim al-Khaghani said: my uncle 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan said to me:

al-Moutawakkil ordered an interrogation of Ahmad about whom to invest for justice: I begged my uncle to make his answer come out to me: and he directed to me his copy:

in the name of Allah: the Merciful: the All-Merciful: copy of the note I presented to Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal after questioning him: and he answered me by what I wrote.

I questioned him about Ahmad ibn Rabah: he said about him: a notorious Jahmite: if he were invested with a thing of the affairs of the Muslims: there would be harm upon them.

I questioned him about al-Khalanji: he said about him: likewise.

I questioned him about Chou'ayb ibn Sahl: he said: a Jahmite notorious for that.

I questioned him about 'Obaydallah ibn Ahmad: he said: likewise.

I questioned him about the one known as Abou Chou'ayb: he said: likewise.

I questioned him about Muhammad ibn Mansour, judge of the Ahwaz: he said: he was with Ibn Abi Dawoud: in his circle: and his works: except that he was among the best of them.

I questioned him about 'Ali ibn al-Ja'd: he said: he was notorious for Jahmism: then it reached me that he turned back.

I questioned him about al-Fath ibn Sahl: he said: a Jahmite: of the companions of al-Marisi.

I questioned him about ath-Thalji: he said: innovator: man of passion.

I questioned him about Ibrahim ibn 'Attab: he said: I do not know him: except that he was of the companions of Bishr al-Marisi.

In sum: the people of innovations: and of passions must not be sought out for a thing of the affairs of the Muslims: with this

which the Commander of the Believers, may Allah prolong his duration, holds, of holding fast to the sunna: and opposing the people of innovations.

Says Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal: 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Yahya questioned me about all those who figure in this book: and I answered him by what is written: I was ill of the eye: weak in my body: incapable of writing with my hand: this seal was therefore signed at the bottom of the parchment by 'Abdallah, my son, upon my order: and before me.

His dress and his manners

'Abd al-Malik al-Maymouni said: I never saw the turban of Abou Abdallah: except under his chin: and I saw him disapprove otherwise.

Abou Mouslim Muhammad ibn Isma'il: Salih ibn Ahmad narrated to us: saying: I walked with my father one Friday toward the great mosque: and we found the people already gone.

So he entered the mosque: and with us was Ibrahim ibn Hani: my father stepped forward: and prayed the dhuhr with us: four rak'a.

And he said: Ibn Mas'oud did that with 'Alqama: and al-Aswad.

My father, each time he entered a cemetery: removed his sandals: and held them in his hand.

Yahya ibn Ma'in said in the merits of Ahmad: al-Bayhaqi informed us: al-Hakim informed us: I heard Yahya ibn Mansour: I heard my uncle 'Abdallah ibn 'Ali ibn al-Jaroud: I heard Muhammad ibn Sahl ibn 'Askar say:

I was with Ahmad ibn Hanbal: Muhammad ibn Yahya entered: Ahmad rose toward him: and the people wondered at it: then he said to his sons: and to his companions: go to Abou Abdallah: and write from him.

Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Soufyan: I heard 'Asim ibn 'Issam al-Bayhaqi say:

I spent a night at Ahmad ibn Hanbal's: he brought water: and set it down: in the morning: he looked at the water in its state: and said: glory to Allah! a man who seeks knowledge: without having his share of night worship.

Muhammad ibn Isma'il at-Tirmidhi said: I: and Ahmad ibn al-Hasan at-Tirmidhi were with Ahmad ibn Hanbal: Ahmad said to him: O Abou Abdallah: there was mentioned at Mecca to Ibn Abi Qatila the companions of the hadith: and he said: the companions of the hadith are people of evil.

So Abou Abdallah rose shaking his garment: saying: zindiq: zindiq: and he entered the house.

At-Tabarani: Muhammad ibn Mousa ibn Hammad recited to us the verse of Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah ibn Tahir:

the morning of Ibn Hanbal was a pleasant trial: and it is by the love of Ahmad that the ascetic is known

and if you see someone revile Ahmad: know that his veil will be torn

'Outhman ibn Sa'id ad-Darimi said: I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal walk: disapproving of walking side by side with Abou al-Qassim.

Ahmad ibn Marwan ad-Dinawari: Idris al-Haddad narrated to us: saying: Ahmad ibn Hanbal, when the affair weighed upon him: hired himself out for plastering: and he leveled it flat for them. In the days of the trial: when he was sent back to his house: money was brought to him: and he returned it: while he was in need of a bread: his uncle Ishaq began counting what he returned: about five hundred thousand.

He said: he said: O uncle: if we sought it: it would not come to us: it only came to us when we abandoned it.

Al-Bayhaqi: Abou Abdallah al-Hafiz informed us: az-Zoubayr ibn 'Abd al-Wahid al-Hafiz narrated to us: Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Wahid al-Baldi narrated to us: I heard Ja'far ibn Muhammad at-Tayalisi say:

Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and Yahya ibn Ma'in were praying in the mosque of ar-Roussafa: a narrator rose: and said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and Yahya ibn Ma'in narrated to us:

'Abd ar-Razzaq narrated to us: Ma'mar narrated to us: from Qatada: from Anas:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: whoever says: there is no god but Allah: Allah creates from every word a bird: its beak of gold: and its feathers of coral.

And he went on in a narration of nearly twenty folios: and Ahmad began looking at Yahya: and Yahya looked at Ahmad: and he said: is it you who narrated it with this?

He said: by Allah I only heard it just now.

They both fell silent: until he had finished: he took his part: and Yahya said to him with his hand: come closer.

He came groping his way, begging for alms.

He said: who narrated that to you?

He said: Ahmad: and Ibn Ma'in.

He said: I am Yahya: and here is Ahmad: we never heard that: if it occurred, there is necessarily a lie in it: and it is about others than us.

He said: are you Yahya ibn Ma'in?

He said: yes.

He said: I have never ceased to hear that Yahya ibn Ma'in was a fool: I only knew it just now: as if there were in the worldly life neither Yahya ibn Ma'in: nor Ahmad ibn Hanbal other than you two!! I have written from seventeen Ahmad ibn Hanbals: and from Yahya ibn Ma'ins other than you two.

Ahmad placed his sleeve over his face: and said: let him get up: so he got up: mocking the two of them.

This story spread on the tongues of people: and it is false: I think that al-Baldi forged it: he is known as al-Ma'soub.

Abou Hatim ibn Hibban also narrated it from him: his ignorance thus rose (became manifest).

Al-Marroudhi mentioned, from Ahmad: that he stayed in Samarra eight days: drinking nothing: except less than a quarter (of a mudd) of sawiq.

Ahmad ibn Boundar ach-Cha'ar: Abou Yahya ibn ar-Razi narrated to us: I heard 'Ali ibn Sa'id ar-Razi say: we set out with Ahmad ibn Hanbal toward the door of al-Moutawakkil: when they made him enter by the door of the inner circle: he said: withdraw: may Allah grant you health: none of us fell ill after that day.

Al-Koudaymi: 'Ali ibn al-Madini narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Hanbal said to me:

I desire to accompany you to Mecca: nothing prevents me from it: except the fear of wearying you: or that you weary me.

When I bade him farewell: I said: give me a piece of advice.

He said: make piety your provision: and set the hereafter before you.

Abou Hatim said: I met Ahmad for the first time in the year two hundred and thirteen: and there he was taking out with him toward the prayer the book of drinks: and the book of faith: he prayed: and

no one questioned him: and he carried them back to his house.

And I came to him another day: and there he was taking out the two books: I thought that he sought the reward in the taking out of that: for the book of faith is the foundation of religion: and the book of drinks is the turning away of people from evil: for all evil proceeds from intoxication.

Salih said: a man to whom a child was born offered my father a table of sweets: and he compensated him with sugar against sound dirhams.

Ibn Wara said: I came to Ahmad: and he brought out to me a cup in which there was sawiq: and said: drink it.

We were informed: by Muhammad ibn Isma'il: from Yahya ibn Ma'in al-Hafiz: Abou al-Walid ad-Darbandi informed us in the year four hundred and forty-four: Abou Bakr Muhammad ibn 'Obaydallah ibn al-Aswad informed us in Damascus: 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ja'far an-Nahawandi informed us: Abou Bakr Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Zouran narrated to us verbatim: Ahmad ibn Ja'far al-Istakhri narrated to us: saying:

Abou Abdallah Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: these are the ways of the people of knowledge: and of tradition: whoever contradicts a thing of that: or reviles the one who says it: he is an innovator.

And their saying was: faith is speech: and deed: and intention: and the fact of holding fast to the sunna: and faith increases: and decreases: whoever claims that faith is speech: and that deeds are laws: he is a Jahmite: whoever does not see the exception in faith: he is a Murji: and fornication: and theft: and the killing of a soul: and polytheism: all by decree: and by determination: without anyone having an argument against Allah.

Until he says: the Garden: and the Fire were created: then creation is for the two of them: they do not perish: and what is in the two of them never perishes.

Until he says: and Allah, the Most High, is upon the Throne: and the Kursi is the place of His two feet. Until

he says: and the Throne has bearers: and whoever claims that our words about the Quran: and our recitation of it are created: while the Quran is the speech of Allah: he is a Jahmite: and whoever does not declare him unbeliever: is his like: and Allah spoke to Moussa with a direct speech: from His side.

Until he mentions things of this repudiated model: and things that, by Allah, the imam never said: may Allah fight their forger.

Among the most absurd things it contains: his saying: whoever claims that he does not see the imitation: and does not make anyone imitate his religion: this is the word of a perverse man: enemy of Allah. Look then at the ignorance of the traditionists: how they narrate this fable: and stay silent about it.

Ad-Daraqoutni: Ja'far al-Khouldi narrated to us: al-'Abbas ibn Youssouf informed us: my uncle Muhammad ibn Isma'il ibn al-'Ala narrated to me: my father narrated to me: saying: Rizq Allah ibn al-Kalwadani invited me: and presented much food before us: among us Ahmad: and Ibn Ma'in: and Abou Khaythama: a sweet was presented on which he spent eighty dirhams.

Abou Khaythama said: this is waste.

Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: if this worldly life were the size of a morsel: then a Muslim took it: and placed it in the mouth of his brother: it would not be waste.

Yahya said to him: you have spoken the truth.

And this is a repudiated story.

Hanbal ibn Ishaq said: I asked Abou Abdallah: about the hadiths narrated from the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: Allah descends to the sky of the worldly life.

He said: we believe in them: and we affirm them

and we reject nothing of them: when their chains are sound: and we do not contradict the word of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: and we know that what he brought is true.

Al-Khallal: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: saying: I saw many scholars: and jurists: and traditionists: and Banou Hashim: and Quraysh: and the Helpers: kiss my father: some his hand: and some his head: and venerate him with a veneration I did not see them use toward a jurist other than him: and I never saw him desire that.

And I saw al-Haytham ibn Kharija: and al-Qawariri: and Abou Ma'mar: and 'Ali ibn al-Madini: and Bachchar al-Khaffaf: and 'Abdallah ibn 'Awn al-Kharraz: and Ibn Abi ach-Chawarib: and Ibrahim al-Harawi: and Muhammad ibn Bakkar: and Yahya ibn Ayyoub: and Sourayj ibn Younous: and Abou Khaythama: and Yahya ibn Ma'in: and Ibn Abi Chayba: and 'Abd al-A'la an-Narsi: and Khalaf ibn Hicham: and a group I cannot enumerate: venerate him: and honor him.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi informed us: I heard 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Warraq say:

Abou Abdallah is our imam: and he is among those firmly rooted in knowledge: if tomorrow I stand before Allah: and He questions me: about whom I took as model: what will I say? And what happened to Abou Abdallah: of the affair of Islam?!

And from Abou Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sayrafi, who says: I looked: and saw that Ahmad is superior to Soufyan.

Then he said: Ahmad left nothing behind him: and he preferred 'Outhman: and he did not drink.

Salih ibn 'Ali al-Halabi said: I heard Abou Hammam say: Ahmad never saw his like.

Al-Khallal said: we were tried by a people of ignoramuses: who consider themselves knowledgeable: when we mention the merits of Abou Abdallah: envy makes it come out of them: to the point that one of them said, as a trustworthy man informed me from him: Ahmad ibn Hanbal is their prophet.

Al-Khallal said: Soulayman ibn al-Ach'ath narrated to us: saying:

I saw in a dream, in the year two hundred and twenty-eight: as if I were in the mosque of the assembly: and a man resembling a eunuch came from the side of the enclosure: and he was saying:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: take as models the two who are after me: Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and so-and-so.

Abou Dawoud said: I do not retain his name: I began to say to myself: this is a strange hadith.

I interpreted it to a man: and he said: the eunuch in the dream is an angel.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi informed us: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

fear prevented me from eating food: and drinking: so I did not desire it: and I do not care that no one see me: nor that I see anyone: and I desire to see 'Abd al-Wahhab: say to 'Abd al-Wahhab: soften your mention of me: for I have been tried by fame.

Al-Khallal: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yazid al-Warraq informed us: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

I never compared youth: to anything other than a thing that was in my sleeve: and fell.

Ishaq ibn Hani said: Abou Abdallah died: and left behind him: only six coins in a cloth: of the size of two daniks.

Al-Marroudhi said: Ahmad said:

I hastened in the hadith: I did not have that intention in a part of what I was in.

'Abdallah said: I heard my father say:

often I wanted to hasten in the hadith: but my mother seized my garment: and said: until the muezzin calls.

And sometimes I went early to the study circle of Abou Bakr ibn 'Ayyach.

'Abbas ad-Douri said: I heard Ahmad say: at the beginning, when I sought (knowledge): I frequented Abou Youssouf the judge.

'Abdallah said: my father wrote the books of Abou Youssouf: and of Muhammad: and he memorized them: Mouhanna told me: I would question him: and he said: this does not appear in their books.

So I returned to them: and they said: your companion knows the books better than we do.

Al-Marroudhi: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

I never travelled to Syria: except after Salih was born to me: I think he was six years old when I departed.

I said: I think you did not travel after that?

He said: no.

I said: how long did you stay in Yemen?

He said: my departure: and my return: ten months: we departed from Mecca in Safar: and we caught the season.

I said: did you write from Hicham ibn Youssouf?

He said: no: he died before us.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: my father narrated to me: Yazid ibn Mouslim al-Hamdani narrated to us that he was one hundred and thirty-five years old:

Muhammad ibn Youssouf, the brother of al-Hajjaj, arrived: and I was five years old: in the year seventy-three.

Al-Marroudhi said: Abou Abdallah said: we came to an old man coming out of Sana'a: he was

with him.

According to Wahb ibn Mounabbih: it was said of him that he was one hundred and forty years old.

'Abdallah said: I heard my father say:

I saw Mousa ibn 'Abdallah ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan: and he was an upright man.

And I heard my father say: Youssouf ibn Ya'qoub ibn al-Majachoun narrated to us: and I never found among the traditionists anyone older than him.

And from Abou Abdallah, who said: I came to Youssouf ibn al-Majachoun: and he had close to two hundred hadiths: and I saw no interest in al-Qazzaz.

Al-Marroudhi: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

I never wrote from anyone more than Waki': and I heard thirty hadiths from 'Abd as-Salam ibn Harb.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: I asked my father about Abou Sayfi, who narrates from Moujahid: he said:

we wrote from him: from Moujahid: and from al-Maqbari: and from al-Hakam: he is nothing: and I never heard from 'Isa ibn Younous: and I saw Soulayman the reciter in Koufa: and a boy reciting to him precisely: and the hamza.

And from Abou Abdallah, who said: Isma'il ibn Moujalid was here: I caught up with him: and I never heard from him: and I saw al-Achja'i.

And I came to Khalaf ibn Khalifa: and he spoke: and I understood nothing of him: he thundered with old age.

And I wrote from Abou Nou'aym in the year eighty-five.

And I wrote from Ibn Mahdi about ten thousand.

And we wrote the hadith of Ghoundar on the spot: and he gave us the books: and we copied from them.

'Abdallah said: I heard my father say:

I heard from 'Abbad ibn 'Abbad in the year one hundred and eighty: and from at-Toufawi in the year two hundred and one.

And from Ahmad, who said: I wrote five hadiths from Moubachchir al-Halabi in the mosque of Haleb: we had set out for Tarsous on foot.

And he said: I wrote much from 'Omar ibn Haroun: and I narrate nothing from him.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: my father narrated to us: I heard Ishaq ibn Rahawayh mention from 'Isa ibn Younous.

Al-Khallal: 'Isma informed us: Hanbal narrated to us: I heard Ahmad say:

I heard from Ibrahim ibn Sa'd in the year one hundred and eighty-two.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father said:

I attended (the circle of) Ibrahim ibn Sa'd: a man from the city of Abou Ja'far came to him: and said: O Abou Ishaq: narrate to me.

He said: how could I narrate to you while this one is here? He means me.

I felt ashamed: and I stood up.

And I heard my father say: Oum 'Omar bint Hassan narrated to us: from her father: who said:

I entered the mosque: and behold 'Ali ibn Abi Talib on the pulpit: saying: my example

and that of 'Outhman is as Allah says: {and We removed from their breasts all rancour} (surah al-A'raf, verse 43): and al-Hijr: 47.

Al-Khallal: Abou Bakr ibn Sadaqa informed us: I heard Muhammad ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sayrafi say:

I came to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: I: and 'Abdallah ibn Sa'id al-Jammal: and it was at the end of the year two hundred.

So Abou Abdallah said to the Jammal: O Abou Muhammad: people ask me to narrate: do you see the reason for it?

He fell silent: I said: it is I who will answer you.

He said: speak.

I said: I see for you: if you desire to narrate: do not narrate: and if you desire not to narrate: narrate.

It seems he found good in it.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: I heard Nouh ibn Habib al-Qoumasi say:

I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the mosque of al-Khayf in the year one hundred and ninety-eight: Ibn 'Ouyayna alive: and he was giving an ample fatwa: I greeted him.

'Abdallah said: I heard my father, in the year 237, say:

I consulted Allah (istikharah) about never narrating a hadith in full.

Then he said: Allah says: {O you who believe: fulfill the covenants} (surah al-Ma'ida, verse 1): and I promise Allah never to relate a hadith in full.

Then he said: and neither will you: even if you desired it.

I said to him after that, months later: is it not reported from Charik: from Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad: from 'Abdallah ibn al-Harith: from Ibn 'Abbas?

He said: is a promise an oath?

He said: yes.

Then he fell silent: and I thought

that he was going to pronounce an expiation: when some days passed: I spoke to him about it: and he did not hasten toward the expiation: and I never heard him again narrate a hadith in full.

Al-Marroudhi said: I heard Abou Abdallah, at the camp, say to his son:

Allah, the Most High, said: {fulfill the covenants} (surah al-Ma'ida, verse 1). Do you know what the covenants are? They are the commitments: and I promise Allah, the Mighty: and the Glorified.

Then he said: by Allah: by Allah: by Allah: and upon me is the commitment of Allah: and His covenant: that never, near or far, have I narrated a complete hadith: until I meet Allah.

Then he turned to his son: and said: and if this one desires from him what he desires.

Then there reached him from a man of the State, who is Ibn Aktham: that he said: I wished that the caliph would order him to break his oath: and to narrate.

I heard Abou Abdallah say to a man from the side of the man of theological discourse: if you were to strike my back with the whips: I would not narrate.

His humility

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn al-Mounthir narrated to us: Ahmad ibn al-Hasan at-Tirmidhi narrated to us: saying:

I saw Abou Abdallah buy bread at the market: and carry it in a basket: and I saw him buy beans many times: and place them in a cloth: and carry it: holding the hand of his son 'Abdallah.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi informed us: I heard Abou Abdallah say: the one

who was in Khorassan: and died at the frontier wanted to narrate something here: while Yazid ibn Haroun was alive: he wrote to him: Yazid is alive: and if he says: no: then it is not until the Day of Resurrection: he manifested nothing: until Yazid died.

Al-Maymouni: Abou 'Obayd said to me:

O Abou al-Hasan: I kept company with Abou Youssouf: and with Muhammad: I think he mentioned Yahya ibn Sa'id: I never feared anyone as I fear Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

His jihad

'Abdallah ibn Mahmoud ibn al-Faraj said: I heard 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad say:

my father set out for Tarsous: performed garrison there: and went on expeditions.

Then my father said: I saw knowledge die there.

And from Ahmad: that he said to a man: take the frontier: take Qazwin: and it was a frontier.

The pursuit of chains and the science of men

Ibn 'Adi: 'Abd al-Mou'min ibn Ahmad al-Jurjani narrated to us: I heard 'Ammar ibn Raja': I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say:

seeking the highest chain is part of the sunna.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi narrated to us: I said to Abou Abdallah: a man said to me:

from here to the land of the Turks they invoke for you: how will you give thanks for what Allah has favored you with: and spread among the people?

He said: I ask Allah not to make of us ostentatious people.

'Abd al-Hafiz ibn Badran: and Youssouf ibn Ahmad informed us: both saying:

Mousa ibn 'Abd al-Qadir informed us: Sa'id ibn al-Banna' informed us: 'Ali ibn al-Bousri informed us: Abou Tahir al-Moukhallis informed us: 'Abdallah al-Baghawi narrated to us: saying:

I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the year two hundred and twenty-eight: at its beginning: relate the hadith of Mou'awiya from the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him:

there remains of this lowly world: only the trial: and the temptation: so prepare patience for the trial: he began to say: O Allah: make us content: O Allah: make us content.

Al-Mousallam ibn 'Allan: and others informed us in writing: that Abou al-Yumn al-Kindi informed them of it: 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad informed us: Abou Bakr al-Khatib informed us: Muhammad ibn al-Faraj al-Bazzaz narrated to us: 'Abdallah ibn Ibrahim ibn Masi narrated to us: Ja'far ibn Chou'ayb ach-Chachi narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Youssouf ach-Chachi narrated to me: Ibrahim ibn Oumayya narrated to me: I heard Tahir ibn Khalaf: I heard al-Mouhtadi bi-llah Muhammad, son of al-Wathiq, say:

my father, every time he wanted to kill someone: would summon us. An old man dyed (with henna), in chains, was brought: and my father said: let Abou Abdallah enter: and his companions, I mean Ibn Abi Dawoud.

So the old man was brought in: and said: peace be upon you O Commander of the Believers.

He said: may Allah not grant you peace.

He said: O Commander of the Believers: evil is what your tutor taught you. Allah, the Most High, said: {and when you are greeted: greet with better: or return the greeting} (surah an-Nisa, verse 86).

Ibn Abi Dawoud said: this man is a theologian.

He said to him: speak to him.

He said: O old man: what do you say about the Quran?

He said: he has not dealt with me fairly: and the question is mine.

He said: ask.

He said: what do you say about the Quran?

He said: created.

The old man said: is this a thing that the Prophet knew: and Abou Bakr: and 'Omar: and the rightly guided caliphs: or a thing they did not know?

He said: a thing they did not know.

He said: glory be to Allah! a thing the Prophet did not know: you know it?

He felt ashamed: and said: release me.

He said: the question remains as it is.

He said: yes: they knew it.

He said: they knew it: and did not call the people toward it?

He said: yes.

He said: did what contained them then not contain you?

So my father stood up: entered a chamber: lay down: saying:

a thing the Prophet did not know: nor Abou Bakr: and 'Omar: and 'Outhman: and 'Ali: nor the rightly guided caliphs: you knew it! Glory be to Allah! a thing they knew: and they did not call the people toward it: did what contained them then not contain you?!

Then he ordered the loosening of his chains: and that he be given four hundred dinars: and that he be allowed to return: and Ibn Abi Dawoud fell from his regard: and he put no one to the test after it.

This is a fine story: although there is in its chain an unknown: and it has a witness.

And by our chain toward al-Khatib: Ibn Razqawayh informed us: Ahmad ibn Sindi al-Haddad informed us: Ahmad ibn al-Moutanni' informed us: Salih ibn 'Ali al-Hashimi informed us: saying:

I attended al-Mouhtadi bi-llah: who sat to examine the affairs of the wronged: I watched

the petitions being read to him from the first to the last: and he ordered the visa upon them: and they were settled: and handed back to their owner: and that rejoiced me: so I began to look at him: he noticed it: and looked at me: I turned away from him: until that happened from me: and from him: many times: he said: O Salih.

I said: here I am O Commander of the Believers: and I sprang up.

He said: do you have in your soul something you wish to say?!

I said: yes.

He said: return to your place.

When he stood up: he remained alone with me: and said: O Salih: will you tell me what circulated in your soul: or shall I say it myself?

I said: O Commander of the Believers: what do you order?

He said: I say: there circulated in your soul that you found good what you saw of us.

You said: what caliph for us: if he did not say: the Quran is created.

An immense matter fell upon me: then I said: O my soul: will you die before your term?

So I said: nothing circulated in my soul: except what you said.

He reflected at length: then said: woe to you! listen: by Allah you will hear the truth.

So I was set aside: I said: O my master: who is more worthy of saying the truth than you: you who are the caliph of the Lord of the worlds?

He said: I never ceased to say: the Quran is created: since the days of al-Wathiq, I say: he was small in the days of al-Wathiq: and the report is rejected.

Then he said: until Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud brought us an old man coming from 'Adhana: he was brought before al-Wathiq in chains: I saw him feel bashfulness before him: soften toward him: and draw him near: he greeted: and invoked: and said: O old man: look at Ibn Abi Dawoud.

He said: O Commander of the Believers: Ibn Abi Dawoud has been installed: and he is too weak for the controversy.

Al-Wathiq became angry: and said: is it he who would be too weak to debate with you?

He said: O Commander of the Believers: be gentle with yourself: permit me to debate with him: if you see that you preserve over me: and over him.

He said: I will do it.

The old man said: O Ahmad: inform me of this doctrine on your part: is it an obligatory doctrine: entering into the pact of the religion: such that the religion is not complete as long as it is not said within it?

He said: yes.

He said: inform me then of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, when he was sent: did he conceal anything of what Allah ordered him: of the matter of their religion?

He said: no.

He said: did he then call the community toward this doctrine of yours?

He fell silent: the old man turned toward al-Wathiq: and said: O Commander of the Believers: one (fault). He said:

yes.

The old man said: inform me then of Allah when He said: {today I have perfected for you your religion: and completed upon you My favor} (surah al-Ma'ida, verse 3): was the Truthful truthful in the perfecting of His religion: or are you yourself truthful in its incompleteness: until this doctrine of yours was said?

He fell silent: he said: answer: and he did not answer.

He said: O Commander of the Believers: two.

Then he said: O Ahmad: inform me of your doctrine: did the Messenger of Allah know it: or not?

He said: he knew it.

He said: did he then call the people toward it?

He fell silent.

He said: O Commander of the Believers: three.

Then he said: O Ahmad: was it sufficient for the Messenger of Allah to know it: and to abstain from it as you claim: without asking his community to adopt it?

He said: yes.

And was that sufficient for Abou Bakr: and for 'Omar?

He said: yes.

The old man turned away: and said: O Commander of the Believers: I already stated that he is too weak for the controversy: if abstention did not suffice for us: may Allah then not enlarge for the one for whom did not suffice what sufficed for them.

Al-Wathiq said: yes: cut the chains of the old man.

When they were cut: he extended his hand toward the chain to take it: the blacksmith snatched it from him.

Al-Wathiq said: why did you take it?

He said: because I had the intention to bequeath that it be placed in my shroud: until I should dispute with this wrongdoer tomorrow.

And he wept: and al-Wathiq wept: and we wept: then al-Wathiq asked him to grant him acquittal: and he said: I have granted you acquittal: with largesse: from the first day: in honor of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: because you are of his people.

He said to him: stay near us: so that we may benefit from you: and you may benefit from us.

He said: your sending me back to my place is more useful to you: I return to my family: and my children: and I retain their invocation upon you: I left them upon that.

He said: would you accept from us a gift?

He said: it is not licit for me: I am rich of it (without need).

Al-Mouhtadi said: so I renounced this doctrine: and I think my father renounced it from that moment on.

Ahmad ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman ach-Chirazi al-Hafiz said: this Adhani is Abou 'Abd ar-Rahman 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Adhrami.

Ibrahim Niftawayh said: Hamid ibn al-'Abbas narrated to me: from a man: from al-Mouhtadi:

that al-Wathiq died: having repented of the doctrine of the creation of the Quran.

His teaching circle

From al-Housayn ibn Isma'il: from his father: who said:

about five thousand, or more, roughly five hundred additional, gathered in the circle of Ahmad: writing: and the others learned from him good manners: and deportment.

Ibn Battah: an-Najjad heard say: I heard Abou Bakr ibn al-Moutawwi'i say:

I kept company with Abou Abdallah twelve years: while he recited the Mousnad to his children: and I did not write from him a single hadith: I only looked at his guidance: and his morals.

Houmayd ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman ar-Rou'asi said: it is said: no companion was more alike in guidance: in deportment: and in trailing train (dal) to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: than Ibn Mas'oud: and the most alike of the people to him was 'Alqama: and the most alike of the people to 'Alqama was Ibrahim: and the most alike of them to Ibrahim was Mansour ibn al-Moutamir: and the most alike of the people to him was Soufyan ath-Thawri: and the most alike of the people to him was Waki': and the most alike of the people to Waki', according to the word of Muhammad ibn Younous al-Jammal: was Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

'Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Warraq: I was in the circle of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and he said: where do you come from?

We said: from the circle of Abou Kurayb.

He said: write from him: he is an upright old man.

We said: he criticizes concerning you.

He said: then what is my recourse? An upright old man has been tried by me.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father was asked: why did you not hear much from Ibrahim ibn Sa'd: while he resided as your neighbor at the house of 'Oumara?

He said: we attended his circle once: and he narrated to us: when the second circle came: he saw young men advancing before the elders: he became angry: and said: by Allah I will not narrate for a year.

So he died: without having narrated.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn al-Housayn informed me: al-Marroudhi informed us: saying:

our neighbor so-and-so said: I entered upon the prince Ishaq ibn Ibrahim: and upon so-and-so: and so-and-so, he mentioned sultans: I never saw anyone more impressive than Ahmad ibn Hanbal: I went to him to speak to him about a thing: and a trembling seized me: because of his majesty.

Then al-Marroudhi said: al-Kalbi, the master of secret reports, knocked at his door one night: and out of regard for him they did not knock: they knocked at the door of his uncle.

And from al-Maymouni, who said: I never saw a garment purer: nor of a whiter white: than that of Ahmad.

Ibn al-Mounadi: from his grandfather, Abou Ja'far: who said:

Ahmad was among the most full of life of the people: and the most noble: and the best in companionship: and in education: great in lowering the gaze: one heard from him

only the mention of the hadith: and the mention of the people of good: in dignity: and calm: and beautiful phrasing: and when a person met him: he smiled at him: and turned toward him: and he was very humble toward the elders: and they venerated him: and he did with Yahya ibn Ma'in what I never saw done with another: in humility: and honor: and veneration: Yahya was seven years older than him.

Al-Khatibi: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: saying:

my father, every time he returned home from the mosque: stamped his foot: so that they would hear the sound of his sandal: and sometimes he cleared his throat: so that they would know of him.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn 'Ali narrated to us: Mouhanna narrated to us: saying:

I saw Abou Abdallah, many times, have his face kissed: and his head: without saying anything: and without dispensing himself from it: and I saw Soulayman ibn Dawoud al-Hashimi have his head kissed: and his forehead: without dispensing himself from it: and without disapproving of it.

And 'Abdous al-'Attar said: I directed my son with the maidservant: so that he would greet Abou Abdallah: he welcomed him: seated him on his lap: questioned him: prepared khabis (porridge) for him: and said to the maidservant: eat with him: and he began to hand it to him.

And al-Maymouni said: Abou Abdallah was of a beautiful character: continually smiling: bearing the wrong of the neighbor.

'Oulwan ibn al-Housayn: I heard 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: saying:

my father was asked: why do you not keep company with the people?

He said: because of the solitude of separation.

Ibn Battah: Muhammad ibn Ayyoub narrated to us: Ibrahim al-Harbi narrated to us: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say to Ahmad al-Waki'i:

O Abou 'Abd ar-Rahman! I love you. Yahya narrated to us: from Thawr: from Habib ibn 'Obayd: from al-Miqdam: who said:

the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: when one of you loves his brother: let him inform him of it.

Ibn Battah: Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Qaflani narrated to us: Ishaq ibn Hani narrated to us: saying:

we were at Ahmad ibn Hanbal's in his dwelling: with him al-Marroudhi: and Mouhanna: someone knocked at the door: and said: is al-Marroudhi here?

As if al-Marroudhi disapproved that his place be known: Mouhanna placed his finger in his palm: and said: al-Marroudhi is not here: and what would al-Marroudhi be doing here?

Ahmad laughed: and objected nothing to it.

His livelihood

Ibn al-Jawzi said: his father left him an embroidery workshop (tarz): and a house to live in: so he rented this workshop: and lived chastely from it.

Ibn al-Mounadi said: my grandfather narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Hanbal said to me:

as for me, I cultivate this house: and I extract the zakat from it each year: relying on the word of 'Omar concerning the land of Sawad.

Al-Marroudhi said: I heard Abou Abdallah say:

the yield is our livelihood: in this I only go so far as (to suppose) that we have some part in it.

I said to him: a man said: if Abou Abdallah abandoned the yield: and had a friend who would be for him: that would seem more admirable to me.

He said: this is a bad dependence: and the one who becomes accustomed to it will not endure.

Then he said: this is more admirable to me than its contrary, I mean the yield: and you know that it does not provide for our sustenance: I took it only under constraint.

Ibn al-Jawzi said: sometimes Ahmad was in need: and went out gleaning.

Al-Khallal said: Muhammad ibn al-Housayn narrated to me: al-Marroudhi narrated to us: saying:

Abou Ja'far at-Tarsousi narrated to me: saying:

the one with whom Abou Abdallah resided narrated to me: saying: when he resided with me: he went out gleaning: and returned having gleaned little: I said to him: you ate more than you gleaned!

He said: I saw a thing of which I felt ashamed: I saw them gleaning: and the man rose on the four limbs: while I crawled.

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Khaliq: al-Marroudhi narrated to us: Abou Abdallah said:

I went out to the frontier on foot: and gleaned. If you saw a people corrupting the harvests of the people... and we went out gleaning.

I say: and sometimes he copied for a wage: and sometimes made belts: and hired himself out to a camel driver, may Allah have mercy on him.

Legal questions from him

Ibrahim al-Harbi said: Ahmad was asked: about the Muslim saying to the Christian: may Allah honor you.

He said: yes: he means by that Islam.

It is said: Ahmad was asked: about a man who vowed to circumambulate on the four limbs: he said:

let him circumambulate two circumambulations: and not walk on the four limbs.

Ibn 'Aqil said: among the most astonishing that I heard from these ignorant youths: their word: Ahmad is not a faqih: he is only a traditionist.

He said: and this is the summit of ignorance: for he had legal preferences built upon the hadiths: with a construction whose existence most of them ignore: and sometimes he surpassed their elders.

I say: I think they imagine that he was a traditionist and that is all: rather: they picture him in the category of the traditionists of our time: by Allah he reached, in fiqh alone, the rank of al-Layth: and of Malik: and of ach-Chafii: and of Abou Youssouf: and in asceticism: and in piety: the rank of al-Fadl: and of Ibrahim ibn Adham: and in memorization: the rank of Chou'ba: and of Yahya al-Qattan: and of Ibn al-Madini: but the ignorant one does not know his own rank: how then would he know the rank of another?

The forged accounts

Ibn al-Jawzi was not ashamed to report it: and said:

Ibn Nasir informed us: Ibn at-Touyouri informed us: 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Housayn informed us: the judge Hammam ibn Muhammad al-Abouli informed us: Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn Housayn al-Khatib narrated to us: al-Housayn ibn Bakr al-Warraq informed us: Abou at-Tayyib Muhammad ibn Ja'far informed us: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: saying:

when my father was released from the trial: he feared that Ishaq ibn Rahawayh would come to him: and he travelled toward him: when he reached ar-Rayy: he entered a mosque: and the rain came

like the necks of the waterskins: they said to him: leave the mosque: so that we may close it.

He refused: they said: leave: or you will be dragged by your leg.

I said: in peace.

So I went out: with the rain: and the thunder: without knowing where to set my foot: and behold a man come out of his dwelling: who said: O you: where are you going?

I said: I do not know.

He said: he led me into a house where there was a charcoal brazier: and flat loaves: and a table: I ate: and he said: who are you?

I said: from Bagdad.

He said: do you know Ahmad ibn Hanbal?

I said: it is I.

He said: and I am Ishaq ibn Rahawayh.

Sa'id ibn 'Amr al-Bardha'i said: I heard Abou Zour'a say:

Ahmad did not permit the writing of Abou Nasr at-Tammar: nor of Yahya ibn Ma'in: nor of anyone who was put to the trial: and responded.

Abou 'Awana said: I heard al-Maymouni say:

it is established with me that at the death of Abou Nasr at-Tammar: Ahmad did not attend (his funeral): I think that was due to his response in the trial.

And according to Hajjaj ibn ach-Cha'ir: who heard Ahmad say:

if I narrated from anyone who responded: I would have narrated from Abou Ma'mar: and from Abou Kurayb.

I say: because Abou Ma'mar al-Houdhali repented: and despised his soul: and the other: he was paid two dinars after the response: and he returned both: despite his poverty.

As-Souli: al-Housayn ibn Qahm narrated to us: my father narrated to us: Ibn Abi Dawoud said to al-Moutasim:

O Commander of the Believers: this one claims, I mean Ahmad, that Allah will be seen in the hereafter: whereas the eye falls only upon a delimited thing.

He said: what do you have concerning that? He said:

I have the word of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: who related the hadith of Jarir: you will surely see your Lord: as you see this full moon.

He said to Ahmad ibn Abi Dawoud: what do you have?

He said: examine his chain.

And he went away: and sent for Ibn al-Madini: while he was fleeing in Bagdad: he had him come: and bound him to himself with ten thousand dirhams: and said: O Abou al-Hasan: the hadith of Jarir about the vision: and he related the story.

Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Abbar: Yahya ibn 'Outhman al-Harbi narrated to us: I heard Bishr ibn al-Harith say:

I would have loved that their heads be dyed with their blood: and that they had not responded.

Abou 'Ali ibn al-Banna' transmitted: from a sheikh: from another: that these verses are from Ahmad concerning 'Ali:

O son of al-Madini: to whom was offered ... a lowly world: and he bartered his religion to attain it

what called you to the adoption of a doctrine ... you who declared a disbeliever the one who said it?

a matter appeared straight to you: and you followed it ... or did you want to attain the flower of the lowly world?

I knew you once unshakable ... harsh in the doctrine for which you are called

the one who is tried: is the one who is struck in his religion ... not the one who is struck in a she-camel: and her weaned young

Ibn Makhlad al-'Attar: 'Omar ibn Soulayman al-Mou'addib narrated to us: saying:

I prayed the tarawih with Ahmad ibn Hanbal: he prayed in the house of his uncle: when he performed the witr: he raised his hands toward his two breasts: and we heard nothing of his invocation: in the mosque there was a lamp on the step: it had neither candles: nor mat: nor khoulouq (perfume).

Salih ibn Ahmad said: I said to my father: it reached me that ad-Dawraqi received one thousand dinars.

He said: O my son: {and the provision of your Lord is better: and more lasting} (surah Taha, verse 131).

And I mentioned to him Ibn Abi Chayba: and 'Abd al-A'la an-Narsi: and those who were brought to the camp among the traditionists: he said: those were only short days: then they followed one another: and they did not adorn themselves with it greatly.

Salih said: my father said to me: your mother: during the famine: spun a fine thread: and sold the cloths for two dirhams: or thereabouts: that was our livelihood.

Salih said: sometimes we bought a thing: and hid it from him: for fear that he would reproach us for it.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi informed us: saying:

I saw Ahmad ibn 'Isa al-Misri: with people among the traditionists: enter upon Abou Abdallah at the camp: Ahmad said to him: O Abou Abdallah: what is this worry? Islam is a straight path: spacious: a vast house. He looked at them:

while he was lying down: when they went out: he said: I do not want these ones to enter upon me.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn 'Ali as-Simsar informed us: Ishaq ibn Hani narrated to me: Abou Abdallah said to me:

come early: so that we may vie in something of asceticism.

So I came early to him: and said to his concubine: give me a mat: and a cushion.

I spread it in the corridor: Abou Abdallah came out: with the books: and the inkwell: and said: what is this?

I said: so that we may sit on it.

He said: remove it: asceticism is only beautiful with asceticism.

So I removed it: and he sat on the earth.

He said: and Youssouf ibn ad-Dahhak informed me: Ibn Jabala narrated to me: saying:

I was at the door of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: the door open: and his concubine speaking to him: and saying: I am with you in hardship: and the family of Salih eat: and do: and he kept saying: speak well.

And the child went out with him: and wept: he said: what do you want?

He said: raisins.

He said: go: take from the vegetable seller one grain.

Al-Maymouni said: the dwelling of Abou Abdallah was narrow: and small: and he slept: in the heat: in its lower part.

And his uncle said to me: sometimes I said to him: and he did not do it: he slept above.

And I saw the place of his bed: there was a rag: and a pallet: upon which the dirt had triumphed.

Al-Khallal: Hamid ibn Ahmad informed me: I heard al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Harith say:

I entered the house of Ahmad: and saw in his hall a pierced mat: and a cushion, his books spread around him, and clay grains (prayer beads).

It is said: at his door there was a broom of hair.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi informed us: from Ishaq ibn Ibrahim an-Naysabouri: who said: the prince said to me: when the time of the breaking of the fast of Abou Abdallah arrives: signal it to him.

He said: so two loaves were brought: of bread: and of khoubbaza (mallow): I signaled the prince: and he said: this one does not answer us: while this holds him chaste.

Al-Marroudhi said: Abou Abdallah said, on the days of festivity: buy us of the baqilla of yesterday: what was there of generosity in it?

And I heard him say: I found the cold in my extremities: I see it only from my seasoning of salt: and vinegar.

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Masrouq said: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad said to me:

my father entered upon me: visiting me in my illness: I said: O my father: we have a thing with which al-Moutawakkil used to treat us well: may I perform the pilgrimage with it?

He said: yes.

I said: when such is your position: why do you not take from it?

He said: it is not illicit for me: but I have purified myself from it.

Reported by al-Khouldi: from him.

Ibn 'Allan informed us: Abou al-Yumn informed us: al-Qazzaz informed us: al-Khatib informed us: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ya'qoub informed me: ad-Dabbi informed us: I heard Ahmad ibn Ishaq ad-Doub'i: I heard Ibrahim ibn Ishaq as-Sarraj say:

one day Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: it reaches me that this al-Harith, I mean al-Mouhasibi, holds with you many talks: if you brought him: and seated me where they do not see me: I would hear his word.

I said: I hear

and I obey.

This initiative of Abou Abdallah rejoiced me: I went to al-Harith: and asked him to attend: and said: you ask your companions to attend.

He said: O Isma'il: there are many among them: add for them only beans: and dates: and increase of both as much as you can.

So I did what he ordered me: and informed Abou Abdallah: he attended after the maghreb: went up into a chamber: and strove in his night office: al-Harith: and his companions attended: ate: then rose for the prayer: and did not pray after it: and sat before al-Harith in silence: until near midnight: one of them began: and asked about a question: al-Harith launched into the discourse: while they listened: as if birds were perched upon their heads: some of them wept: and some cried out: so I went up to check the state of Abou Abdallah: and he was in a shaken state: I said: how did you find it?

He said: I do not know that I have seen the like of these people: nor heard in the science of realities a word like this one: and seen what I have described: I do not see for you their companionship.

Then he stood up: and went out.

As-Salami said: I heard Abou al-Qassim an-Nassabadhi say:

it reached me that al-Harith spoke in something of the theological discourse: so Ahmad boycotted him: he hid away in a house where he died: and no one prayed over him: except four persons.

His writings and his compilations

Ibn al-Jawzi said: the imam did not approve the composition of books: and forbade the writing of his sayings: and of his questions. Had he approved that: he would have had many compilations: he compiled the Mousnad: which is of thirty thousand hadiths: and said to his son 'Abdallah: preserve this Mousnad: it will be for the people an imam: and the Tafsir: which is of one hundred and twenty thousand,

and the Nasikh wa-l-Mansoukh: and the Tarikh: and the hadith of Chou'ba: and the Muqaddam wa-l-Mou'akhkhar in the Quran: and the responses of the Quran: and the Manasik: the great: and the small: and other things.

I say: and the book of faith: and the book of drinks: and I saw from him a leaf of the book of inheritance obligations.

This mentioned Tafsir is a thing that has no existence: were it found: the people of merit would strive to obtain it: and it would become famous: and had he compiled a tafsir: it would not have exceeded ten thousand athars: and that would require five volumes.

Here is the tafsir of Ibn Jarir: who gathered and preserved in it: it does not reach twenty thousand.

And no one mentioned a tafsir of Ahmad: except Abou al-Housayn ibn al-Mounadi: who says in his Tarikh: never

anyone in the lowly world was greater in narration from his father than 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: for he heard from him the Mousnad: which is of thirty thousand: and the Tafsir: which is of one hundred and twenty thousand: he heard two thirds of it: and the rest was found in writing (wijada).

Ibn as-Sammak: Hanbal narrated to us: saying:

Ahmad ibn Hanbal gathered us: I: and Salih: and 'Abdallah: and recited to us the Mousnad: which no one other than us heard.

And he said: this book I gathered it: and sorted it: from more than seven hundred and fifty thousand: whatever disagreement of the Muslims over a hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, refer it to it: if you find it in it: otherwise it is not a proof.

I say: in the two Sahih there are few hadiths: absent from the Mousnad.

But one may say: they do not fall upon his word: for the Muslims never diverged over it: then it follows from this word: that what is found in it is a proof: yet it contains a group of weak hadiths whose transmission is permitted: and arguing by which is not obligatory: and it contains hadiths in small number: nearly forged: but they are a drop in a sea.

In some copies of the Mousnad there are abundant additions for 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad.

Ibn al-Jawzi said: he has, I mean Abou Abdallah, among the compilations:

the book of the negation of resemblance: one volume: and the book of the Imamat: a small volume: and the book of the refutation of the zindiqs: three parts: and the book of asceticism: a large volume: and the book of the epistle on the prayer, I say: it is forged against the imam.

He said: and the book of the merits of the companions: one volume.

I say: it contains additions of 'Abdallah: his son: and of Abou Bakr al-Qati'i: his companion.

The great ones among his disciples noted from him abundant questions: in several volumes: like al-Marroudhi: and al-Athram: and Harb: and Ibn Hani: and al-Kawsaj: and Abou Talib: and Fouran: and Badr al-Maghazili: and Abou Yahya an-Naqid: and Youssouf ibn Mousa al-Harbi: and 'Abdous al-'Attar: and Muhammad ibn Mousa ibn Mouchaychich: and Ya'qoub ibn Boukhtan: and Mouhanna ach-Chami: and Salih ibn Ahmad: and his brother: and their cousin Hanbal: and Abou al-Harith Ahmad ibn Muhammad as-Sa'igh: and al-Fadl ibn Ziyad: and Abou al-Hasan al-Maymouni: and al-Hasan ibn Thawab: and Abou Dawoud as-Sijistani: and Haroun al-Hammal: and the judge Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Birti: and Ayyoub ibn Ishaq ibn Safiriyya: and Haroun al-Moustamli: and Bishr ibn Mousa: and Ahmad ibn al-Qassim, the companion of Abou 'Obayd: and Ya'qoub ibn al-'Abbas al-Hashimi: and Hobaych ibn Sindi: and Abou as-Saqr Yahya ibn Yazdad al-Warraq: and Abou Ja'far Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Kahhal: and Muhammad ibn Habib al-Bazzaz: and Muhammad ibn Mousa an-Nahrtiri: and Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Wasil the reciter: and Ahmad ibn Asram al-Muzani: and 'Abdous al-Harbi, an elder, having with him about ten thousand questions of Ahmad that he never narrated: and Ibrahim al-Harbi: and Abou Ja'far Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Haroun ibn Badina: and Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn al-Houdhayl al-Koufi, he was compared in majesty to Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah ibn Noumayr: and Abou Chayba Ibrahim ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abi Chayba: and Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah Moussayyan: and Ja'far ibn

Ahmad al-Wasiti: and al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Iskafi: and al-Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn Bahr ibn Barriyy al-Qattan: and al-Housayn ibn Ishaq at-Toustari: and al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Harith as-Sijistani, al-Khallal said: he comes close to Abou Dawoud in knowledge: and the scrutiny of hadith: and fiqh: and Isma'il ibn 'Omar as-Sijzi al-Hafiz: and Ahmad ibn al-Fourat ar-Razi al-Hafiz: and people other than these: whom al-Khallal named among the companions of Abou Abdallah: who transmitted the questions: numerous: and few.

And Abou Bakr al-Khallal gathered all that was with these ones of the sayings of Ahmad: and of his legal opinions: and of his discourses on the defects of transmission: and on the men: and on the sunna: and the branches: until he had of that an indescribable quantity.

And he travelled to the regions to obtain it: and wrote from about one hundred persons of the companions of the imam.

Then he wrote much of that from the companions of his companions: and a part from a man: from another: from another: from the imam Ahmad: then he set about ordering it: refining it: and arranging it into chapters.

And he composed the book of knowledge: and the book of the defects ('Ilal): and the book of the sunna: each of the three in three volumes.

And he relates in some of these things the hadiths with elevated chains that he holds: from the peers of Ahmad among the companions of Ibn 'Ouyayna: and of Waki': and of Baqiyya: which testifies for him of the imamat: and of precedence.

And he compiled the book of the Jami' in close to fourteen volumes: or more.

And he said in the book of the morals of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: I never knew anyone occupied with the questions of Abou Abdallah: as much as I was occupied with them.

And likewise Abou Bakr al-Marroudhi, may Allah have mercy on him, said to me: no one has been occupied with the questions of Abou Abdallah as you are: except a man in Hamdan: called Mottawayh: whose name is Muhammad ibn Abi Abdallah: who gathered seventy large booklets.

And the birth of al-Khallal was during the life of the imam Ahmad: it is possible that he saw him being a child.

His wives and his family

Zouhayr ibn Salih said: my grandfather married the mother of Abou 'Abbasah: and there was born to him from her only my father: then she died: then he married after her Rayhana, a woman of the Arabs: she bore him only my uncle 'Abdallah.

Al-Khallal said: I heard al-Marroudhi: I heard Abou Abdallah mention his family: and invoke mercy upon her: and say:

we remained twenty years: without diverging in a single word: and I never knew that Ahmad married a third.

Ya'qoub ibn Boukhtan said: Abou Abdallah ordered us to buy him a concubine: so I set out: with Fouran: and Abou Abdallah sent me back: and said: O Abou Youssouf: let her have flesh.

And Zouhayr said: when the mother of 'Abdallah died: my grandfather bought Housn: who bore him the mother of 'Ali: Zaynab: and al-Hasan: and al-Housayn, twins: who died shortly after their birth: then she bore al-Hasan: and Muhammad: who lived about forty years: then she bore after them two Sa'id.

Al-Khallal said: Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Bahr narrated to us: saying:

I heard Housn, the concubine mother of the child of Abou Abdallah, say: I said to my master: sell the unique piece of my anklet.

He said: and did your soul rejoice at it?

I said: yes.

It was sold for eight dinars and a half: and he distributed them during my pregnancy.

When I gave birth to al-Hasan: he gave to my companion in servitude a dirham: and said: buy with this a head (of meat).

She brought it: and we ate: and he said: O Housn: I possess nothing except this dirham.

She said: and when he had nothing: he rejoiced in his day.

And he said one day: I want to have myself bled: and he had nothing: so I sold half a lock of spun flax for four dirhams: I bought meat with one half: and I gave the bloodletter a dirham.

She said: and I bought perfume for a dirham.

And when he went out for: may he who saw him rejoice: I had spun a soft thread: and fashioned a beautiful garment: when he arrived: I brought it out to him: its price had been given to me: fifteen dirhams of earnings: when he looked at it: he said: I do not want it.

I said: O my master: I have others.

So I gave the garment to Fouran: who sold it for forty-two dirhams: I spun a large garment: he said: do not cut it: leave it: and it became his shroud.

And the eldest of the sons of Ahmad ibn Hanbal was Salih: he governed the judiciary of Isfahan: and died there in the year two hundred and sixty-five: at about sixty-two years of age.

He narrates from Abou al-Walid at-Tayalisi: and from the great ones.

And he left two sons: one is Zouhayr ibn Salih: traditionist: trustworthy man: died in the year three hundred and three.

And the other Ahmad ibn Salih: I do not know when he died: his son Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Salih narrates from him.

And this Muhammad died in the year three hundred and thirty: as an old man.

As for the second son: he is the Hafiz Abou 'Abd ar-Rahman 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: the transmitter of his father: among the great imams: died in the year two hundred and ninety: at seventy-seven years of age: I devoted a biography to him.

And the third son is Sa'id ibn Ahmad: born to Ahmad fifty days before his death: he grew up: and studied fiqh: and died before his brother 'Abdallah.

As for al-Hasan: and Muhammad: and Zaynab: nothing of their circumstances has reached us: and the descendants of Abou Abdallah: to our knowledge: became extinct.

His bequest

From Abou Bakr al-Marroudhi: who said: Abou Abdallah woke me one night: having fasted continuously: he was sitting: and said: I am being tormented by hunger: so feed me something.

I came to him with less than a loaf: and he ate it.

And he would rise for his needs: and rest: and sit from weakness: to the point that I wet the cloth: and threw it on his face: so that his soul would return to him: to the point that he made his bequest. I heard it at his bequest, and we were at the camp: and he had his bequest witnessed:

this is what Ahmad ibn Muhammad has bequeathed: he has bequeathed that it be testified that there is no god but Allah: alone: without partner: and that Muhammad is His servant: and His messenger.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father remained at the camp sixteen days: and I saw his two pupils sink into his two eyes.

Salih said: my father bequeathed: this is what Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal has bequeathed... and he mentioned the bequest: which has already passed.

His illness and his death

'Abdallah said: I heard my father say:

I have completed seventy-seven years: and entered the eighth: I was seized by fever from its night: and I died on the tenth day.

Salih said: at the beginning of Rabi' al-Awwal of the year two hundred and forty-one: my father had fever on the night of Wednesday: and passed the night feverish: breathing with difficulty: I had known his illness: and I treated him as soon as he fell ill: I said to him: O my father: on what did you break your fast last evening?

He said: on water of baqilla.

Then he wanted to rise: and said: take my hand.

I took his hand: when he reached the privy: he weakened: and leaned on me: non-physicians, all Muslims, used to frequent him: a physician prescribed for him a head of ewe to roast: and whose water is drunk, this was on Tuesday: and he died on Friday. He said: O Salih.

I said: here I am.

He said: let it not be roasted in your dwelling: nor in the dwelling of my brother.

Al-Fath ibn Sahl went to the door to visit him: I screened him: Ibn 'Ali ibn al-Ja'd came: I prevented him: the people multiplied: he said: what do you see?

I said: permit them: they will invoke for you.

He said: I consult Allah.

So they began to enter upon him in crowds: until the house was full: they asked him: invoked for him: and went out: and a troop entered: the people multiplied: the street filled: we closed the door of the passage: a neighbor of ours came: having dyed (his beard): my father said: I see the man reviving a matter of the sunna: I rejoice at it.

He said to me: send: and buy dates: and perform for me the expiation of an oath.

There remained in his purse about three dirhams.

I informed him of it: he said: praise be to Allah.

And he said: read me the bequest.

I read it: and he confirmed it.

I slept at his side: when he wanted his needs: he stirred me: and I passed to him what he needed: he would move his tongue: and he never groaned: except on the night in which he died: and he did not cease praying standing: I held him: he bowed: and prostrated: and I raised him in his bowing.

He said: the pains of the loins: and others: gathered upon him: while his mind remained firm: on Friday, two hours before midday of Rabi' al-Awwal: he passed away.

Al-Marroudhi said: Ahmad was ill nine days: at times he permitted the people: and they entered upon him in crowds: greeting him: and he answered with his hand: the people spoke of it: and multiplied.

The sultan heard the multitude of the people: and charged the guard: and the reports officers: with his door: and the door of the passage: then closed the door of the passage: the people were in the streets: and the mosques: until part of the commerce was interrupted.

The man who wanted to enter upon him: sometimes entered through certain houses: and the weaving workshops: and sometimes climbed: the reports officers came: and sat at the doors.

The chamberlain of Ibn Tahir came to him: and said: the prince conveys to you the greeting: and desires to see you.

He said: this is part of what I disapprove: and the Commander of the Believers has exempted me from what I disapprove.

And the reports officers wrote his news toward the camp: and the couriers followed one another each day.

The Banou Hashim came: entered upon him: and began to weep over him.

A people of judges: and others came: permission was not granted to them.

An old man entered upon him: and said: remember your standing before Allah.

Abou Abdallah sighed: and his tears flowed: a day or two before his death: he said: call me the children with the heavy tongue.

He said: they began to line up toward him: and he began to smell them: and pass his hands over their heads: his eye weeping: I placed the basin under him: and saw his urine red: putrid: I said to the physician: and he said: this is a man whose grief: and worry have pulverized his inside.

His illness worsened on Thursday: and I performed his washing for him: he said: space the fingers.

When the night of Friday came: he became heavy: and at the beginning of the day the people cried out: and the voices rose in weeping: as if the low world had trembled: and the alleys: and the streets filled.

Al-Khallal: 'Isma ibn 'Issam informed me: Hanbal narrated to us: saying:

a son of al-Fadl ibn ar-Rabi' gave to Abou Abdallah, while he was in detention: three hairs: saying: this comes from the hair of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

Abou Abdallah therefore bequeathed at his death that a hair be placed on each eye: and a hair on his tongue: and that was done at his death.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: and Moussayyan: and others said: he died two hours before midday: on Friday.

And that was said: by al-Boukhari: and by al-'Abbas ad-Douri.

His funeral

Ibn Qani' therefore erred where he said: Rabi' al-Akhir.

Al-Khallal: al-Marroudhi narrated to us: saying: the funeral procession was brought out: after the departure of the people from the Friday prayer.

Ahmad in his Mousnad: Abou 'Amir narrated to us: Hicham ibn Sa'd narrated to us: from Sa'id ibn Abi Hilal: from Rabi'a ibn Sayf: from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr:

from the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: there is no Muslim who dies on Friday: or on the night of Friday: but that Allah preserves him from the trial of the grave.

Salih ibn Ahmad said: Ibn Tahir, the governor of Bagdad, sent his chamberlain Mouzaffar: with two boys carrying handkerchiefs containing garments: and perfume: they said: the prince conveys to you the greeting: and says: I have done what the Commander of the Believers would do: were he present.

I said: convey to the prince the greeting: and tell him: the Commander of the Believers exempted Abou Abdallah during his lifetime from what he disapproved: and I do not like to follow him after his death with what he disapproved.

He returned therefore: and said: let it be his shroud: I repeated to him my same word.

The concubine had spun for him a thick garment estimated at twenty-eight dirhams: to cut from it two shirts: we therefore cut for him two shrouds: and took from Fouran another shroud: and we wrapped him in three layers.

We bought for him funerary henna (hanout): his washing was completed: and we shrouded him: about one hundred of the Banou Hashim were present: while we shrouded him: and they began to kiss his forehead: until we raised him upon the bier.

'Abdallah said: Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah ibn Tahir prayed over my father: preceding us in the prayer over him: while we: and the Hashimites: had prayed over him in the house.

Salih said: Ibn Tahir sent to me: who prays over Abou Abdallah?

I said: I.

When we arrived at the open ground: behold Ibn Tahir standing: he advanced toward us a few steps: and honored us: the bier was set down: when I waited a moment: I advanced: and we began to straighten the rows: Ibn Tahir came to me: seized this hand: and Muhammad ibn Nasr seized the other hand: and they said: the prince.

I prevented them from it: they pushed me aside: and prayed over him: and the people did not know it: the next day: they learned it: and began to come: and pray over the grave: and the people remained as long as Allah willed: coming: and praying over the grave.

'Obaydallah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan said: I heard al-Moutawakkil say to Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah:

how blessed you are O Muhammad: you prayed over Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him.

Al-Khallal said: I heard 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Warraq say:

we never learned of a gathering, in the Jahiliyya: nor in Islam, like this one, I mean the one who attended the funeral procession, until it reached us that the place was measured: and estimated with accuracy: about one million.

And we estimated at the graves about sixty thousand women: and the people opened the doors of the houses: in the streets: and the alleys: calling whoever wanted to perform ablutions.

And 'Abdallah ibn Ishaq al-Khurasani related: Bounan ibn Ahmad al-Qasbani informed us:

that he attended the funeral procession of Ahmad: the ranks extended from the square to the bridge of Bab al-Qati'a.

And those who attended it: among the men: were estimated at eight hundred thousand: and among the women: at sixty thousand women: they looked at who prayed the asr that day in the mosque of ar-Roussafa: and they were about twenty thousand.

Mousa ibn Haroun al-Hafiz said: it is said: when Ahmad died: the open spaces where the people stood for the prayer were measured: and the number of the people estimated by the measuring: about six hundred thousand: or more: besides what was at the edges: and around: and on the roofs: and in scattered places: more than one million.

Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn al-Housayn an-Naysabouri said: al-Fath ibn al-Hajjaj narrated to me: saying:

I heard, in the house of the prince Ibn Tahir, that the prince sent twenty men: who estimated how many had prayed over Ahmad ibn Hanbal: they estimated: and it reached one million eighty thousand: besides those who were in the boats.

Khouchnam ibn Sa'd related it: and said: they reached one million three hundred thousand.

'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim said: I heard Abou Zour'a say:

it reached me that al-Moutawakkil ordered that the place where the people stood be measured: when the prayer was made over Ahmad: it reached the standing of two million five hundred thousand.

And Abou Bakr al-Bayhaqi said: it reached me from Abou al-Qassim al-Baghawi:

that Ibn Tahir ordered that the people who were at the funeral procession of Ahmad be estimated: they agreed upon seven hundred thousand persons.

Abou Hammam as-Sakouni said: I attended the funeral procession of Charik: and that of Abou Bakr ibn 'Ayyach: and I saw the attendance of the people: I never saw a gathering like this one, I mean the funeral procession of Abou Abdallah.

As-Salami said: I attended the funeral procession of Abou al-Fath al-Qawwas with ad-Daraqoutni: when he looked at the gathering: he said: I heard Abou Sahl ibn Ziyad say:

I heard 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad say: I heard my father say:

say to the people of innovations: between us and you on the day of the funeral processions.

Salih said: Moujahid ibn Mousa entered upon my father: and said:

O Abou Abdallah: the good news has come to you: this people testifies for you: what concern do you have with it if you were to meet Allah now?

And he began to kiss his hand: and to weep: and to say: advise me O Abou Abdallah.

He showed his tongue.

And Souwar the judge entered: and began to announce to him the good news: and to inform him of the easements.

And it is mentioned of Mou'tamir: that his father said to him at his death: narrate to me the easements.

And my father said to me: bring me the book in which is the hadith of Ibn Idris: from his father: from Tawous:

that he disapproved the groaning (anin): I read it to him: and he never groaned: except on the night of his death.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad said: my father said: bring out the hadith of the groaning.

I read it to him: and no groaning was heard from him: until he died.

In the fascicle of Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah ibn 'Alam ad-Din: we heard him say:

I heard 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad say:

when death became present to my father: I sat beside him: with the cloth in my hand: to bind his two cheeks: he began to choke: then regain consciousness: then open his eyes: and say with his hand thus: longer: longer: three times.

At the third: I said: O my father: what is this thing you pronounced at this moment?

He said: O my son: do you not know?

I said: no.

He said: Iblis, may Allah curse him, stands at my sandals: biting his fingers: and says:

O Ahmad: you have not been tried: and I say: longer: until I die.

This is a strange story: related alone by Ibn 'Alam: Allah is most knowing.

A trustworthy man informed us: from Abou al-Makarim at-Taymi: al-Haddad informed us: Abou Nou'aym informed us: my father narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Omar narrated to us: saying: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad was asked: did your father keep his reason at the washing?

He said: yes.

We were performing his washing for him: and he began to signal with his hand: Salih said to me: what does he say?

I said: he says: space my fingers: so we spaced his fingers: then he ceased the sign: and he died within the hour.

Salih said: my father began to move his tongue: until he passed away.

And according to Ahmad ibn Dawoud al-Ahmasi, who says: we raised the funeral procession of Ahmad with the asr: and buried him at sunset.

Salih said: no stranger attended my father at the time of his washing: when we wanted to shroud him: the Banou Hashim prevailed over us: they began to weep over him: bringing their children: and laying them upon him: and kissing him: we placed him upon the bier: and pressed with the turbans.

Al-Khallal said: I heard Ibn Abi Salih al-Qantari say:

I attended the season forty years: and I never saw a gathering like this one, I mean the funeral procession of Abou Abdallah.

Al-Khallal said: I heard 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Warraq say:

the people manifested, at the funeral procession of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the sunna: and the casting of reproach upon the people of innovations: so Allah rejoiced the Muslims by that: despite the affliction they were going through: when they saw the power: and the elevation of Islam: and the abasement of the people of deviation.

And some of the people remained at the grave: and passed the night by it: and the women began to come: until they were prevented from it.

And I heard al-Marroudhi say: from 'Ali ibn Mahrouwayh: from his maternal aunt: who said:

they did not pray the asr in any mosque of Bagdad: on the day of the death of Ahmad.

And it is said: the crowd remained upon the grave for days.

Ishaq ibn Abi Bakr informed us: Ibn Khalil informed us: al-Labban informed us: from al-Haddad: Abou Nou'aym informed us: I heard Zafar ibn Ahmad: al-Housayn ibn 'Ali narrated to me: Ahmad ibn al-Warraq narrated to me: 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad narrated to me.

And Ibn al-Farra informed us: Ibn Qoudama informed us: Ibn Khudayr informed us: Ibn Youssouf informed us: al-Barmaki informed us: Ibn Mardak informed us: 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim narrated to us: Abou Bakr Muhammad ibn 'Abbas al-Makki narrated to me: I heard al-Warkani, the neighbor of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, say:

the day Ahmad ibn Hanbal died: the mourning: and the weeping fell upon four classes: the Muslims: and the Jews: and the Christians: and the Magians.

And on the day of his death twenty thousand persons converted to Islam.

And in the narration of Zafar: ten thousand of the Jews: and the Christians: and the Magians.

This is a disapproved story: related alone by this Makki: from this Warkani: who is unknown: and what of the famous Warkani Muhammad ibn Ja'far: who died thirteen years before Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and of whom Abou Zour'a said: he was a neighbor of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Then custom: and reason: deny the occurrence of the like of that: namely the conversion to Islam of thousands of people: at the death of a wali of Allah: and it is transmitted only by an unknown: unidentifiable man.

Had that occurred: it would have spread: and become mutawatir: given the abundance of ambitions: and the motive to transmit its like.

Rather: if one hundred persons had converted at his death: this astonishment would have been settled: what do you think then?!

Salih said: after some days came the letter of al-Moutawakkil 'ala Allah to Ibn Tahir: ordering him to present us the condolences: and ordering the transport of the books.

He said: so I transported them: and said: they constitute for us a direct audition: they will be in our hands: and copied at our place.

He said: I will say to the Commander of the Believers.

The prince therefore did not cease to oppose it: and they did not leave our hands, praise be to Allah.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn al-Housayn narrated to us: al-Marroudhi narrated to us: Abou Muhammad al-Yamani narrated to me at Tarsous: saying:

I was in the Yemen: a man said to me: my daughter has been asked in marriage by a suitor: so I went with him to the 'Azzam (exorcist) in the Yemen: he pronounced his resolution over her: and took from me the oath he had taken from the promised one: not to return: he remained about six months.

Then her father came to me: and said: he has returned to her.

I said: go to the 'Azzam.

He went to him: he pronounced his resolution over her: the jinn spoke to him: and said: woe to you! did I not take from you the oath not to approach her?

He said: the death of Ahmad ibn Hanbal reached our land: none of the righteous jinn remained: but that he attended it: except the rebels: for I stayed behind with them.

The dreams about him

And by the chain to Ibn Abi Hatim: Abou Zour'a narrated to us: I heard Muhammad ibn Mihran al-Jammal say:

I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal asleep: as if he wore a striped burnous: or dyed: and as if he was at ar-Rayy: wanting to go to the mosque of the assembly.

He said: I consulted some of the people of interpretation: and he said: this is a man who will become famous for good.

Likewise from the Jammal: who said: scarcely a little time passed: before his news reached me: of the affair of the trial.

Likewise: Ibn Abi Hatim said: and I heard my father say:

I saw Ahmad in a dream: and I saw him more imposing than he was: and more beautiful of face: and of body: than he was.

So I began to ask him for the hadith: and to study it with him.

Likewise, he said: and I heard 'Abdallah ibn al-Housayn ibn Mousa say:

I saw a man of the people of hadith dead: I said: what did Allah do with you?

He said: He forgave me.

I said: by Allah?!

He said: by Allah He forgave me.

I said: with what has Allah forgiven you?

He said: with my love for Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Likewise, he said: Muhammad ibn Mouslim narrated to us: Abou Abdallah at-Tihrani narrated to me: from al-Hasan ibn 'Isa: from the brother of Abou 'Aqil: who said:

I saw a young man dead at Qazwin: I said: what has your Lord done with you?

He said: He forgave me.

And I saw him pressed: I questioned him: and he said: because the people of the heavens busied themselves with saddling the mounts: to welcome Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and I want to welcome him.

And Ahmad died in those days.

Ibn Mouslim said: then I met the brother of Abou 'Aqil: and he related to me the dream.

Likewise, he said: and Muhammad ibn Mouslim narrated to us: al-Haytham ibn Khalawayh narrated to us: saying: I saw as-Sindi asleep: I said: what is your state?

He said: I am well: but they turned away from me for the coming of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

'Ali ibn 'Abd ad-Da'im informed us: Muhammad ibn Youssouf ibn Moussafir informed us: 'Abd al-Moughith ibn Zouhayr informed us: and Abou Mansour ibn Hamdiyya: and his brother Muhammad: saying:

informed us

Abou Ghalib ibn al-Banna': my father Abou 'Ali informed us: 'Obaydallah ibn Ahmad al-Azhari informed us: Muhammad ibn al-'Abbas narrated to us: that Ibn Makhlad informed them of it: Yazid ibn Khalid ibn Tahman informed us: al-Qawariri 'Obaydallah ibn 'Omar informed us: saying:

an old man came to me: remained alone with me: and said: I saw the Prophet sitting: with him Ahmad ibn Nasr: and he said: upon so-and-so: the curse of Allah three times: and upon so-and-so: and so-and-so: for both scheme against the religion: and its people: and scheme against Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and al-Qawariri: and they will not reach either of the two: if Allah wills.

Then he said: convey to Ahmad: and to al-Qawariri the greeting: and say to them: may Allah reward you both with good: for me: and for my community.

Likewise, Abou 'Ali said: al-Housayn ibn Muhammad an-Naqid informed us: Muhammad ibn al-'Abbas narrated to us: Ibn Abi Dawoud narrated to us: my father narrated to me: saying: I saw in a dream: in the days of the trial: as if a man came out of the enclosure: and said: the Messenger of Allah said: take as models the two who are after me: Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and so-and-so.

And he said: I forgot his name: except that it was in the days when Ahmad ibn Nasr was killed, he means: take as models in your present time.

Likewise: Abou al-Hasan 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Muqri' informed us: Abou Bakr al-Ajurri informed us: 'Abdallah ibn al-'Abbas at-Tayalisi informed us: Boundar: and Muhammad ibn al-Mouthanna narrated to us: both saying:

we recited to a blind old man: when the word of the creation of the Quran was introduced at Bagdad: the old man said: if the Quran is not created: may Allah efface the Quran from my chest.

When we heard that: we abandoned him: then after a time: we met him: and said: O so-and-so: what has become of the Quran?

He said: nothing of it remains in my chest.

We said: not even: {Say: He is Allah, One}?

He said: not even {Say: He is Allah, One}: except that I hear it from another reciting it.

Abou Hafs ibn al-Qawwas informed us: al-Kindi informed us: 'Abd al-Malik al-Karukhi informed us: Abou Isma'il al-Ansari informed us: Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Jalil informed us: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ibrahim informed me.

And Abou Muhammad al-Khallal said: 'Obaydallah ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman az-Zouhri informed us: both saying:

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Miqsam informed us: I heard 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ahmad an-Nahawandi: I heard 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal: I heard my father say:

I saw the Lord of power in a dream: and I said: O my Lord: what is the best thing by which those who draw near draw near to You?

He said: by My word O Ahmad.

I said: O my Lord: with understanding: or without understanding?

He said: with understanding: and without understanding.

In the Hilya, by a chain to Ibrahim ibn Khourrazad: who said:

a neighbor of ours saw as if an angel was descending from the heaven: having seven crowns: and the first crowned in the low world was Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Abou 'Omar ibn Hayawayh: 'Ali ibn Ibrahim ach-Chafii narrated to us: Abou Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Housayn narrated to us: 'Azra ibn 'Abdallah: and Talout ibn Louqman narrated to us: both saying:

we heard Zakariyya ibn Yahya as-Simsar say:

I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal in a dream: on his head a crown set with gems: at his feet two sandals: with which he walked with a nimble step.

I said: what did Allah do with you?

He said: He forgave me: drew me near: crowned me with His hand with this crown: and said to me: this for your word: the Quran is the word of Allah: uncreated.

I said: what is this gait of which I knew nothing of you in the abode of the low world?

He said: this is the gait of the servants in the abode of peace.

Abou Hatim ibn Hibban: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Marwazi narrated to us:

Muhammad ibn al-Hasan as-Salami narrated to us: I heard Talout ibn Louqman: and he mentioned it.

Mousabbih ibn Hatim al-'Ouqli: Ibrahim ibn Ja'far al-Marroudhi narrated to us: saying: I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal walking, in sleep, with a gait in which he strutted: I said: what is this gait O Abou Abdallah?

He said: this is the gait of the servants in the abode of peace.

From al-Marroudhi: who said: I saw Ahmad asleep: upon him two green garments: on his head a crown of light: walking with a gait I did not know: I said: what is this?

He said: this is the gait of the servants in the abode of peace.

And he mentioned the story with its reliable chain.

And in the Hilya: Abou Nasr al-Hanbali informed us: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad an-Nahrawani informed us: Abou al-Qassim al-Qurachi narrated to us: al-Marroudhi narrated to us something similar.

Abou Abdallah ibn Khafif the Sufi: Abou al-Qassim al-Qasri narrated to us: I heard Ibn Khuzayma at Alexandria say:

I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal asleep: when he died: walking with a proud step: I said: what is this gait?

He said: the gait of the servants in the abode of peace.

I said: what did Allah do with you?

He said: He forgave me: crowned me: clothed me with two sandals of gold: and said: O Ahmad: this for your word: the Quran is My word.

Then he said to me: O Ahmad: for what did you write from Hariz ibn 'Outhman? And he mentioned a long disapproved story.

And from where could Ahmad connect himself to Hariz?!

Ibn Qoudama informed us: from Ibn al-Jawzi: al-Moubarak ibn 'Ali informed us: Sa'd Allah ibn 'Ali ibn Ayyoub informed us: Hammad ibn Ibrahim narrated to us: Ahmad ibn 'Omar narrated to us: Ahmad ibn al-Hasan at-Takriti narrated to us: Abou Bakr at-Taymi narrated to us: 'Abdallah ibn Bahram narrated to us: I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal asleep: having two sandals of gold: walking with a nimble step... the account.

Then Ibn al-Jawzi related it at length: by another obscure chain: to 'Ali ibn Muhammad al-Qasri: from 'Abdallah ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman: that he saw that.

And the shaykh of Islam al-Ansari said: I heard one of the people of Bakharz, which is among the regions of Naysabour, say:

I saw as if the resurrection had risen: and behold a man on a horse: with a beauty of which Allah alone is knowing: and a herald proclaiming: beware that not a single one surpass him today.

I said: who is this one?

They said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Abou 'Omar as-Sammak: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Kindi narrated to us: saying:

I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal in a dream: and I said: what did Allah do with you?

He said: He forgave me.

And he said: O Ahmad: you were struck for Me.

I said: yes.

He said: here is My face: look at it: I have permitted you to look at it.

And the shaykh of Islam related its like: by an obscure chain: to 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: that he saw something similar.

And in the merits of Ahmad by the shaykh of Islam: by an obscure chain: to 'Ali ibn al-Mouwaffaq: who said:

I saw as if I was entering the Garden: and behold three: a man sitting at a table: to whom Allah deputed two angels: an angel who feeds him: and an angel who gives him drink: and another standing at the door of the Garden: who looks at the faces of a people: and makes them enter the Garden: and another standing in the middle of the Garden: fixing his gaze toward the Throne: looking at the Lord, the Most High.

I said to Ridwan: who are these?

He said: the first is Bishr al-Hafi: who left the low world hungry: and thirsty: and the one standing in the middle is Ma'rouf: who worshipped Allah desiring to look at Him: and it was given to him: and the one standing at the door of the Garden: is Ahmad ibn Hanbal: to whom it was ordered to look at the faces of the people of the sunna: and to make them enter the Garden.

And the shaykh of Islam mentioned, by a long chain, from Muhammad ibn Yahya ar-Ramli: the judge of Damas: who said:

I entered Iraq: and the Hijaz: and I wrote: because of the abundance of disagreement: I did not know which one to take: I said: O Allah: guide me.

So I slept: and saw the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: leaning his back against the Ka'ba: and at his right ach-Chafii: and Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and he was smiling at both of them.

I said: O Messenger of Allah: by which one shall I take?

So he designated ach-Chafii: and Ahmad: and said: {those are the ones to whom We gave the Book: the wisdom: and the prophethood} (surah al-An'am, verse 89). And he mentioned the story.

Abou Bakr ibn Abi Dawoud: 'Ali ibn Isma'il as-Sijistani narrated to us: saying:

I saw as if the resurrection had risen: and that the people were coming toward a bridge: and a man who stamped seals: and gave them to them: the one who came with a seal passed: I said: who is this one who gives the people the seals?

They said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Al-Khallal: 'Abd ar-Rahim ibn Muhammad al-Moukharrami narrated to us: I heard Ishaq ibn Ibrahim Loulou'a say:

I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal asleep: and I said: O Abou Abdallah: are you not dead?

He said: yes.

I said: what did Allah do with you?

He said: He forgave me: and every man who prayed over me.

I said: but among them there were people of innovations.

He said: those were deferred.

Abou Bakr ibn Chaddad: Yahya ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abi 'Isma narrated to us: 'Ali ibn al-Housayn narrated to us: Boundar narrated to us: saying:

I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal asleep: as if angry: I said: why do I see you angry?

He said: how would I not be angry: there came to me Mounkar: and Nakir: questioning me: who is your Lord?

I said: is my like spoken to in this way?

They said: you have spoken true O Abou Abdallah: but we were ordered that.

At-Tabarani: Muhammad ibn 'Abdous ibn Kamil narrated to us: Abou Ja'far Muhammad

ibn al-Faraj, the neighbor of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, narrated to us: saying:

when what reached Ahmad reached him: an affliction entered upon me: I was visited in a dream: and it was said to me: are you not content that Ahmad be with Allah: at the station of Abou as-Sawwar al-'Adawi? Do you not relate his story?

Muhammad ibn al-Faraj said: 'Ali ibn 'Asim narrated to us: from Bistam ibn Mouslim: from al-Hasan: who said:

one of the people of pleasure of this community summoned Abou as-Sawwar al-'Adawi: and questioned him about a matter of his religion: he answered him with what he knew: and that did not please him: he said: otherwise you are quit of Islam.

He said: toward what religion shall I flee?

He said: otherwise your wife is repudiated.

He said: then with whom shall I shelter by night?

So he beat him with forty lashes.

He said: so I came to Abou Abdallah: and informed him of it: and he rejoiced at it.

Related by 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad: from Muhammad ibn al-Faraj: in abridged form.

And Abou as-Sawwar: he is Hassan ibn Hourayth: who narrates from 'Ali: and others.

Hammad ibn Zayd said: from Hicham: who said:

Abou as-Sawwar: the man insulted him: and he said: if I were as you say: I would certainly be a man of evil.

Abou Nou'aym: Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Hobaych narrated to us: 'Abdallah ibn Ishaq al-Madaini informed us: my father narrated to me: saying:

I saw in a dream as if the Black Stone cracked: and a standard came out of it: I said: what is this?

It was said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal has sworn allegiance to Allah, the Mighty: and the Glorified.

A group heard Salama ibn Chabib say:

we were sitting with Ahmad ibn Hanbal: when a man came: and said: which of you is Ahmad ibn Hanbal?

We remained silent: he said: I am Ahmad: what is your need?

He said: I travelled to you across four hundred farsakhs: by land: and by sea. Al-Khidr came to me in my dream: and said: do you know Ahmad ibn Hanbal?

I said: no.

He said: go to Bagdad: and inquire about him: and say to him: al-Khidr conveys to you the greeting: and says: He

who dwells in the heaven: who is upon His throne: is content with you: and the angels are content with you: for what you have done of your soul for Allah.

Ahmad said: what Allah willed: there is no power but by Allah: do you have another need than this?

He said: I came to you only for this: and he went away.

Related by Abou Nou'aym: from Abou ach-Cheikh: Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn Bahr narrated to us: Salama narrated it to us thus.

And related by 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Hamid: from Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Housayn al-Marwazi: who heard Salama its like.

And related by the shaykh of Islam: by his chain: from al-Hasan ibn Idris: from Salama.

And related by al-Khatib: from Ibn Abi al-Fawaris: from Abou Hayawayh: from Muhammad ibn Hafs al-Khatib: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Dawoud al-Mou'addib informed us: from Salama.

And it is related by a chain: from Hanbal: from Salama: in abridged form.

And he said: Allah made the angels the glory of your flogging.

At-Tabarani: Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Abbar narrated to us: Hobaych ibn Abi al-Ward narrated to me: saying:

I saw the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, in a dream: and I said: O Prophet of Allah: what of Ahmad ibn Hanbal?

He said: Moussa will come to you: question him.

And behold Moussa: I questioned him: and he said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal was tried in prosperity: and in adversity: he was found truthful: so he was joined to the truthful.

Al-Khallal: Abou Yahya an-Naqid narrated to us: I heard Hajjaj ibn ach-Cha'ir say:

I saw my uncle in a dream: who had written from Houchaym: I questioned him about Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and he said: that one is among the companions of 'Omar ibn al-Khattab.

Al-Khallal said: 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad narrated to us: 'Abdallah ibn Abi Qurra narrated to me:

saying:

I saw asleep as if I entered the Garden: and behold a palace of silver: its door opened: and Ahmad ibn Hanbal came out: wearing a cloak of light: and said to me: have you come?

I said: yes.

He did not cease repeating: until I reached.

He said: and I saw asleep mountains of musk: and the people gathered: saying: the conqueror has come: Ahmad ibn Hanbal entered: girding the sword: with a lance: and said: this is the Garden.

And Ibn al-Jawzi gathered: and preserved: dreams: about thirty-two leaves.

And Ibn al-Banna' devoted a fascicle to it.

Abou Abdallah is not of those whose confirmation of sainthood needs dreams: but they are soldiers of Allah: rejoicing the believer: especially when they are mutawatir.

Al-Khallal said: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmoud narrated to me: saying:

I was at sea: coming from the direction of the Sindh: by night: and behold a herald crying: the righteous servant has died.

I said to some of those who were with us: who is it?

He said: this is from the righteous jinn.

And Ahmad died that night.

Al-Khallal said: and I heard Ibrahim al-Harbi say:

'Ali ibn al-Jahm said: when I returned from Oman: we sailed toward an island: and people came from Iraq: we did nothing but jest (bringing back the fresh water).

He said: so I heard a cry: and takbirs: and weeping.

He said: I said: what is this?

He said: the best of the people of Bagdad has died, they mean: their scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn al-'Abbas narrated to us: I heard 'Obayd ibn Charik say:

an effeminate man died: and was seen in a dream: and said: I have been forgiven: Ahmad ibn Hanbal was buried in our land: and the people of the graves were forgiven.

Al-Khallal: 'Ali ibn Ibrahim informed me at ar-Raqqa: Nasr ibn 'Abd al-Malik as-Sinjari narrated to us: al-Athram narrated to us: I heard Abou Muhammad Fouran say: a man saw a dream: saying:

I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal: and I said: to what have you attained?

He said: I am with the Ten.

I said: are you the tenth of the people?

He said: no: I am the eleventh.

Al-Khallal: 'Abdallah ibn Isma'il narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Ya'qoub al-Wazzan narrated to us: al-Housayn ibn 'Ali al-Adhrami narrated to us: Boundar ibn Bachchar narrated to us: saying:

I saw Soufyan ath-Thawri: and I said: to what have you attained?

He said: to more than what I hoped.

I said: what is this in your sleeve?

He said: pearls: and rubies: the soul of Ahmad ibn Hanbal came to us: and Allah ordered that this be poured upon her: and behold my share.

Al-Khallal: Muhammad ibn Hisn narrated to us: saying:

it reached me that when Ahmad ibn Hanbal died: and the news reached ach-Chach: some of them hastened to others: saying: rise: so that we pray over Ahmad ibn Hanbal: as the Prophet prayed over an-Najachi.

So they went out to the place of prayer: lined up: and prayed over him.

The transmission of his school

I read to Abou al-'Abbas Ahmad ibn Ahmad ibn Ni'ma al-Maqdisi, the mufti of Damas: and its preacher, from the imam Abou Hafs 'Omar ibn Muhammad as-Souhrawardi: then I read to Abou al-Ma'ali Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Muqri': who said:

'Omar ibn Muhammad informed us in the year six hundred and twenty: Abou al-Mouzaffar Hibat Allah ibn Ahmad ach-Chibli informed me.

And Abou al-Hasan 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Hashimi informed us at Alexandria: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn 'Omar informed us: Muhammad ibn 'Obaydallah al-Moujallid informed us: both saying:

Abou Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Ali az-Zaynabi informed us: Abou Tahir Muhammad ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman adh-Dhahabi informed us: 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Baghawi narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal ibn Hilal ibn Asad, Abou Abdallah ach-Chaybani, narrated to us: saying:

Yahya ibn Sa'id narrated to us: from Chou'ba: who said:

Abou Jamra informed me: saying: I heard Ibn 'Abbas say:

the delegation of 'Abd al-Qays came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: and he ordered them faith in Allah, the Mighty: and the Glorified: and said: do you know what is faith in Allah?

They said: Allah: and His messenger: know better.

He said: the testimony that there is no god but Allah: and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah: the performance of the prayer: the payment of the zakat: the fast of Ramadan: and that you give the fifth of the booty.

Related by al-Boukhari: and Mouslim.

And Abou Dawoud related it: from Ahmad.

I read to the shaykh 'Imad ad-Din 'Abd al-Hafiz ibn Badran ibn Chibl an-Naboulsi in his mosque: and I read at Damas to Youssouf ibn Ahmad ibn 'Aliya al-Hajjar: both saying:

Abou Nasr Mousa ibn 'Abd al-Qadir informed us in the year six hundred and eighteen: Abou al-Qassim Sa'id ibn Ahmad ibn al-Hasan informed us: 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Boundar informed us: Abou Tahir al-Moukhallis informed us: Abou al-Qassim 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal: and 'Obaydallah al-Qawariri narrated to us: both saying:

Mou'adh ibn Hicham narrated to us: my father narrated to me: from Qatada: from 'Ikrima: from Ibn 'Abbas:

that a man came to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: and said: O Prophet of Allah: I am a great old man for whom standing is painful: so order me one night: perhaps Allah will give me success in it: for the Night of Decree. He said: take the seventh.

This is the wording of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

'Abdallah al-Baghawi said: and I do not know anyone who related this hadith by this chain: except Mou'adh.

The imam Abou Muhammad 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi 'Omar informed us in his book: Hanbal

ibn 'Abdallah informed us: Hibat Allah ibn Muhammad informed us: al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Wa'iz informed us: Ahmad ibn Ja'far informed us: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: my father narrated to me: Ibn Noumayr narrated to us: Soufyan narrated to us: from Soumayy: from an-Nou'man ibn Abi 'Ayyach az-Zourqi: from Abou Sa'id: who said:

the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: no servant fasts a day in the way of Allah: but that Allah removes by that day the Fire: from his face: by seventy autumns.

An-Nasa'i related it: from 'Abdallah: and we matched it with an elevation of two degrees.

His way in ritual purity

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: saying:

I saw my father: each time he urinated: having places with which he wiped his member: and sprinkled it numerous times: and I saw him: when he urinated: perform the istibra (certainty of purity) with rigor.

Muhammad ibn Abi Haroun narrated to me: Ishaq ibn Ibrahim narrated to us:

I saw Abou Abdallah: each time he urinated: tying a cloth over his member: before performing ablutions.

'Abdallah ibn Ahmad narrated to us: my father said: when the cold seized him: he performed the complete ablutions: then bathes: and pays no attention to something he suspects may have come out of him: for it will leave him: if Allah wills.

A group narrated to me: saying: Hanbal informed us: saying:

I saw Abou Abdallah: each time he came out from the privy: lingering in the house: and sitting a moment: before performing ablutions: so I thought that by that he aimed at the istibra.