Imam hanbali and how he stood against the deviant scholars.

 Imam hanbali and how he stood against the deviant scholars. 

Ibn al-Jawzi has documented the life of Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and how he spoke the Truth to those in power in the biographical work entitled Manāqib Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, which is excerpted below:

Before the rise of the Mu‘tazilites [2], there was general agreement on the principle of the Salaf [3] that the Qur’an is the speech of Allah and not created. Even when the Mu‘tazilites adopted the belief that the Qurʾan is created, they kept it a secret. Thus the principle remained inviolate down through the reign of [Hārūn] al-Rashīd…

Even after al-Rashīd died and al-Amīn became caliph, the official position remained the same. But when al-Ma’mūn came to power, a number of Mu‘tazilites insinuated themselves into his company and persuaded him to adopt the view that the Qur’an is created. Fearful of those from the Salaf who were still alive, al-Ma’mūn hesitated to call for assent to the new creed. Eventually, though, he resolved to impose it on the community…

According to his biographers, al-Ma’mūn sent a letter from al-Raqqah [in Syria] to the chief of the Baghdad police, Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, telling him to put the people to the test, which he did.

[Ṣāliḥ ibn Ahmad bin Hanbal:] I heard my father say, “When they took us in to be questioned by Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, the first thing they did was to read aloud the letter written by the one in Tarsus”—that is, al-Ma’mūn.“They recited some verses to us, including «Nothing is like Him» [42:11] and «He is the creator of everything.» [6:102, 13:16, 39:62 and 40:62] When I heard ‘Nothing is like Him,’ I recited «He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.» [4]

“Then those present were put to the test. Those who withheld their assent were taken away and locked up. Of them all, only four resisted. Their names are Muḥammad ibn Nuḥ; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Qawārīrī; al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥammād, called Sajjādah; and my father. Later ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar and al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥammād gave in too, leaving only Muḥammad ibn Nūḥ and my father in confinement. There they stayed until, several days later, a letter arrived from Tarsus ordering the two of them to be transported there. They were duly sent, shackled one to the other.”

[…]

 

[Ibn Abī Usāmah:] I remember hearing that during the Inquisition, someone said to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, “See? Right loses and wrong wins!”

“Never!” he retorted. “Wrong wins only if people’s hearts wander off and lose their way, but ours haven’t done that yet.”

[Ṣāliḥ:] My father and Muḥammad ibn Nūḥ were carried off in chains and we went with them as far as al-Anbār. There Abū Bakr al-Aḥwal asked my father, “Abū ʿAbd Allāh, if they threaten you with a sword, will you give in?” 

“No,” he answered. Then he and Muḥammad ibn Nūḥ were taken away.

Later my father told me:

“When we got to al-Raḥbah it was the middle of the night. As we were leaving, a man came up to us and said, ‘Which of you is Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal?’

“Someone pointed me out. ‘Slow down,’ said the man to the camel-driver. Then to me: ‘Listen, you! What does it matter if they kill you right here and now? You’ll enter the Garden, here and now.’ Then he said, ‘I leave you in the care of Allah,’ and left.