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Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal

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Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal al-Shaybānī is the last, in chronological order, of the four great imams of Sunni fiqh. Born in Baghdad in 164 AH (780), he died there in 241 AH (855). A hadith specialist above all, he is the author of the Musnad, one of the largest collections of hadiths ever assembled. He is also the founder, through his students, of the ḥanbalite school. But above all he remained in the memory of Muslims as the man of the test (al-miḥna): a scholar who refused to give in to the pressure of several caliphs. An orphan's childhood Aḥmad comes from the Arab tribe of Banū Shaybān. His family came from Marw, in Khorasan, and settled in Baghdad shortly before his birth. His father died when he was still very young. He was raised by his mother, in great modesty. He learned the Quran, then began to frequent the scientific circles of Baghdad, which was then the intellectual capital of the Muslim world. He first became interested in fiqh with Abū Yūsuf, a student of Abū Ḥanīfa, then devoted himself entirely to hadith. Travels in search of hadith From the age of sixteen, he began searching for hadiths from the great transmitters of his time. He travels to Kufa, Basra, Mecca, Medina, Yemen and Syria, often on foot and with very little means. Among his masters, we count: Hushaym ibn Bashīr, in Baghdad; Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna, in Mecca; ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī, in Yemen; Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ; imam al-Shāfiʿī, whom he met in Mecca and then in Baghdad. Al-Shāfiʿī held Aḥmad in very high esteem. This saying is attributed to him: “I left Baghdad without leaving anyone more pious, more learned and more versed in fiqh than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. » The Musnad Aḥmad's major work is Al-Musnad. Unlike collections classified by themes, a musnad classifies the hadiths according to the Companion who reported them. Aḥmad's Musnad contains approximately twenty-seven thousand hadiths, chosen from a much larger number of stories that he had collected. It was transmitted and completed by his son ʿAbd Allāh. Aḥmad wanted this book to serve as a reference: when a hadith was the subject of discussion, one could turn to the Musnad to verify its presence and its chains of transmission. The test (al-miḥna) Under the Abbasid caliph al-Maʾmūn, a theological doctrine inspired by the Muʿtazilites became the official position of the state: the Quran would be “created”. In 218 AH (833), al-Maʾmūn ordered that scholars and judges be questioned on this issue. Those who refuse to adopt official doctrine are threatened, dismissed or imprisoned. Most end up giving in, out of fear or caution. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal refuses. For him, the Quran is the Word of God, and it is not created. He does not want to assert anything that is not based on the Quran and the Sunnah. He is chained and taken to the caliph, but al-Maʾmūn dies before meeting him. Under his successor al-Muʿtaṣim, Aḥmad was imprisoned, interrogated for several days, then whipped until he lost consciousness. He remains firm. The ordeal continued under al-Wāthiq, who forbade him to teach. It ended under the caliph al-Mutawakkil, who abandoned the policy of his predecessors. Aḥmad forgave those who had made him suffer, with the exception of those who persisted in their innovation. His firmness made him a symbol of loyalty and independence of the scholar in the face of power. Refusal of honors After the end of the ordeal, the caliph al-Mutawakkil wanted to shower him with gifts and honors. Aḥmad refused them for himself and lived until the end in great simplicity, fearing that proximity to power would corrupt his intention. He was also wary of fame. He did not like people to put their own opinions in writing, preferring to stick to the Quran and the Sunnah. Imam Aḥmad’s method In fiqh, Aḥmad gives a central place to texts. Its method is mainly based on: the Quran and the authentic Sunnah; the opinions of the Companions, when they do not contradict each other; le choix, en cas de divergence entre Compagnons, de l’avis le plus proche des textes ; the weak hadith not seriously flawed, which he preferred to the analogy; the analogy (al-qiyās), in case of necessity. His answers were collected by his sons Ṣāliḥ and ʿAbd Allāh, by his students, then by Abū Bakr al-Khallāl, who organized this material and gave birth to the ḥanbalite school. Among those who studied with him or reported from him are the great masters of hadith, such as al-Bukhārī, Muslim and Abū Dāwūd. His death Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal died in Baghdad in 241 AH (855). Chroniclers report that a huge crowd, estimated at several hundred thousand people, attended his funeral. Later, great scholars like Ibn Qudāma, Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya would join his school. Things to remember Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was a scholar of hadith, a man of great piety and a model of firmness. He reminds us that science involves the whole person: we not only transmit texts, we defend them through our conduct. His life also shows that a…