Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal

Abū ʿAbdallāh Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal ibn Hilāl ibn Asad al-Shaybānī. The jurist (Faqīh) and hadith scholar (Muḥaddiṯ), founder of the school of jurisprudence (Madhhab).

He was born in Baghdad and grew up there. His father died while he was young, so his mother took care of him and directed him toward the study of religious sciences; thus, he memorized the Qur'an and learned the language. At the age of fifteen, he began studying and memorizing hadith, and at twenty, he embarked on his journeys in pursuit of knowledge (raḥlāt ṭalab al-ʿilm). He traveled to Kufa, Mecca, Medina, Sham (the Levant), and Yemen, before returning to Baghdad where he studied under al-Shāfiʿī during the latter's visits to Baghdad between 195 and 197 AH. He was among the most prominent students of al-Shāfiʿī in Baghdad.

Aḥmad also learned at the hands of many scholars of Iraq, including Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd, Sufyān ibn ʿUyainah, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī. Thereafter, he became an independent jurist (Mujtahid) with an independent school of thought, surpassing his peers in memorizing the Sunnah and gathering its scattered reports until he became the leader (Imām) of the hadith scholars of his era. Testifying to this is his book al-Musnad, which contains over forty thousand hadiths. God granted Aḥmad a power of memory that astounded others; al-Shāfiʿī said: "I left Baghdad and did not leave behind anyone more learned in jurisprudence, more pious, more ascetic, more knowledgeable, or more memorizing than Ibn Ḥanbal." Ibn Ḥanbal possessed strong determination, was patient, steadfast in opinion, powerful in argument, and bold in speaking before the caliphs, which was the cause of his famous trial (Miḥnah). This occurred during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Maʾmūn in the year 212 AH, when the issue of the doctrine of the creation of the Qur'an (Khalq al-Qurʾān) was raised—which was the creed of the Muʿtazilites. It was pushed to the point that any scholar or jurist who did not accept this doctrine was threatened with dismissal from state posts along with punishment by flogging and imprisonment.

Ibn Ḥanbal was contrary to what they asserted and refused to accept their doctrine. In this regard, he stood like a firm, unwavering mountain, refusing to yield to al-Maʾmūn's demands. As a result, the punishment was inflicted upon him: he was banned from teaching, tortured, and imprisoned in 218 AH by Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Khuzāʿī, al-Maʾmūn's deputy. He was then led in iron fetters toward where al-Maʾmūn resided outside Baghdad; however, the Caliph al-Maʾmūn died before Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal reached him. After al-Maʾmūn, his brother al-Muʿtaṣim assumed the caliphate and followed al-Maʾmūn's policy in this matter pursuant to his bequest. He imprisoned Aḥmad and ordered him to be whipped multiple times, to the point that he lost consciousness each time from the severity of the beating. He continued flogging and torturing Aḥmad for about twenty-eight months. When Aḥmad did not yield or recant his creed and doctrine, he was released and returned to teaching. Then al-Muʿtaṣim died in 227 AH, and al-Wāthiq billāh succeeded him, renewing the trial for Aḥmad and banning him from interacting with people and teaching for more than five years, until al-Wāthiq died in 232 AH. Al-Mutawakkil assumed the caliphate after him and abolished the innovation (Bidʿah) of the creation of the Qur'an in 232 AH, leaving people the freedom of their belief, honoring Aḥmad, and extending a helping hand to him. Aḥmad remained steadfast on his path and opinion until he passed away in Baghdad.

After his death, Aḥmad's students compiled numerous issues (Masāʾil) in jurisprudence and legal rulings (Fatwās), recording them and transmitting them among themselves in large compilations, as done by Ibn Qudāmah in his two books, al-Mughnī and al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr [Note: The source text mistakenly attributes these works to Ibn al-Qayyim; they were authored by Ibn Qudāmah]. Aḥmad himself did not record his jurisprudence nor did he dictate it to any of his students out of dislike that people might become preoccupied with it over hadith. In this, he differed from the approach of Abū Ḥanīfah, whose students recorded from him in his presence, and Mālik, who recorded by himself, as well as al-Shāfiʿī; all of them left behind recorded jurisprudence, unlike Aḥmad, who left no written jurisprudence himself. However, his students after him recorded what they heard from him. Among these students were: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, author of the Ṣaḥīḥ; Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Naysābūrī, author of the Ṣaḥīḥ; and Abū Dāwūd, author of the Sunan.

Among his righteous students who recorded the rulings and juristic opinions they heard from him were his two sons Ṣāliḥ (d. 266 AH) and ʿAbdallāh (d. 290 AH). Another student was Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hānīʾ al-Baghdādī, known as al-Athram (d. 273 AH), who is among the most famous to record jurisprudence for Aḥmad in a book, al-Sunan fī al-Fiqh, according to Aḥmad's school and its textual proofs from hadith. Also among the most famous was Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Khallāl (d. 311 AH), in the book al-Jāmiʿ, spanning twenty volumes; what Abū Bakr recorded in this book is considered a transmission from Aḥmad's students. As for hadith, Aḥmad possesses his well-known and famous Musnad.

Imām Aḥmad built his school on foundational sources (Uṣūl): first, the Book of God; second, the Sunnah of the Messenger of God (may God bless him and grant him peace); third, the legal ruling (Fatwā) of a Companion (Ṣaḥābī) against which no contradiction is known; fourth, the legal ruling of a Companion where opinion differed; and fifth, legal analogy (Qiyās), which held the last rank for him. Aḥmad recognized consensus (Ijmāʿ) when proven to exist, though he considered its occurrence and existence unlikely. Beside this, Aḥmad applied legal presumption of continuity (Istiṣḥāb), public interest (Maṣāliḥ Mursalah), and blocking the means to harm (Sadd al-Dharāʾiʿ), following therein the predecessors (Salaf) of the nation.

Quoted from:

Al-Mawsūʿa al-ʿArabiyya al-ʿĀlamiyya (The Global Arabic Encyclopedia) http://www.mawsoah.net