Allah -may Allah bless him and grant him peace- meet in Nizar; this is because the Messenger of Allah -may Allah bless him and grant him peace- is of the progeny of Mudar ibn Nizar, and Ahmad is of the progeny of Rabi'ah ibn Nizar.
Abd Allah ibn Ahmad said: My father said: I was born in the year 164 (one hundred sixty-four).
Abd Allah also said: He died in Rabi' al-Akhir in the year 241 (two hundred forty-one), at the age of seventy-seven years.
His mother was pregnant with him in Merv, and she gave birth to him in Baghdad, where he grew up. He traveled extensively in search of knowledge, then returned to Baghdad and passed away there, after he had become the leader of his contemporaries and Allah had supported His religion through him.
Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam (43) said: There is no one in the East or the West like Ahmad ibn Hanbal. I have not seen a man more knowledgeable in the Sunnah than him.
Imam Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i -may the mercy and pleasure of Allah be upon him- said: Ahmad ibn Hanbal is an imam in eight qualities: he is an imam in hadith, an imam in jurisprudence (fiqh), an imam in the Quran, an imam in linguistics, an imam in poverty (zuhd/asceticism), an imam in asceticism, an imam in piety (wara'), and an imam in the Sunnah.
'Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi (44) said about him when he was young: This [boy] is nearly an imam while still in his mother's womb.
Abu 'Umayr (46) ibn al-Nahhas al-Ramli, while mentioning Ahmad ibn Hanbal, said: May Allah have mercy on him (47), how patient he was, how much he resembled the ancients, and how much he caught up with the righteous (48). The world was presented to him and he rejected it, and innovations (bid'ah) were presented to him and he banished them (49). Allah, the Almighty, distinguished him by supporting His religion and standing to preserve
(43) Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam al-Khuza'i, the linguist, author of works in various disciplines, died in the year 224. Tarikh al-'Ulama' al-Nahwiyyin 197-200. See also its footnotes. (44) Abu Sa'id 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi al-Basri al-Lu'lu'i, the Hafiz, one of the pillars of hadith in Iraq, died in the year 198. Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' 9/192-209. (45) Omitted from the original (MS A), but present in MS M and Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad by Ibn al-Jawzi 102. (46) In MS M: "'Umar", but the correct version in the original (MS A) and Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad 173 is 'Isa ibn Muhammad. (47) Appeared in MS M later after his saying: "and how much he caught up with the righteous" which follows. (48) The same is found in Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' 11/198. In Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad, it is written as "Absaruh" (how insightful he was). (49) Up to this point concludes what appeared in Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' and Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad from the words of Abu 'Umayr.
