Tabaqat al-Hanabilah

Imam Ahmad رحمه الله would pray 300 raka’at!

Yahya Ibn Ma'een رحمه الله said: “I have never seen the likes of Imam Ahmad We accompanied him for 50 years, he was never boastful to us about anything, and he'd say: ‘We are poor people, if it wasn't for Allah's protection we would have been exposed’ “

Imam Ahmad رَحْمَةُ الله عليه: “I would like to live in Makkah's mountain valleys so that I can be unknown. I have been tested with popularity. Morning and evening I hope to die." [Siyar A'laam Al-Nubalaa' 11/216]

A closer look at Shaykh Quyami حفظه الله new hashiyah on Rawdh

Шейх Амир аль-Бахджат аль-Ханбали Шейх Мутляк аль-Джасир аль-Ханбали Шейх Ахмад аль-Куейми аль-Ханбали Да хранит их и других шейхов Аллах.

Shaykh ʼAbd as-Salaam Ash-Shuwaʼir حفظه الله said: “It is disliked without disagreement (yukrah bilaa khilaaf) that 40 nights pass for a Muslim and he hasn't completed the Noble Qur'an.” [ Source: صفات أهل القرآن ]

Imam Ibn al-Jawzī رحمه الله said: "Whoever is afflicted with passionate love (hawā) and wishes to marry، should strive to marry the very woman with whom he has become infatuated, if that is valid and permissible. Otherwise [if that should be impossible], let him choose someone who he thinks most resembles her."

The rivalry between Imam Ahmad and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn in knowledge Ahmad and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn were qarīnān, both companions and competitors in ṭalab al-'ilm. Yaḥyā had something Ahmad didn't: he had traveled to Egypt and taken the ḥadīth of the Egyptians directly, with ʿuluww in the sanad, so he would boast of it. Then Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Miṣrī, the master of ḥadīth in Egypt and the bearer of the transmissions of al-Layth ibn Saʿd, came to Baghdad. Imam Ahmad cleared his schedule for him entirely; it is related he would even leave the nawāfil to sit with him in mudhākarah. In one sitting, Ahmad related to him a ḥadīth from the ḥadīth of the Egyptians that Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ did not know. "We don't know this one." — "Rather, it is in your own book." The man went home, checked, returned, and Ahmad narrated it to him from his copy. Afterward Imam Ahmad would say, in effect: what is Abū Zakariyyā [i.e. Yahya ibn Ma'in] boasting about? The ḥadīth of the Egyptians resolves to al-Layth, and al-Layth's transmission resolves to the likes of Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ, and I know of the ḥadīth of the Egyptians what Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ himself does not!

Ḥanbal ibn Isḥāq transmitted some positions from Imam Ahmad that no one else in the Jamāʿah of his companions reported. Abū Ṭālib al-Mishkānī sometimes transmitted isolated positions as well, and so did Abū al-Ḥārith. So what do the Aṣḥāb do when a lone companion reports "ḥarām" while the Jamāʿah report "ḥalāl"? Two positions in the madhhab: 1. Al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn Ḥāmid and others: we count both as riwāyāt, but mark the isolated one as riwayah shādhdhah. Two riwāyāt, one of them shādhdhah. 2. Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (Ghulām al-Khallāl): the shādhdh riwayah is simply discarded. The madhhab has one riwāyah in that masʾalah. The first approach is reminiscent of ḥadīth criticism: a shādhdh riwāyah is still related and then ruled against.

Why does al-Inṣāf sometimes say: "in this masʾalah there are seven riwāyāt from Aḥmad"? — Shaykh ʿAbd al-Salām al-Shuwayʿir حفظه الله. Whoever reads in al-Mardāwī's al-Inṣāf, a book no Ḥanbalī faqīh can do without, will find masāʾil with two, three, five, even seven riwāyāt attributed to Imām Aḥmad. And the objection may arise: can any man, whoever he may be, hold seven positions on a single masʾalah? The Shāfiʿiyyah were criticised merely because al-Shāfiʿī had two qawls in some twenty-odd masāʾil, to the point that Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Qāṣṣ and later Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī authored works defending and explaining the "ikhtilāf al-qawlayn". So what about seven? Aḥmad did not say them all. Rather, this is a technical convention particular to the Ḥanbalī madhhab (اصطلاح تواضع عليه فقهاء الحنابلة): whenever a mujtahid affiliated to the madhhab derived a position upon the uṣūl of Aḥmad, it was attributed to the madhhab and would be called a "riwāyah". Hence everything said by Taqi al-Din, al-Khallāl, Ghulām al-Khallāl, Ibn Ḥāmid, al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn ʿAqīl, Abū al-Khaṭṭāb and their like, when attributed to the madhhab, enters this count and is called a "riwāyah". That is why this usage struck outsiders as strange. Ibn al-Subkī remarked in his sharḥ of Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ that "among the oddities of the Ḥanābilah is that they attribute the opinions of their aṣḥāb to their Imām", even though the Shāfiʿiyyah do something comparable with the wujūh of their own aṣḥāb. So what exactly falls under "riwāyāt"? Four things: 1. al-nass (النص) — what Aḥmad stated explicitly and clearly: "الإمام أحمد قال كذا". This is the strongest level. Example: his naṣṣ that the order to separate between the farḍ and its sunnah by moving place applies to the imām specifically, not the maʾmūm or munfarid, following the ḥadīth of Muʿāwiyah. 2. al-īmāʾ (الإيماء) — what is understood from Aḥmad's wording. If, for example, Aḥmad said about something «لا يعجبني», two riwāyāt are extracted: taḥrīm and karāhah. Ibn Ḥamdān (in Ṣifat al-Futyā) and others record that when Aḥmad made tawaqquf on a masʾalah, it was carried upon two riwāyāt: permission and prohibition. For example, some may extract two riwāyāt from him saying: "I do not know" or "the people differed upon it". His tawaqquf is recorded in over 20 masāʾil. 3. al-wajh (الوجه) — what the fuqahāʾ of the madhhab derived by usul/qāʿidah: whether an uṣūlī qāʿidah (by which the ḥukm is extracted) or a fiqhī qāʿidah (from which the ḥukm is extracted). "The third wajh" means: taken from the qāʿidah, and disputed upon the qāʿidah. 4. al-takhrij (التخريج) — and it is the weakest of the four: finding two resembling masāʾil and attaching the unstated one to the stated one purely by similarity, which is called qiyās al-shabah. Al-Ghazālī notes in al-Mankhūl that the jumhūr of uṣūlīs do not consider qiyās al-shabah a ḥujjah. Weaker still than takhrīj is al-ihtimal (الاحتمال) — a possibility its author never even asserted. In order of strength, they are: al-mansus, then al-wajh, then al-ima, then al-takhrij, then al-ihtimal. Knowing this, the "seven riwāyāt" of al-Inṣāf stops being strange and instead become a map of the madhhab's internal ijtihād across generations.

Imam Ibn al-Jawzi رحمه الله narrates about himself: "I tell you of my own state: I am never sated by reading books. When I see a book I have not read before, it is as if I have stumbled upon a treasure. I looked into the catalogue of the endowed books of the Nizamiyyah madrasah, and it contained some 6000 volumes... and were I to say I have read 20 000 volumes, it would in fact be more — and I am still in talab [seeking knowledge]. Through reading them I gained from observing the lives of those men, the measure of their himmah [ambitions], their hifdh, their ʼibadah and the rarities of their sciences, what none who does not read can ever know..." [ 📕 Source: Sayd al-Khatir, p. 454 ]

Imam Ibn al-Jawzi رحمه الله narrates about himself: ولقد تاب على يدي في مجالس الذكر أكثر من مائتي ألف، وأسلم علي يدي أكثر من مائتي نفس، وكم سالت عين متجبر بوعظي لم تكن تسيل، ويحق لمن تلمح هذا الإنعام أن يرجو التمام. وربما لاحت أسباب الخوف بنظري إلى تقصيري وزللي. ولقد جلست يومًا، فرأيت حولي أكثر من عشرة آلاف، ما فيهم إلا من قد رق قلبه، أو دمعت عينه، فقلت لنفسي: كيف بك إن نجوا وهلكت؟! فصحت بلسان وجدي: إلهي وسيدي! إن قضيت علي بالعذاب غدًا، فلا تعلمهم بعذابي، صيانة لكرمك، لا لأجلي، لئلا يقولوا: عذب من دل عليه. Through my gatherings of dhikr, more than 200 000 people have repented at my hands, and more than 200 souls have embraced Islam through me. How many eyes of the arrogant have wept from my admonition, eyes that had never shed a tear before! It is only right for someone who observes such favor to hope for its completion. Yet, reasons for fear sometimes loom when I look at my shortcomings and slips. One day I sat and saw more than 10 000 people around me, not one of them whose heart had not softened or whose eyes had not welled with tears. I said to myself: "How will it be with you if they are saved and you perish?!" [ 📕 Source: Sayd al-Khatir, p. 249 ]

قال أبو بكر المروذي: سمعت أحمد بن حنبل يرغب في النكاح، فقلت له: قال ابن أدهم.. فما تركني أتمم حتى صاح علي وقال: أذكر لك حال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وأصحابه، وتأتيني ببنيات الطريق؟!. Abu Bakr al-Marrudhi said: "I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal encouraging marriage, so I said to him, 'Ibrahim ibn Adham said...' But he did not let me finish; he rose his voice at me and said, 'I cite to you the practice of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and his Companions, and you bring me fringe views?!'" [ 📕 Narrated by Ibn al-Jawzi in Sayd al-Khatir, p. 76 ]

Biography of Imām Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī رحمه الله [٢٠٢–٢٧٥ AH], Compiler of the Sunan He is Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath al-Azdī al-Sijistānī — the Imām, Shaykh al-Sunnah, muḥaddith of Baṣrah, compiler of the Sunan within al-Kutub al-Sittah, and one of the distinguished students of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. ▫️ Al-Dhahabī says: "With all his imāmah in ḥadīth and its sciences, Abū Dāwūd was among the great fuqahāʾ… He was one of the distinguished of the companions of Imām Aḥmad: he kept to his majlis for a period and asked him about the fine points of masāʾil in furūʿ and uṣūl. He was upon the madhhab of the Salaf in following the Sunnah and submitting to it, and in leaving off the entanglements of kalām." ▫️ Born in ٢٠٢ AH in Sijistān (a region today split between Afghanistan and Iran), he set out young in ṭalab al-ḥadīth: Baṣrah at 18, then Kūfah, Baghdād, Ḥarrān, Ḥimṣ, Dimashq, Miṣr, and Khurāsān, writing from the ṭabaqah of Musaddad, al-Qaʿnabī, Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, and of course, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. ▫️ From this mulāzamah came his book Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad: Aḥmad's answers arranged by the abwāb of fiqh, one of the primary transmitted collections of the Imām's fiqh. Ibn Abī Yaʿlā entered him in Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah and said: "and he transmitted things from our Imām." (Some later authors, like al-Subkī, claimed him for the Shāfiʿiyyah, a familiar pattern we already saw with Imam al-Ājurrī.) ▫️ He compiled his Sunan early and presented it to Imām Aḥmad himself, who found it excellent. Ibn Dāsah heard him say: "I wrote down 500 000 ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and selected from them what I placed in this book: 4 800 ḥadīths." ▫️ After the Zanj rebellion devastated Baṣrah, the Amīr Abū Aḥmad al-Muwaffaq (the ʿAbbāsid heir) came to Abū Dāwūd's house in Baghdād after Maghrib with three requests: that he settle in Baṣrah so that tulab al-'ilm would travel to it and the city would be revived through him; that he narrate the Sunan to the Amīr's children; and that he hold a private majlis for them "for the children of caliphs do not sit with the common people." Abū Dāwūd granted the first two and refused the third: "As for this one, there is no way to it, for the people are equal in [their right to] knowledge." So the princes were humbled and attended, seated behind a curtain, and listened together with the ʿāmmah. ▫️ The two sleeves. Ibn Dāsah said: Abū Dāwūd had one wide sleeve and one narrow sleeve. Asked about it, he replied: "The wide one is for the books [i.e. notes and manuscripts]; the other one isn't needed." ▫️ Sahl al-Tustarī, the famous ascetic, visited him and asked a favour, making him promise to grant it first. Then he said: "Bring out for me the tongue with which you narrate the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so I may kiss it." And he did. ▫️ Al-Dhahabī relates the chain of resemblance: Ibn Masʿūd resembled the Prophet ﷺ in his conduct and bearing, ʿAlqamah resembled Ibn Masʿūd, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī resembled ʿAlqamah, Manṣūr resembled Ibrāhīm, Sufyān al-Thawrī resembled Manṣūr, Wakīʿ resembled Sufyān, Aḥmad resembled Wakīʿ, and Abū Dāwūd resembled Aḥmad. ▫️ Mūsā ibn Hārūn said: "Abū Dāwūd was created in this world for ḥadīth, and in the Ākhirah for Jannah. I have not seen anyone better than him." Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī said: "When Abū Dāwūd compiled the Sunan, ḥadīth was made soft for him as iron was made soft for Dāwūd عليه السلام." ▫️ He died in Baṣrah on ١٦ Shawwāl ٢٧٥ AH and was buried beside the grave of Sufyān al-Thawrī. [ 📕 Source: Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ of al-Dhahabī ]

Concerning Imam al-Ajurri رحمه الله and his attribution to the Hanbali madhhab Al-Ḥāfidh Ibn al-Mibrad al-Ḥanbalī (840–909 AH) said: I heard our Shaykh, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Mardāwī al-Ḥanbalī (817–885 AH), say: "Some have also claimed that he (al-Ājurrī) was a Mālikī. The correct view, however, is that he was a Ḥanbalī." And Abū al-Khayr al-Khayḍarī said: I heard my Shaykh, Ibn Ḥajar—may Allah preserve him—and I also saw it written in his own handwriting, that he objected to including al-Ājurrī among the Shāfiʿīs, saying: "He was Ḥanbalī in madhhab." [ 📗 Al-Lumaʿ al-Almaʿiyyah fī Aʿyān al-Shāfiʿiyyah ] And Allah knows best

The exemplary conduct of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله during his ordeals At that time, Shaykh al-Islām gained a lot of enemies and detractors for his fatawa and public stances, such that multiple councils in Damascus and Cairo were convened to examine his positions on: — The Throne of Allah, His Speech, Descent (Nuzul), and other Attributes from the Qur’ān and Sunnah. — His sharp criticism of the shirk practises in saint veneration: istighatha, tawassul, visiting graves for “barakah” and intercession, and other acts of ʼibadah. “Among the events that occurred during it was that his brother, al-Sharaf, raised his hands in duʼa and invoked Allah against them as they were departing. The Shaykh stopped him and said: "Rather say: O Allah, grant them a light by which they may be guided to the truth..." By Allah, what tremendous adab! What lofty character (khuluq)! What humility, self-effacement, and sincere pursuit of the haqq! Indeed, by Allah, this is a lesson worth traveling for. How far this is from our own condition! When one of us is offended, he becomes angry and resentful, and invokes every kind of duʼa against his adversary. So, O Allah, grant us and those who have harmed us for Your sake a light by which we may be guided to the truth.” [ 📗 المداخل إلى آثار شيخ الإسلام ابن تيمية وما لحقها من أعمال لبكر أبو زيد ]

Imām Ahmad’s رحمه الله daily routine for worship: ‎• 300 raka’at daily (cut down to 150 after the Mihna) ‎• Reading 1/7th of the Qur’ān daily (finishing an entire reading within a week) ‎• Nap after ‘Ishā’ and wake up to pray until the morning ‎[Manāqib Ahmad ibn Hanbal]

“Around 5,000 people would sit in the gatherings of imam ahmad, about 500 would write and the rest would learn from his good conduct and adab”