The Life Of Ibn Hanbal by Ibn Al-Jawzi

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—may God be pleased with him—deplored the writing of books that drew excessive legal implications and opinions reached through the exercise of independent judgment. What he cherished was firm adherence to transmitted reports. 28.1

[ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd:] Ibn Ḥanbal once said to me, “Don’t look at ʿUbayd’s books, or whatever Isḥāq, Sufyān, al-Shāfiʿī, and Mālik have written. Go back to the source!” 28.2

[Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib:] I heard Salamah ibn Shabīb tell Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal that the Hadith scholars were copying the book of al-Shāfiʿī. 28.3

He said, “I don’t think they should.” [Ibn Hāniʾ:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about what Abū Thawr had written, and he said: “It’s a work where he comes up with bad novelties!” 28.4

He didn’t approve of writing books. “Stick to Hadith!” he said.

[Al-Khāqānī:] My uncle ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yaḥyā ibn Khāqān reported to me that he heard it said of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal that he was telling people to copy The Well- Trodden Path by Mālik and saying that it was acceptable to consult it (or words to that effect), but not to read the Compendium of Sufyān.170 My uncle told me that he asked Aḥmad which of the two he liked more. 28.5

“Neither one,” he answered. “Stick to reports!” According to another story, a man asked Aḥmad whether he should copy books containing opinions arrived at through the exercise of independent judgment.

“No,” he answered.

“But Ibn al-Mubārak copied them.” “Ibn al-Mubārak didn’t fall from heaven,” said Aḥmad. “That’s where we get our learning from.”