The Life Of Ibn Hanbal by Ibn Al-Jawzi

[Muḥammad ibn Ṭāriq:] I was sitting next to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and I asked him if I could use his inkpot. 52.1

He looked at me. “Neither one of us is as scrupulous as all that,” he said with a smile.

[Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn:] I never met anyone like Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. We sat with him for fifty years, and never once did he hold his piety and goodness over us. 52.2

[Ṣāliḥ:] I often saw my father pick up an adze and go over to the tenants’ rooms to take care of jobs with his own two hands. He would go to the grocers and buy a bundle of kindling or whatever, and carry it back himself. 52.3

[ʿAbd Allāh:] I remember that whenever any tribesman of Quraysh, young or old, or anyone of the Prophet’s family came to see him, he’d refuse to walk through the doorway of the mosque until after they had gone through ahead of him. 52.4

[ʿĀrim ibn al-Faḍl:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was here with us in Basra. He had come to me with a knapsack—or maybe a knotted bundle—with some dirhams in it, and every so often he would come and take a little out. One day I said, “Aḥmad, I hear you’re an Arab. What tribe are you from?” 52.5

“A poor one,” he would say.

Every time he came over, I would ask him the same question and he would give me the same answer. It wasn’t until he left Basra that I found out the truth.285

[Al-Thaqafī:] The first time I saw Aḥmad, I asked if I could kiss his head. He said, “I’ve done nothing to deserve your respect.” 52.6

[Al-Marrūdhī:] I asked Aḥmad whether you can tell a man to his face that he’s revived the sunnah. 52.7

“You’ll just give him a swelled head,” he replied.

[Ibn Abī Mūsā:] A man from Khurasan once said to Aḥmad, “I thank God that I’ve met you!” 52.8

“Come off it,” he replied. “What’s all this? I’m nobody.” [Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥassān:] We went in to see Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and an elderly man from Khurasan said, “For God’s sake, think of us! We need you. There’s no one left who knows anything. If you can’t teach Hadith, then answer legal questions. People need your help!” 52.9

“Mine?” he replied. He sighed and his face fell. To me he looked miserable.

Once someone said to him, “May God reward you for all you’ve done for Islam!” “No,” he replied, “may He reward Islam for what it’s done for me!” Then he added, “Who am I? No one!” He was once handed a note from a man asking him to pray for him. “If I do that,” he said, “who will pray for me?” [Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad:] More than once I heard Aḥmad say, “Who am I that you should come to me? Who am I that you should come to me? Go seek Hadith!” 52.10

[Al-Ṭayālisī:] I once laid my hand on Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and then ran it down my body for a blessing. He saw me do it and grew furious. Flapping his hands as if to shake something off them, he said, “Who taught you to do that?” 52.11

It was clear that he didn’t approve at all.

[Khaṭṭāb ibn Bishr:] Abū ʿUthmān al-Shāfiʿī once began lavishing praise on Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, saying things like, “Everyone will be all right as long as God keeps you here with us.” 52.12

“Don’t say those things, Abū ʿUthmān,” said Aḥmad. “I’m no one at all.” Another time I asked him a question about being scrupulous. I saw his face fall and assume such a mournful expression of self-reproach that I felt sorry for him. I said to someone who was with me, “Some days he seems so despondent, and all I did was make him feel worse.” [Al-Marrūdhī:] Once, after mentioning men famous for being scrupulous, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “I hope God doesn’t despise me. How can I compare with men like that?” 52.13

Once I said to him, “So many people are praying for you!” “I’m afraid it may be a ruse to make me feel complacent,” he said. “I pray to God to make me better than they think I am and forgive the sins they don’t know I’ve committed.” Another time I told him that a Hadith-man had said, “Aḥmad has given up more than money: he’s given up other people, too.” “Who am I to renounce anyone?” he said. “They should be renouncing me!” [ʿAbd Allāh:] I remember that whenever any tribesman of Quraysh, young or old, or anyone of the Prophet’s family came to see him, he’d refuse to walk through the doorway of the mosque until after they had gone through ahead of him. 52.14

[Al-Abbār:] I once heard a man tell Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, “I’ve sworn an oath but I don’t know what kind of oath it is.” 52.15

“If you ever figure it out,” replied Aḥmad, “maybe I will too.”