The Life Of Ibn Hanbal by Ibn Al-Jawzi

[Muhannaʾ ibn Yaḥyā:] I saw Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd al-Zuhrī kissing Aḥmad on the forehead and the face after he was released from jail. I also saw Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī kissing his head and forehead. 70.1

[Al-Jarawī:] I said to al-Ḥārith ibn Miskīn: “That man”—meaning Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—“is being flogged. Come on: let’s go to him.” 70.2

We arrived just as he was being flogged. Later he told us, “After they beat me I fell down and I heard that one”—meaning Ibn Abī Duʾād—“saying, ‘Commander of the Faithful, he’s gone astray, and will lead others astray.’” Al-Ḥārith remarked: “Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar ibn Yazīd told me, citing Mālik ibn Anas, that al-Zuhrī was maliciously denounced to the authorities and then flogged. When he was told that al-Zuhrī had been subjected to a public inquisition with his books hanging around his neck, Mālik said, ‘Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab was flogged, and had his hair and beard shaved off. Abū l-Zinād and Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir were also flogged.

ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz once said, “Do not envy anyone who hasn’t suffered for Islam.”’ And Mālik didn’t even mention himself.” Aḥmad was impressed with what al-Ḥārith told him.

[The author:] People have always suffered through ordeals for the sake of God.

Many prophets were killed; and among the ancient nations, many good people were killed or immolated, with some of them being sawed in half without renouncing their faith. If not for my aversion to prolixity and my preference for brevity, I would list the reports I have in mind, along with their chains of transmission. 70.3

The Prophet, God bless and keep him, was poisoned, as was Abū Bakr. ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī were assassinated. Al-Ḥasan was poisoned, and al-Ḥusayn, Ibn al- Zubayr, al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays, and al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr were assassinated. Khubayb ibn ʿAdī was crucified. Al-Ḥajjāj executed ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ghālib al-Ḥuddānī, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Abū l-Bakhtarī l-Ṭāʾī, Kumayl ibn Ziyād, and Ḥuṭayṭ al-Zayyāt. He also crucified Māhān al-Ḥanafī, and before him Ibn al-Zubayr.

And al-Wāthiq killed and crucified Aḥmad ibn Naṣr al-Khuzāʿī. 70.4

Among the great scholars who were flogged is ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, who was struck four hundred lashes and then executed by Ibn al-Ḥajjāj. 70.5

Another is Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, who was struck one hundred lashes by ʿAbd al- Malik ibn Marwān for refusing to swear allegiance to al-Walīd in Medina. At ʿAbd al- Malik’s orders, he was flogged, drenched with water on a cold day, and dressed in a woolen cloak.407

Another is Khubayb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, who was struck a hundred lashes by ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz at the command of al-Walīd, all for reciting a Hadith where the Prophet—God bless and keep him—says, “When the descendants of Abū l-ʿĀṣ reach thirty in number, they will make God’s servants their own, and take turns plundering His treasury.” Whenever ʿUmar was told, “Rejoice!” he would reply, “How can I rejoice with Khubayb blocking my way?”408

Others include Abū l-Zinād, who was flogged by the Umayyads; Abū ʿAmr ibn al- ʿAlāʾ, struck five hundred lashes by the Umayyads; Rabiʿat al-Raʾy, flogged by the Umayyads; ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī, struck four hundred lashes by al-Ḥajjāj; Yazīd al- Ḍabbī, struck four hundred lashes by al-Ḥajjāj; Thābit al-Bunānī, flogged by Ibn al- Jārūd, the deputy of Ibn Ziyād; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAwn, struck seventy lashes by Bilāl ibn Abī Burdah; Mālik ibn Anas, struck seventy lashes by al-Manṣūr for saying that a person who swears an oath under compulsion is not bound by it; and Abū l-Sawwār al- ʿAdawī and ʿUqbah ibn ʿAbd al-Ghāfir, who were both flogged. 70.6

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal thus had a formidable list of exemplars.409

[Ṣāliḥ:] I heard my father say, “I exempt that dead man410 from liability for flogging me.” Then he said, “I just came across the verse «Whoever pardons and amends will find his reward with God»411 and looked into what it means. I cite Hāshim ibn Qāsim, who cites al-Mubārak ibn Faḍālah, who cites someone who heard al-Ḥasan say, ‘On the Day of Resurrection, all the nations will come crawling before God, mighty and glorious. Then only those to whom God owes a reward will be called upon to rise.’ 70.7

“He said: ‘The only ones to rise will be those who forgave others.’ “So I decided to exempt the deceased from liability for flogging me.” Then he added, “I’d rather not have God torment anyone for my sake.” [Aḥmad ibn Sinān:] I heard that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal forgave al-Muʿtaṣim the day he defeated Bābak, or the day he captured Amorium. He said, “I exempt him from any liability for flogging me.” 70.8

[Aḥmad:] Al-Wāthiq sent me a message asking me to forgive al-Muʿtaṣim for flogging me. I responded, “I forgave him the moment I left the palace because of what the Prophet said: ‘None will rise on Resurrection Day except those who forgive.’” 70.9

[Aḥmad:] Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm asked if I would exempt Abū Isḥāq [al-Muʿtaṣim] from liability. I told him that I already had. I had been thinking about the Hadith that says: “On the Day of Resurrection a cry will sound: ‘Let none rise but those who have forgiven!’” I also remembered what al-Shaʿbī said, “Forgive once and be rewarded twice.” 70.10

[Al-Khiraqī:] I once spent the night at Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s. Every time he lay down, he would weep, straight through until morning. I asked him why he had been weeping so much. He said, “I was thinking about how al-Muʿtaṣim had me flogged.

Then during the lesson we came across the verse «Let harm be requited by an equal harm. But whoever pardons and amends will find his reward with God.»412 So I prostrated myself and decided to forgive him.” 70.11

[Al-Ḥarbī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal forgave everyone, including al-Muʿtaṣim, who attended his flogging or helped carry it out under instructions from others. He said, “If Ibn Abī Duʾād weren’t summoning others to unbelief, I would forgive him, too.” 70.12

[Fūrān:] One night Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal sent for me. When I arrived he asked, “You once reported something Faḍl al-Anmāṭī said. What was it?” 70.13

I told him, “Faḍl said to me: ‘I will never forgive the one who ordered me flogged so I would say the Qurʾan is created, or the ones who carried out the flogging, or any of the followers of Jahm—present or absent—who rejoiced in it.’” Aḥmad said: “But I’ve forgiven al-Muʿtaṣim, the ones who flogged me, and anyone who was there, or who wasn’t. I thought it was better not to have anyone tormented in the Fire on my account. I also remembered two Hadiths reported of the Prophet, God bless and keep him: ‘God, mighty and glorious, will raise palaces, and people will lift their eyes to them and say, “Whose are these? How beautiful they are!” “‘The answer will come: “They belong to those who have paid for them.” “‘“What price did they pay?” “‘“Forgiving a fellow Muslim.”’ “The other report is: ‘God, mighty and glorious, will order a banner to be raised and a crier to cry, “Let all who have a claim on God follow this banner into the Garden.” “‘The people will ask, “Tell us who has a claim!” “‘The answer will come, “Whoever forgave his fellow Muslim.”’” [ʿAbd Allāh:] I once read to my father a report narrated by Rawḥ citing Ashʿath citing al-Ḥasan: “The Garden has a door that God has placed there only for those who have forgiven an injustice done them.” 70.14

“Son,” my father said, “the moment I left al-Muʿtaṣim’s palace, I forgave him and everyone with him, with two exceptions: Ibn Abī Duʾād and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, who were calling for my blood. But I’m too insignificant in the eyes of God for Him to torment anyone on my account, so I declare them forgiven as well.”

[Ṣāliḥ:] A man who treated flogging victims came to look after my father.413 “I’ve seen people who’d been struck a thousand lashes,” he told us, “but nothing as bad as this.

They struck him from the front as well as behind.” 70.15

Then he took an instrument and probed some of the wounds. “They didn’t puncture anything,” he said.

He began to come regularly to treat my father. Some of the blows had struck him in the face, and he had been left lying face down for some time. At one point the man said, “There’s something I want to remove.” He took out a piece of metal and used it to fold back the flesh while cutting some of it away with a knife. My father bore it all, praising God the whole time, and eventually recovered. He continued to feel pain in certain places, and the scars were visible on his back until the day he died.

I heard him say, “By God, I have given all I could. I was afraid, and all I wished for was to come out of it even, not winning or losing.” [Abū Ḥātim:] I went to see Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal three or so years after he was flogged. 70.16

“Do you still feel any pain?” I asked him.

He put his right hand on his left elbow and said, “Here,” as if to say that it had been dislocated and still hurt.

[Ibn Munādī’s grandfather:] After the ordeal was over, I saw Aḥmad sitting with a censer in front of him. He would take a rag he had wrapped around his hand and warm it over the fire then hold it to his side, where they had hit him. “Abū Jaʿfar,” he said, turning to me, “no one showed more compassion for me that day than al- Muʿtaṣim.” 70.17