The Life Of Ibn Hanbal by Ibn Al-Jawzi

[Ibn al-Ashʿath:] I don’t think I ever heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal mention the things of this world. 44.1

[ʿUmar ibn Sulaymān:] I performed the Ramadan nighttime prayers with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, led by Ibn ʿUmayr. When he performed his additional night prayer, he clasped his hands to his chest. He and the others at the mosque prayed so softly that I couldn’t hear anything they said. The mosque had no hanging lamps,229 mats, or incense230—only a lamp placed on the step. 44.2

[Al-Samarqandī:] I once asked Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān about Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 44.3

“Is he an exemplar?” “Indeed he was, by God: he suffered poverty for seventy years!” [Ṣāliḥ:] I once said to my father, “I heard that Aḥmad al-Dawraqī got a thousand dinars.” 44.4

He replied: «The provision of your Lord is better and more lasting.»231

I also mentioned Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd al-Aʿlā l-Narsī, and the other Hadith-men who had been taken to Samarra.

“It didn’t take long,” he said, “before all of them started climbing over each other to go there, but none of them got much out of it.” On another occasion, when someone was described as successful, my father said, “Son, success means being successful in the end without owing anything to anybody.” [Ibn Abī l-Qudūr:] When prices were high, Aḥmad would come to me with woven cloth which he would hide on his person and have me sell for him. Sometimes I would get a dirham and a half for it and sometimes two dirhams. One day he didn’t come to see me. The next day, I said, “Aḥmad, where were you yesterday?” 44.5

“Umm Ṣāliḥ was sick.” He gave me some woven cloth, which I sold for four dirhams. When I brought it to him, he didn’t like it.

“You didn’t add any of your own money, did you?” he asked.

“No,” I replied. “It was finely woven.” [Ṣāliḥ:] My father said, “When prices were high, your mother would weave fine cloth. She’d sell four and a half mithqāls232 for about two dirhams, and that’s how we’d eat.” 44.6

My father once came into my house after we had put in a new ceiling. He called me over and dictated the following report: “We heard Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb report that he heard Ḥammād ibn Salamah report, citing Yūnus, citing al-Ḥasan, that al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays returned from a journey to find that they had put a new roof on his house and painted some of the planks red and green.233 They told him to look at it, and he said, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t notice. Anyway, I can’t come in until you change it.’ “When I bought a slave woman, my wife complained to him about it. He said, ‘I’ve always tried to keep them away from the things of this world. But I haven’t heard the same about you.’ “My wife said, ‘Is there anyone besides you who hates having money?’ “‘Deal with her yourself, then,’ he replied.234

“We often bought things and hid them so he wouldn’t find out about them and rebuke us.” [Al-Marrūdhī:] When we were in Samarra, Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā l-Miṣrī and a number of other Hadith-men came to see Aḥmad. 44.7

“Why do you look so upset?” asked al-Miṣrī. “Islam is the one true faith, without harshness or constraint, and there’s room in it for everyone.” Aḥmad, who was lying down, simply stared at them. After they had left, he said, “Did you see them? I don’t want any of them in here again.”235

[Al-Naysābūrī:] Aḥmad once said to me, “Some morning, come by early and we’ll compare our copies of Renunciation.” 44.8

So I went to see him early one morning. I asked his son’s mother236 to bring me a mat and a pillow, and I put them out in the anteroom. Then Aḥmad came out with the book and his inkpot. When he saw the mat and the pillow, he said, “What’s this?” “For you to sit on,” I said.

“Take it away,” he said. “We can’t study renunciation without renouncing.” So I took the things away and Aḥmad sat down on the ground.

[Al-Sarī ibn Muḥammad:] One day Aḥmad’s grandson came over to help him with his ablutions.237 Seeing that his grandfather had taken a wet rag and put it on his head, he asked him if he had a fever. 44.9

“What would I get a fever from?” he replied.238

[Ibn Jabalah:] I was at Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s front door, which was ajar, and I heard his son’s mother239 telling him, “Here I am suffering with you, but over at Ṣālīḥ’s house they’ve got plenty to eat,” and so on and so forth. 44.10

“Speak no ill,” he kept telling her.

When he came out, his little boy came out with him and began crying.

“What do you want?” he asked him.

“Raisins!” cried the boy.

“Go tell the grocer,” said Aḥmad, “to give you a ḥabbah’s worth.”240

[Hāniʾ:] When he returned from Samarra, Aḥmad told me to go to the bathhouse and ask the man who ran it to clear the place for him. So I went and asked, and the man agreed. I went back and told Aḥmad, who said, “It’s been fifty years since I’ve entered a bathhouse.241 I might as well not go now, either. Tell him to open it up again.” So I did. 44.11

[Ṣāliḥ:] My father used to depilate himself at home. One winter day he said, “After sunset I want to go to the bathhouse, so go tell the owner.” 44.12

But after sunset, he said, “Let him know I’ve changed my mind,” and depilated himself at home.

[ʿAbd Allāh:] One day when I was sitting with my father he looked at my feet, which were smooth and had no cracks on the soles. 44.13

“Look at those feet!” he said. “Why don’t you walk barefoot and toughen them up?”[ Al-Marrūdhī:] I heard Aḥmad say to Shujāʿ ibn Makhlad al-ʿAṭṭār, “What difference does it make what I eat or what I wear? It will all be over soon enough.” 44.14

[Al-Marrūdhī:] I heard Aḥmad say, “My happiest days are when I wake up with nothing in the house.” 44.15