The Life Of Ibn Hanbal by Ibn Al-Jawzi

We have already mentioned that Ṣāliḥ was born to one mother and ʿAbd Allāh to another, and that Ḥusn the slave bore him al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, then a third child also named al-Ḥasan, then Muḥammad, Saʿīd, and Zaynab, who was called Umm ʿAlī. 64.1

[Ṣāliḥ:] My father once started apologizing to me for Ḥasan and Saʿīd, saying, “Every soul that acknowledged God as his Lord has to be born sooner or later.”325 64.2

[ʿAbd Allāh:] When one of the babies was born, ʿAbd al-Aʿlā gave me a note of congratulations to deliver to my father. But my father flung it away, saying, “No man of learning would write a note like that, or any Hadith-man either. It’s what you’d expect from a scribe!” 64.3

[Fūrān:] I was a close associate of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. He felt comfortable with me and he would even borrow money from me. 64.4

Whenever he had a baby born at night when I wasn’t there to hear about it, he would come in the very early morning and sit by my door. But he wouldn’t knock, so I never knew he was there until I came out to pray. Then he would get up and join me.

I’d ask him what he was doing there so early and he’d say, “We had a baby.” Then he’d leave and I’d pray the morning prayer. Afterward I’d go to the bridge326

or the Straw Gate327 to buy what the women needed and have it delivered to his house.