[Aḥmad:] Belief consists of what you say and what you do. It can increase or decrease.

It is the only source of piety, and disobedience to God lessens it. 20.1

[Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm:] When asked about people who say that the Qurʾan is created, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal replied, “Anyone who says that is an Ingrate.”119 20.2

[Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm:] Asked about anyone who says that the Qurʾan is created, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal replied, “He’s an unbeliever,” using the participle.120 20.3

[Salamah ibn Shabīb:] I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal say that whoever says that the Qurʾan is created is an Ingrate. 20.4

[Al-Sarrāj:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about someone who says that the Qurʾan is created. 20.5

“He’s an Ingrate.” “What about someone who says that the text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is a created thing?” “He’s a follower of Jahm.”121

[Al-Kawsaj:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal what he thought of someone who called the Qurʾan created. 20.6

“He’s committed UN-BE-LIEF ,” he answered, stressing each syllable.

[Al-ʿUkbarī:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal whether it was true that the Qurʾan is the speech of God, uncreated, and that it came from Him and goes back to Him. 20.7

He answered: “From Him came the knowledge of it, and to Him belongs the judgment concerning it.”122

[Ṣāliḥ:] I found out that Abū Ṭālib had been quoting my father as saying “The text of the Qurʾan, spoken aloud, is uncreated.” I told my father about this, and he asked how I knew. I told him I had heard it from So-and-So. 20.8

“Send for Abū Ṭālib,” he said.

I sent for him and he came, along with Fūrān.123

“Did I ever say to you that the text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is uncreated?” said my father, shaking with anger.

“I read «Say, He is God, the one»124 out loud and you said, ‘That’s not created.’” “But why did you quote me as saying ‘The text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is uncreated’? Not only that: I hear you wrote this down and sent it to people. If you wrote it down, rub it out as hard as you can, and write to the people you wrote to and tell them I never said that.” Fūrān began apologizing, and finally left looking terrified. Abū Ṭālib came back to say that he had rubbed the words out of his notes and written a letter explaining that he had misquoted my father.

[Aḥmad:] We transmit these reports as we find them. 20.9

[Aḥmad:] A believer who belongs to the people of sunnah and community should defer what he doesn’t understand to God. If he hears a Hadith report like “The people in the Garden will see their Lord,”126 he should believe it without trying to explain it.

All men of learning everywhere are agreed on this. 20.10

[ʿAbd Allāh:] My father once wrote the following to ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Yaḥyā ibn Khāqān: “I don’t engage in Disputation, and I don’t think one should talk about any of that unless it appears in Scripture or the Hadith of the Prophet, God bless and keep him. Talking about anything else is no good.” 20.11

[Aḥmad:] Don’t sit with Disputationists, even if they’re defending the sunnah.128 20.12

[Aḥmad:] The Proponents of Created Utterance are worse than the followers of Jahm. 20.13

Ibn al-Layth added: “I once heard someone ask Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about the Stoppers, and he said: ‘As far as I’m concerned, the Stoppers, the followers of Jahm, and the Proponents of Created Utterance are all equally bad.’” 20.14

[Aḥmad:] If you do the ritual prayer and the man next to you turns out to be a follower of Jahm, do it over. 20.15

[Salamah ibn Shabīb:] I went to see Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal to ask him what he thought of someone who says, “The Qurʾan is the speech of God.”130 20.16

“If he doesn’t say, ‘The Qurʾan is the speech of God, uncreated,’ then he’s an Ingrate.” He went on: “Have no doubt about it. If he doesn’t say, ‘The Qurʾan is the speech of God, uncreated,’ then he’s saying it’s created. And anyone who says it’s created has sinned against God, mighty and glorious.” I asked him if the Stoppers were Ingrates.

“They are.” [Aḥmad:] Anyone who says that the text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is a created thing131 is a follower of Jahm. 20.17

[ʿAbd Allāh:] I told my father that al-Karābīsī was saying that the Qurʾanic text spoken aloud is a created thing. 20.18

“He’s lying, the tricky bastard,” he said. “May God expose him! He’s taken up where Bishr al-Marīsī132 left off.” [Aḥmad:] Have no doubt that a Stopper is an Ingrate. 20.19

[Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Hāniʾ:] Someone asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal whether it was allowed to perform the ritual prayer behind a leader who believes that the text of the Qurʾan spoken aloud is a created thing. 20.20

“No praying behind him, no sitting with him, no talking to him, and no praying over him when he dies.” [Aḥmad:] Scholars who are Secessionists133 are heretics.134 20.21

[Ṣāliḥ:] My father was asked whether it was permissible to pray behind a Proponent of Free Will. 20.22

“If he says that God doesn’t know what human beings are going to do until they do it, then no praying behind him; or behind a Rejectionist,135 either, if he criticizes the Prophet’s Companions.” I also heard my father say: “The followers of Jahm have spilt into three groups.

One says that the Qurʾan is a created thing. One says that it’s the speech of God, and stops there. And one says that the text of the Qurʾan read aloud is a created thing.” “So we’re not allowed to talk to the Stoppers?” “No.” “But what if someone does talk to them?” “Tell him not to. If he listens, then you can talk to him; but if he doesn’t, then you can’t.” My father also said: “No praying behind anyone who says, ‘The Qurʾan is a created thing.’ If you’ve prayed behind someone like that, pray again. The same goes for Stoppers and Proponents of the Created Utterance.” [Al-Balkhī:] I was once at Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s when a messenger came from the caliph to ask whether it was permissible to employ Muslim sectarians in state service.

He replied that it was not. 20.23

“But we employ Jews and Christians! Why not sectarians?” “The Jews and Christians don’t try to win people over, but the sectarians do.”

[Al-Muṭṭawwiʿī:] I once heard someone ask Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about the relative merits of the Prophet’s Companions, and he answered, “They should be ranked according to the Hadith of Ibn ʿUmar.137 As far as the caliphate is concerned, the order is the one given in the Hadith of Safīnah: first Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, then ʿAlī.” 20.24

“Was that report transmitted by Ḥashraj?” “No, by Ḥammād ibn Salamah.” [The author:] This question arose because both Ḥammād ibn Salamah and Ḥashraj ibn Nubātah transmitted the Hadith of Safīnah, but Ḥashraj is of dubious reliability while Ḥammād ibn Salamah is an exemplar.

[ʿAbd Allāh:] I asked my father about the testimony that Abū Bakr and ʿUmar are in the Garden. He said, “It’s true. I follow the Hadith of Saʿīd ibn Zayd, which says, ‘I testify that the Prophet is in the Garden, and so are his nine Companions.’ And the Prophet, God bless and keep him, said, ‘The people in the Garden stand in a hundred and twenty rows, of which eighty are filled by members of my community.’ If his Companions aren’t included, then who would be?” 20.25

[Al-Maymūnī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said to me, “Abū l-Ḥasan, if you hear anyone saying anything bad about the Companions of the Prophet, God bless and keep him, then you should doubt his Islam.” 20.26

[Aḥmad:] When God’s Emissary, God bless and keep him, fell ill, he sent Abū Bakr to lead the ritual prayer even though there were others who were better readers.

The point was to show who the caliph should be. 20.27

[Aḥmad:] The best member of this community, after the Prophet, was Abū Bakr the Righteous, then ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, then ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. We put those three first, as the Companions of God’s Emissary did, with no difference of opinion.

Next come the five members of the Shūrā Council: ʿAlī, al-Zubayr, Ṭalḥah, ʿAbd al- Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, and Saʿd. Any one of them could have been caliph, and all of them are exemplars. This follows the report where Ibn ʿUmar says, “While God’s Emissary, God bless and keep him, was alive, and his Companions were numerous, we used to list them by saying Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān, and then stopping.” 20.28

After the Council members come the Emigrants who fought at Badr, then the Helpers who fought there, in order of their emigration or acceptance of Islam. After these come the Companions—that is, of the generation the Emissary was sent to.

Anyone who was in his company for a year, or a month, or a day, or an hour, or saw him, counts as a Companion, to be honored according to the length of time he spent with him and how soon he started, or how often he heard him speak, or looked at him.

The least distinguished member of that generation is more distinguished than any member of the generation that never saw him. When they meet God, those who joined the Prophet, saw him, and heard him speak will have greater merit by virtue of their being his Companions than any member of the next generation, even if the latter should have done all manner of good deeds. Anyone who disparages a Companion, or dislikes him for something he may have done, or lists his faults, remains a supporter of dangerous novelties138 until he blesses them all, without any ill feeling. 20.29

[Ṣāliḥ:] Someone asked my father—with me present—whether someone who says that ʿAlī was better than ʿUthmān is doing something new and bad. 20.30

“Anyone who does that deserves to be denounced,” said my father. “The Companions of the Emissary put ʿUthmān—God be pleased with him—first.” [ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān al-Ḥimṣī:] When Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was transported from Samarra to the Byzantine frontier, they stopped here in Homs. I found him and asked him his position on ʿAlī and ʿUthmān. 20.31

“First ʿUthmān, then ʿAlī,” he said. “Listen, Abū Ḥafṣ,” he continued. “Anyone who puts ʿAlī before ʿUthmān is scoffing at the Council.”139

[Muḥammad ibn ʿAwf:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about putting some Companions before others. He said, “Anyone who puts ʿAlī ahead of Abū Bakr is questioning the judgment of God’s Emissary. Anyone who puts ʿAlī ahead of ʿUmar has questioned the judgment of God’s Emissary and Abū Bakr both. Anyone who puts ʿAlī ahead of ʿUthmān has questioned the judgment of God’s Emissary, Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and the Emigrants, and I can’t imagine that someone who does that will benefit from any good works he does.” 20.32

[ʿAbd Allāh:] One day I was sitting with my father when some people from al-Karkh came in. They spoke for a good long while about the caliphates of Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān. Then they turned to the caliphate of ʿAlī and went on and on about it.

After a while my father looked up at them and said, “You’ve said a lot about ʿAlī and the caliphate, but it wasn’t holding the office that made ʿAlī great. It was having ʿAlī as caliph that made the office great.” 20.33

Al-Sayyārī added, “I told this story to a Shiʿi, and he said, ‘You’ve just taken away half the resentment I had against Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.’” [ʿAbd Allāh:] After hearing my father recite the Hadith of Safīnah,141 I asked him, “Dad, what do you say about putting some Companions before others?” 20.34

“As far as the succession goes, it’s Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān.” “What about ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib?” “Son, ʿAlī was a member of the Prophet’s household. No one compares with them.” [Aḥmad:] None of the Companions has as many well-attested virtues as ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. 20.35

[Aḥmad:] Anyone who denies that ʿAlī was an exemplar is even worse at finding his way than the family donkey. 20.36

[Ḥanbal:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal whether ʿAlī’s caliphate was valid. 20.37

“God help us!” he cried. “ʿAlī upheld the law and cut off the hands of thieves; he collected the alms-tax and distributed it without taking his own share. How for God’s sake could anyone object to his being caliph? He was a good one, too: the Companions of God’s Emissary, God bless and keep him, supported him, prayed behind him, joined his expeditions, fought for him, went on pilgrimage with him, and called him Commander of Believers, willingly and without reservation. Who are we to do otherwise?”

[Abū Bakr al-Marrūdhī:] When we were in Samarra, one of the caliph’s messengers asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal what he thought about the dispute between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah. 20.38

“I have nothing but good to say about them.” I also heard Ibn Ḥanbal say, after someone mentioned the Companions of God’s Emissary: “God have mercy on them all! Muʿāwiyah, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, Abū Mūsā l- Ashʿarī, and al-Mughīrah are all described in the Book of God, where it says, «Their marks are on their faces, the traces of their prostrations.»”142

[Ibrāhīm ibn Āzir:] I was once at Ibn Ḥanbal’s when a man asked him about what had happened between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah. Ibn Ḥanbal ignored him. Then, when he was told that the man was from the house of Hāshim, he turned to him and recited:

“«Those were a people that have passed away; theirs is what they did and yours what you have done. You shall not be answerable for their deeds.»”143 20.39

[ʿAbd Allāh:] I asked my father what a Rejectionist is. 20.40

“Anyone who curses and reviles Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.” I also asked him about cursing any of the Companions of the Emissary of God.

“I wouldn’t call him a Muslim.” 145