[Muḥammad ibn Muslim:] Kami terlalu segan kepada Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal untuk berselisih pendapat dengannya atau berdebat dengannya tentang apa pun. 36.1

[Muḥammad ibn Muslim:] We were too much in awe of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal to disagree with him or argue with him about anything. 36.1

Hal ini disebabkan oleh betapa berwibawanya dia, dan betapa menggentarkannya ketaatan kepada Islam yang telah dianugerahkan kepadanya.194

This was because of how imposing he was, and how intimidating the devotion to Islam he had been blessed with.194

[Al-Marrūdhī:] Al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad, pengawas jembatan, yang tinggal di lingkunganku, bercerita kepadaku, "Aku pernah bertemu Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, dan Fulan, dan Fulan"—semuanya adalah orang-orang yang memiliki otoritas—"tetapi aku tidak pernah melihat seseorang sewibawa Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Suatu kali aku pergi menemuinya untuk membicarakan suatu hal, dan begitu aku melihatnya, aku gemetar." 36.2

[Al-Marrūdhī:] Al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad, the superintendent of the bridge, who lived in my neighborhood, told me, “I’ve met Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, and So-and-So, and Soand- So”—all of them men of authority—“but I never saw anyone as overpowering as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. I once went to talk to him about something, and the moment I saw him, I shuddered.” 36.2

Al-Kalbī, kepala intelijen, pernah datang menemuinya pada malam hari, tetapi dia dan anak buahnya terlalu takut untuk mengetuk pintunya sehingga mereka mengetuk pintu pamannya sebagai gantinya. Aḥmad mengatakan bahwa dia mendengar mereka mengetuk dan menjawab.

Al-Kalbī, the chief of intelligence, once came to see him at night, but he and his men were too intimidated to knock on his door and so knocked on his uncle’s door instead. Aḥmad said that he heard them knocking and answered.

[ʿAbdūs:] Aḥmad pernah melihat saya tertawa. Saya masih merasa malu karenanya. 36.3

[ʿAbdūs:] Aḥmad once saw me laugh. I’m still embarrassed about it. 36.3

[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] Saya pernah duduk bersama Abū Yūsuf, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, dan ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, namun tidak pernah saya merasa segan sebagaimana ketika saya duduk bersama Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Ketika beliau berada di penjara, saya pergi menjenguknya.

[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] I’ve sat with Abū Yūsuf, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, and I was never as intimidated as I was when I sat with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. When he was in prison, I went to visit him.

Seseorang bertanya kepada saya, tetapi karena ada Aḥmad di sana, saya merasa takut untuk menjawabnya. 36.4

Someone asked me a question but with Aḥmad there I was afraid to answer it. 36.4

Ibnu Makram menambahkan: "Aku menceritakan kisah ini kepada Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah, dan dia berkata, 'Mungkin dia takut berbuat kesalahan dengan Aḥmad di sana.'"

Ibn Makram added: “I told Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah this story, and he said, ‘He was probably afraid to make a mistake with Aḥmad there.’”