[Al-Marrūdhī:] Aku mendengar Aḥmad berkata, "Aku tidak menikah hingga aku berusia empat puluh tahun." 62.1

[Al-Marrūdhī:] I heard Aḥmad say, “I didn’t marry until I was forty.” 62.1

[Penulis:] Istri pertamanya adalah ʿAbbāsah binti al-Faḍl, yang merupakan ibu dari Ṣāliḥ.

[The author:] His first wife was ʿAbbāsah bint al-Faḍl, who was Ṣāliḥ’s mother.

[Al-Khallāl:] Cucu Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Zuhayr, mendiktekan kepada kami hal berikut.

[Al-Khallāl:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s grandson Zuhayr dictated the following to us.

“Kakek saya, semoga Tuhan merahmatinya, menikah dengan ibu ayah saya, ʿAbbāsah binti al-Faḍl, seorang Arab dari daerah tepat di luar Madinah. Ia hanya memiliki satu anak—ayah saya—lalu ia meninggal dunia.” 62.2

“My grandfather, God have mercy on him, married my father’s mother, ʿAbbāsah bint al-Faḍl, an Arab from just outside Medina. She had only one child—my father—and then she died.” 62.2

[Al-Marrūdhī:] Saya mendengar Aḥmad berkata, “Aku dan ibu Ṣāliḥ hidup bersama selama tiga puluh tahun dan tidak pernah bertengkar.”315 62.3

[Al-Marrūdhī:] I heard Aḥmad say, “Ṣāliḥ’s mother and I lived together for thirty years and never had an argument.”315 62.3

ISTRI KEDUANYA, RAYḤĀNAH, IBU ʿABD ALLĀH316

HIS SECOND WIFE, RAYḤĀNAH, ʿABD ALLĀH’S MOTHER316

[Zuhayr:] Setelah ibu Ṣāliḥ, ʿAbbāsah, meninggal, ayahku menikah dengan seorang perempuan Arab bernama Rayḥānah. Ia hanya melahirkan satu anak untuknya, yaitu pamanku ʿAbd Allāh. 62.4

[Zuhayr:] After Ṣāliḥ’s mother, ʿAbbāsah, died, my father married an Arab woman named Rayḥānah. She bore him only one child: my uncle ʿAbd Allāh. 62.4

[Muḥammad ibn Baḥr:] Saya mendengar paman saya meriwayatkan: "Ketika kami semua berkumpul untuk menikahkan Aḥmad dan saudara perempuan Muḥammad ibn Rayḥān, ayahnya berkata kepadanya, 'Abū ʿAbd Allāh, dia—' lalu meletakkan jarinya di matanya, yang bermaksud 'Dia bermata satu.'" 62.5

[Muḥammad ibn Baḥr:] I heard my uncle report: “When we all gathered to marry Aḥmad and Muḥammad ibn Rayḥān’s sister, her father said to him, ‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh, she’s—’ and laid a finger on his eye, meaning ‘She’s one-eyed.’ 62.5

“Aḥmad berkata, ‘Aku sudah tahu itu.’” [Aḥmad ibn ʿAnbar:] Ketika ibu Ṣāliḥ wafat, Aḥmad berkata kepada salah seorang perempuan di rumah itu, “Pergilah ke sepupuku, Si Fulan, dan tanyakan apakah dia bersedia menikah denganku.” 62.6

“Aḥmad said, ‘I knew that.’” [Aḥmad ibn ʿAnbar:] When Ṣālih’s mother died, Aḥmad said to one of the women of the house, “Go to my cousin So-and-So and ask her if she’ll agree to marry me.” 62.6

Sepupunya meriwayatkan: “Maka aku pergi dan meminta (wanita itu), dan dia menyetujui. Tetapi ketika aku kembali, dia bertanya, ‘Apakah saudara perempuannya mendengarkan?’ Aku memberitahunya bahwa saudara perempuannya—yang matanya satu—sedang mendengarkan. Dia berkata, ‘Kembalilah dan mintalah yang bermata satu.’ Maka aku pun melakukannya, dan dia menerimanya.” Wanita ini adalah ibu ʿAbd Allāh. Setelah tujuh tahun menikah, dia bertanya kepadanya, “Sepupu, bagaimana menurutmu keadaan kita? Adakah sesuatu yang tidak kamu sukai?” “Tidak ada,” jawabnya, “kecuali bahwa sandal-sandalmu itu berderit.” Al-Khallāl juga berkata: “Aku ingat Khaṭṭāb ibn Bishr berkata bahwa salah seorang istri Aḥmad berkata kepadanya beberapa hari setelah dia masuk ke dalam rumah tangga: ‘Apakah ada yang aku lakukan keliru?’ 62.7

The cousin reported: “So I went and asked, and she agreed. But when I came back, he asked, ‘Was her sister listening?’ “I told him that the sister”—who was one-eyed—“had been listening. He said, ‘Go back and ask for the one with one eye.’ So I did, and she accepted.” This was ʿAbd Allāh’s mother. After seven years of marriage, she asked him, “Cousin, how do things seem to you? Is there anything you don’t like?” “Nothing,” he answered, “except that those sandals of yours squeak.” Al-Khallāl also said: “I remember Khaṭṭāb ibn Bishr saying that one of Aḥmad’s wives said to him a few days after she came into the household: ‘Is there anything I’m doing wrong?’ 62.7

"Tidak," jawabnya, "kecuali bahwa sandal yang kamu pakai itu belum ada pada masa Nabi ﷺ." Maka ia menjual sandal itu dan membeli maqṭūʿ,317 yang kemudian ia pakai.

“‘No,’ he answered, ‘except that those sandals you’re wearing didn’t exist at the time of the Prophet, God bless and keep him.’” So she sold them and bought a maqṭūʿ,317 which she would wear.

Al-Khallāl menambahkan bahwa wanita yang dimaksudnya adalah ini, yaitu ibu ʿAbd Allāh.

Al-Khallāl added that the woman he was talking about is this one: that is, ʿAbd Allāh’s mother.

Ia juga mendengar al-Marrūdhī mengatakan bahwa ia mendengar Aḥmad menyebut seorang istri dan memohon kepada Allah agar merahmatinya. Kemudian ia berkata, "Kami hidup bersama selama dua puluh tahun dan tidak pernah bertengkar." Itulah wanita tersebut: ibu dari ʿAbd Allāh.

He also heard al-Marrūdhī say that he heard Aḥmad mention a wife and ask God to have mercy on her. Then he said, “We lived together for twenty years and never had an argument.” That’s this woman: ʿAbd Allāh’s mother.

[Penulis:] Saya sudah mengutip Aḥmad yang mengatakan bahwa ibu Ṣāliḥ tinggal bersamanya selama tiga puluh tahun, dan riwayat terakhir ini menyebutkan bahwa ia dan seorang istri hidup bersama selama dua puluh tahun. Meskipun kedua riwayat itu disandarkan kepada al-Marrūdhī, salah satunya pasti keliru. Aḥmad tidak menikah sama sekali hingga usianya empat puluh tahun dan tidak menikah lagi hingga setelah ibu Ṣāliḥ meninggal dunia. Jika ia menghabiskan tiga puluh tahun bersama ibu itu dan dua puluh tahun lagi bersama istri kedua, berarti ia harus hidup selama sembilan puluh tahun. Padahal ia hanya hidup sampai usia tujuh puluh tujuh tahun. Selain itu, ia harus menikahi ibu ʿAbd Allāh ketika usianya sudah lebih dari tujuh puluh tahun, sedangkan kita tahu bahwa ketika ia wafat, ʿAbd Allāh sudah meriwayatkan hadis darinya dan bepergian bersamanya. Aḥmad biasa mengatakan bahwa ʿAbd Allāh—yang telah mulai mencari hadis dan telah mendengar banyak guru ketika ayahnya masih hidup—memiliki daya hafalan hadis yang baik. Oleh karena itu, menurut saya, orang yang hidup bersama Aḥmad selama dua puluh tahun adalah ibu Ṣāliḥ—wallāhu aʿlam. 62.8

[The author:] I’ve already quoted Aḥmad as saying that Ṣāliḥ’s mother lived with him for thirty years, and this last report says that he and a wife lived together for twenty. Although both reports are attributed to al-Marrūdhī, one of them must be wrong. Aḥmad did not marry at all until he was forty and did not marry again until after Ṣāliḥ’s mother had died. If he spent thirty years with her and another twenty with the second wife, he would have to have lived for ninety years. Yet he only lived to be seventy-seven. Moreover, he would need to have married ʿAbd Allāh’s mother when he was over seventy, but we know that by the time he died, ʿAbd Allāh was already transmitting his reports and traveling with him. Aḥmad used to say that ʿAbd Allāh— who had already begun seeking Hadith and had heard many teachers while his father was still alive—had a good head for memorizing Hadith. Therefore, I think that the person Aḥmad lived with for twenty years was Ṣāliḥ’s mother—though God knows best. 62.8

Ini, bagaimanapun juga, adalah dua istri yang diketahui pernah beliau miliki. Kami tidak pernah mendengar tentang istri yang ketiga.

These, in any case, are the two wives he is known to have had. We have not heard of a third.