[Muḥammad ibn Muslim:] Kami terlalu segan terhadap Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal untuk membantah 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

Ini disebabkan oleh kewibawaannya, serta betapa menggerunkan kesungguhan dalam beragama 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 jambatan, yang tinggal di kawasan kejiranan saya, memberitahu saya, "Saya pernah bertemu Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, dan Si Fulan, dan Si Fulan" — kesemuanya lelaki yang berkuasa — "tetapi saya tidak pernah melihat sesiapa yang seberwibawa Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Pernah sekali saya pergi berbincang dengannya mengenai sesuatu, dan sebaik sahaja saya melihatnya, saya menggigil." 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, ketua perisikan, pernah datang menemuinya pada waktu malam, tetapi dia dan anak buahnya terlalu gentar untuk mengetuk pintunya, lalu mereka mengetuk pintu bapa saudaranya sebagai gantinya. Aḥmad berkata bahawa dia mendengar ketukan itu dan menjawabnya.

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 ketawa. Saya masih malu tentangnya. 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, tetapi saya tidak pernah berasa segentar sebagaimana ketika duduk bersama Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Ketika beliau berada di dalam penjara, saya pergi menziarahinya.

[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 satu soalan, tetapi kerana Aḥmad ada di situ, saya takut untuk menjawabnya. 36.4

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

Ibn Makram menambah: "Saya menceritakan kisah ini kepada Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah, dan beliau berkata, 'Mungkin dia takut melakukan kesilapan bersama 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.’”