His Creed - The Life Of Ibn Hanbal | Quran Course

His Creed - The Life Of Ibn Hanbal | Quran Course

[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