[Al-Marrūdhī:] Nilimsikia Aḥmad akisema, “Sikuoa hadi nilipofikisha miaka arobaini.” 62.1

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

[Mwandishi:] Mke wake wa kwanza alikuwa ʿAbbāsah bint al-Faḍl, ambaye alikuwa mama yake Ṣāliḥ.

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

[Al-Khallāl:] Mjukuu wa Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Zuhayr, alituamuru tuandike yafuatayo.

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

"Babu yangu, Mwenyezi Mungu amrehemu, alimuoa mama yake baba yangu, ʿAbbāsah bint al-Faḍl, Mwarabu kutoka nje kidogo ya Madina. Alikuwa na mtoto mmoja tu—baba yangu—kisha akafariki 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:] Nilimsikia Aḥmad akisema, "Mama yake Ṣāliḥ na mimi tuliishi pamoja kwa miaka thelathini na hatukuwahi kugombana."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

MKE WAKE WA PILI, RAYḤĀNAH, MAMA WA ʿABD ALLĀH316

HIS SECOND WIFE, RAYḤĀNAH, ʿABD ALLĀH’S MOTHER316

[Zuhayr:] Baada ya mama yake Ṣāliḥ, ʿAbbāsah, kufariki, baba yangu alimwoa mwanamke Mwarabu aliyeitwa Rayḥānah. Alimzalia mtoto mmoja tu: mjomba wangu 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:] Nilimsikia mjomba wangu akisimulia: "Tulipokusanyika wote kumwoa Aḥmad na dada yake Muḥammad ibn Rayḥān, baba yake alimwambia, 'Abū ʿAbd Allāh, yeye ni—' kisha akaweka kidole chake kwenye jicho lake, akimaanisha 'Yeye ana jicho moja.'" 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 alisema, 'Nilijua hilo.'" [Aḥmad ibn ʿAnbar:] Mama yake Ṣāliḥ alipofariki, Aḥmad alimwambia mmoja wa wanawake wa nyumbani, "Nenda kwa binamu yangu Fulani umuulize kama atakubali kunioa." 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

Binamu huyo alisimulia: "Basi nilikwenda nikamuuliza, naye akakubali. Lakini niliporudi, yeye akaniuliza, 'Je, dada yake alikuwa akisikiliza?' Nikamwambia kwamba dada huyo"—ambaye alikuwa na jicho moja—"alikuwa akisikiliza. Akasema, 'Rudi ukamuulize yule mwenye jicho moja.' Basi nikafanya hivyo, naye akakubali." Huyu alikuwa mama yake ʿAbd Allāh. Baada ya miaka saba ya ndoa, alimuuliza, "Binamu, mambo yanakuonekanaje? Kuna kitu chochote usichokipenda?" "Hakuna," alijibu, "isipokuwa viatu vyako hivyo vinatoa mlio." Al-Khallāl pia alisema: "Nakumbuka Khaṭṭāb ibn Bishr akisema kwamba mmoja wa wake wa Aḥmad alimwambia siku chache baada ya kuingia katika nyumba hiyo: 'Je, kuna chochote ninachokifanya vibaya?'" 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

"'Hapana,' alijibu, 'isipokuwa tu kwamba viatu hivyo unavyovaa havikuwepo wakati wa Nabii ﷺ.'" Basi akaviuza na kununua maqṭūʿ, ambayo angekuwa akivaa.

“‘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 aliongeza kwamba mwanamke aliyekuwa akimzungumzia ni huyu: yaani, mama yake ʿAbd Allāh.

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

Pia alimsikia al-Marrūdhī akisema kwamba alimsikia Aḥmad akimtaja mke mmoja na kumwomba Mwenyezi Mungu amrehemu. Kisha akasema: "Tuliishi pamoja kwa miaka ishirini na hatukuwahi kugombana hata mara moja." Huyu ndiye mwanamke huyo: mama yake 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.

[Mwandishi:] Nimeshakunukuu Aḥmad akisema kwamba mama yake Ṣāliḥ aliishi naye kwa miaka thelathini, na riwaya hii ya mwisho inasema kwamba yeye na mke mmoja waliishi pamoja kwa miaka ishirini. Ingawa riwaya zote mbili zinahusishwa na al-Marrūdhī, mojawapo lazima iwe si sahihi. Aḥmad hakuoa kabisa hadi alipofikisha arobaini, na hakuoa tena hadi baada ya mama yake Ṣāliḥ kufariki. Kama aliishi naye miaka thelathini na kisha miaka ishirini na mke wa pili, ingempasa kuishi miaka tisini. Lakini aliishi hadi umri wa miaka sabini na saba tu. Zaidi ya hayo, ingempasa kumwoa mama yake ʿAbd Allāh akiwa na zaidi ya miaka sabini, lakini tunajua kwamba kufikia wakati alipofariki, ʿAbd Allāh alikuwa tayari anasimulia riwaya zake na kusafiri naye. Aḥmad alikuwa akisema kwamba ʿAbd Allāh, ambaye alikuwa ameanza kutafuta Hadith na kuwasikia walimu wengi wakati baba yake bado yuko hai, alikuwa na kipaji kizuri cha kukariri Hadith. Kwa hiyo, nadhani kwamba mtu ambaye Aḥmad aliishi naye kwa miaka ishirini alikuwa mama yake Ṣāliḥ—ingawa Mungu ndiye anayejua zaidi. 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

Hizi, kwa vyovyote vile, ndizo wake wawili anaojulikana kuwa alikuwa nao. Hatujasikia kuhusu wa tatu.

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