艾哈迈德的孩子们讲述道，许多人前来吊唁，其中包括一些隐瞒了身份的虔诚之人。为免过多展开，我将介绍其中几则较为著名的记载。891

Aḥmad’s children reported that many people, including certain righteous men who had kept their identities a secret, came to offer their condolences. Without spending too much time on the subject, I will present a few of the more famous accounts. 89.1

[Ibn Abī Ḥātim:] 我们听到艾哈迈德之子萨利赫转述：89。2

[Ibn Abī Ḥātim:] We heard Aḥmad’s son Ṣāliḥ report: 89.2

我父亲去世几天后,穆罕默德·本·阿卜杜拉·本·塔希尔收到了穆塔瓦基勒的一封信,命他前来吊唁,并把书籍带走。我先把书收拢起来,对他说:“我们听过的所有圣训都在这里。你如果想要,就留在这里抄写。”482

A few days after my father died, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir received a letter from al-Mutawakkil ordering him to pay us a visit of condolence and to carry off the books. But I gathered up the books first and told him, “All of the reports we’ve ever heard are in here. If you want them, stay here and copy them.”482

“我要去告诉哈里发。”他说。

“I’ll tell the caliph,” he said.

[Ibn Abī Ḥātim:] 撒利哈一直拖延，书籍仍留在我们手中，感谢真主！[Ṣāliḥ:] 我的一位朋友给我写了这封吊唁信：89。3

[Ibn Abī Ḥātim:] Ṣāliḥ kept putting him off and the books stayed in our hands, thank God! [Ṣāliḥ:] One of my friends wrote me this letter of condolence: 89.3

以仁慈、慈悯的真主之名。至大至尊的真主裁定，死亡公平地临到全人类，使祂的受造物都有一个有限的寿限，直到命运来取走他们每一个人。顺服真主定命的，是Abū ʿAbd Allāh——愿真主怜悯他！——他已被真主召归祂身边。他满心甘愿地接受真主的迎接，一如既往地无瑕、纯洁、完美，坚守圣行，毫无差错，遵循正道，不偏离善的引导，不为私欲所动，身处逆境而无所畏惧，直到真主将他拉近祂的身边。愿所有人都向往他所获得的恩典。失去他带来的剧痛深深刺入心中，但我以真主应许的福祉、慈悯和迹象来安慰你，以及读这封信的其他穆斯林，这些都赐予那些善于思考、忍耐坚持、并心甘情愿地顺从真主为祂所创造万物所定命运的人。我提醒你们，他以最好的方式离开了我们：心智清明，对真主的引导充满信心，勇气与决心坚定不移。世界追逐他，他却弃之不顾；他为真主挺身而出时，不惧任何责难。他的离去，在伊斯兰的心上留下了一道深深的伤痕。

In the name of God, full of compassion, ever-compassionate God, mighty and glorious, has decreed that death deal impartially with humankind, dooming His creatures to a finite span until fate comes to claim them all. Bowing now to God’s decree is Abū ʿAbd Allāh—may God have mercy on him!—whom He has summoned to Himself. Accepting God’s welcome with a willing heart, he came faultless as always, unsullied, and immaculate, firm in tradition, inerrant, and guiding aright, unswerving from the path of good guidance, unswayed by caprice, and dauntless in adversity, until God drew him close to Himself. Let all aspire to the grace that he has gained; and though losing him brings a wrenching grief that bites deep into the heart, and I console you and any other Muslim who reads this letter by reminding you of God’s promised blessings, mercies, and signs vouchsafed to those who ponder well, suffer long, and submit with good grace to the fate God has decreed for all things He has made. I remind you that he left us in the best possible way: present in mind, confident of God’s guidance, and unshaken in his courage and resolve. The world pursued him but he spurned it, and he brooked no rebuke when he stood up for God; his passing leaves a ragged scar on the heart of Islam.

我祈求慷慨施恩的真主,赐福于穆罕默德——祂的仆人和使者ﷺ;并使艾哈迈德所得的回报,不少于祂为侍奉祂而创造的任何一位友人所得的回报。愿祂提升他的品位,抬高他的地位,使他与先知、说真话的人、殉道者和圣徒同座——他们是多么好的伴侣啊!我祈求真主赐予你力量,以及赐予坚强者的应许回报;并赐予你那种确信,它能带来赐予那些践行信仰之人的应许回报。我向祂祈求,因为祂是一切恩典的源泉,是一切美善的赐予者,也是无所不能的主。

I pray to God, who gives freely of His bounty, to bless Muḥammad, His servant and Emissary; and to grant Aḥmad no lesser reward than that He grants to any of the allies He has created to serve Him. May He raise him in rank, exalt him in standing, and seat him among the prophets, the truth-tellers, the martyrs, and the saints—goodly companions all! I ask God to give you strength, and the reward promised to the strong; and grant you that certainty that confers the reward promised to those who live out their faith. I ask Him, for He is the fount of all blessing, the dispenser of all good things, and the One for whom nothing is impossible.

[Al-Ṣūfī:] 我们埋葬阿布·阿卜杜拉的那晚，我们的一位学者——一位善良而博学的人，名叫阿布·贾法尔——问我：“你知道今天下葬的是谁吗？”89。4

[Al-Ṣūfī:] The night we buried Abū ʿAbd Allāh, one of our scholars—a kindly, learned man named Abū Jaʿfar—asked me, “Do you know who was buried today?” 89.4

“谁？”“五人中的第六个。”“你是什么意思？”“第一个是艾布·伯克尔·绥迪格，”他说，“第二个是欧麦尔·本·赫塔卜。”

“Who?” “The sixth of five.” “What do you mean?” “The first is Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq,” he said. “The second was ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.

"ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān是第三位，ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib是第四位，ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz是第五位，现在我们有了第六位：Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal。"我很欣赏他这句话。他的意思是，每个人在他自己的时代都是最杰出的。

ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān was the third, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib the fourth, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al- ʿAzīz the fifth, and now we have a sixth: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.” I appreciated his saying that. What he meant was that each man was the greatest in his own time.