Virtues of the Imam Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal. Ibn al-Jawzi
ibn Zādhān al-Razzāz report:
[Al-Razzāz:] Once when we were praying with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, I heard him say, “God, if anyone has followed a caprice or an independent judgment, believing that he is right when he is mistaken, return him to the truth so that no member of this community goes astray.
“God, let us not trouble ourselves over the sustenance that You have undertaken to provide, nor make us dependent on others for that sustenance that comes from You.
“Let us achieve the best of those things that You have promised without being deterred by the worst.
“May You never see us doing what You have forbidden, nor find us shirking from what You have commanded.
“Ennoble us and do not abase us: ennoble us through obedience to You, and do not abase us through disobedience of You.”
One time a man came to him and asked him something I couldn’t make out. Aḥmad answered, “Hold out as long as you can; in strength is victory.” Then he added, “The Prophet, God bless and keep him, said, ‘In strength is victory, and after suffering comes relief. «Surely with every hardship there is ease; surely with every hardship there is ease.»’”26
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أخبرنا عبد الوهاب بن المبارَك قال: أخبرنا أبو الحُسين بن عبد الجبّار قال: أخبرنا إبراهيم بن عمر البرمكي قال: أخبرنا أبو بكر محمّد بن إسماعيل الوَرّاق قال: حدثنا أبو محمّد عبد الله بن إسحاق البَغَوي قال:
حدثنا أبو جعفر محمّد بن يَعقوب الصفّار قال: كُنّا عند أبي عبد الله أحمد بن حنبل فقلتُ: ادعُ الله لنا. فقال: اللهمَّ إنّك تعلم أنّا نعلم أنّك لنا على أكثر ممّا نُحبّ فاجعلنا لك على ما تحبّ.
قال: ثم سكت ساعة فقيل: يا أبا عبد الله زِدْنا.
فقال: اللهمَّ إنّا نسألك بالقدرة التي قلتَ للسماوات والأرض: {أئْتِيَا طَوْعًا أَوْ كَرْهًا قَالَتَا أَتَيْنَا طَائِعِين}، اللهمَّ وفِّقْنا لمرضاتك، اللهمَّ إنا نعوذ بك من الفقر إلاّ إليك ونعوذ بك من الذلّ إلا لك، اللهمَّ لا تُكثِر علينا فنطغَى ولا تُقْلِل علينا فنَنسى، وهَبْ لنا من رحمتك وَسَعة من رزقك ما يكون بَلاغًا لنا وغنىً من فضلك.
We cite ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn al-Mubārak, who cites Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, who cites Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Barmakī, who cites Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Warrāq, who heard Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq al-Baghawī report that he heard Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Ṣaffār report:
[Al-Ṣaffār:] We were at Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s, and I asked him to pray for us. He said, “You know that we know that You desire for us most of what we seek for ourselves; make us rather seek for ourselves only what You desire for us.”
He fell silent. Then someone said, “Give us more.”
“God,” he said, “we ask You, by that power You spoke of when You said to the heavens and the earth, «Come willingly or unwillingly, and they both said, ‘We come willingly,’»27 to guide us to what pleases You. We seek Your protection against all need except the need for You, and all subjection except to You. Give us not so much that we wax arrogant, nor so little that we become heedless. Grant us, in Your mercy, a sustenance that will suffice us, and a bounty that leaves us dependent on none but You.”
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أنبأنا عليّ بن عبيد الله قال: أنبأنا عليّ بن أحمد البُندار عن أبي عبد الله بن بَطّة قال: حدثنا أبو صالح محمّد بن أحمد بن ثابت قال: حدثني أبو نصر عِصْمة بن أبي عِصْمة قال:
سَمعتُ سِندي الخَواتيمي يقول: دخلتُ على أحمد بعد أن ضُرِب وقد أُخرج من دار الخليفة١ فرأيتُه مكبوبًا على وجهه في منزله وهو يدعو فسمعته يقول: يا شاكرَ ما يصنع٢ اصنَعْ بي ما تشكرني عليه.
وبلغني عن المَرُّوذي أنه قال: اجتمع جماعة إلى أحمد فقالوا له: ادعُ فقال: اللهمَّ لا تطالبنا بوفاء الشكر فيما أنعمتَ به علينا.٣
وبلغني عن محمّد بن يعقوب الصفّار قال: كان أحمد يدعو في دُبُر كل صلاة: اللهمَّ إني أسألك موجبات رحمتك وعزائم مغفرتك والغنيمة من كلّ بِرّ والسلامة من كل إثم والفوز بالجنّة والنّجاة من النار ولا تدَع لنا ذنبًا إلا غفرتَه ولا همًا إلا فرّجته ولا حاجة إلا قضيتها.
١ ش: الخلافة. ٢ د: نصنع، تركي: يُصنع. ٣ الخبر ناقص في ش.
We were informed by ʿAlī ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, who was informed by ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Bundār, citing Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Baṭṭah, who heard Abū Ṣāliḥ Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Thābit report that he heard Abū Naṣr ʿIṣmah ibn Abī ʿIṣmah report that he heard Sindī l-Khawātīmī say:
[Al-Khawātīmī:] After Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal had been flogged and then sent out of the caliph’s palace, I went to visit him. I found him lying face down in the house, praying. I overheard him say, “O You who reward us for what You do,28 do to me whatever makes me deserving of Your reward.”
I heard that al-Marrūdhī said that a group had gathered at Aḥmad’s and asked him to pray. “God,” he said, “do not demand from us a gratitude equal to Your blessings.”
I heard Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Ṣaffār say, “At the the end of every prayer, Aḥmad would say, ‘God, I ask You to treat us as mercifully as Your mercy demands, and to forgive as as You have resolved to do. I ask You to let us reap the reward of our good deeds and to safeguard us from iniquity. I ask You to let us enter the Garden in triumph and to escape the Fire. If we sin, pardon us; if we