We begin by seeking help from Allah.
The genealogy of Imam Ahmad is as follows: Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Hanbal b. Hilal b. Asad b. Idris b. ʿAbd Allah b. Ḥayyān b. ʿAbd Allah b. Anas b. ʿAwf b. Qasit b. Māzin b. Shaybān b. Zuhl b. Thalaba b. ʿAqqaba b. Saʿb b. ʿAlī b. Bakr b. Wāʾil b. Qasit b. Hunayb b. Aqṣā b. Dumā b. Jadīla b. Asad b. Rabīʿa b. Nizār b. Maʿad b. Adnān b. Ed b. Eded b. Ḥumaysa b. Ḥamal b. Nabat b. Qayzar b. Ismāʿīl b. Ibrāhīm Khalīl Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Shaybānī al-Marwazī al-Baghdādī. Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, quoting from his teacher Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim (the author of al-Mustadrak), recorded this genealogy in his book on the virtues of Imam Ahmad.
It is narrated that Ṣāliḥ, the son of Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal, said:
"When my father saw this genealogy in a book of mine, he asked, 'What will you do with this?' but he did not deny the lineage."
It is said that when Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal was still in his mother’s womb, his father took his mother from the city of Marw to Baghdad. His mother gave birth to him in Baghdad in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal in the year 164 AH. His father died when he was three years old, and his mother took care of his upbringing.
Ṣāliḥ narrated that his father, Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal, said: "When I was a child, my mother pierced my ears and put two pearls in them. When I grew up, she gave me those pearls, and I sold them for thirty dirhams."
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ahmad b. Hanbal died on Friday, the 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal in the year 241 AH, at the age of seventy-seven. May Allah have mercy on him.
In his youth, he used to attend the gatherings of Qāḍī Abū Yūsuf. Later, he left those gatherings and turned to listening to hadith. He began to listen to hadith from his teachers for the first time in the year 187 AH, when he was sixteen years old. He performed the pilgrimage (ḥajj) for the first time in 187 AH, then again in 191 AH, when Walīd b. Muslim also performed ḥajj. He went on ḥajj again in 196 AH and stayed in Mecca as a resident (mujāwir) in 197 AH. He performed ḥajj again in 198 AH, and in 199 AH he stayed in Mecca as a resident. From there, he went to Yemen to visit ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from whom he listened to and wrote down hadith. Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn and Isḥāq b. Rāhawayh were his companions in seeking knowledge.
Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal said: "I performed ḥajj five times. Three times I went on foot, and in one of those journeys I spent thirty dirhams. Once, while traveling on foot, I lost my way and began to say, 'O servants of Allah, show me the way to ḥajj.' I kept repeating this until I found the right path. I had gone to Kufa, and I was staying in such a house that I used a brick as a pillow. If I had had ninety dirhams, I would have gone to Jarīr b. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd in the city of Rayy. Some of my companions went there, but I could not go because I did not have the means."
Ibn Abī Ḥātim narrated that Imam al-Shāfiʿī said: "Ahmad b. Hanbal promised me he would come to Egypt, but he did not come."
Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal traveled to many countries and cities and studied under the scholars of his era. The scholars showed him respect and veneration. Even though he learned from them, they honored him. Our shaykh arranged the names of Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal’s teachers alphabetically in two lists, and did the same for his transmitters.
After listing some of Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal’s teachers, al-Bayhaqī says: "Ahmad b. Hanbal narrated from al-Shāfiʿī in his Musnad and other works, transmitted some of his statements regarding the genealogies of Quraysh, and conveyed his well-known legal opinions to us. When Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal died, among his estate were found both the old and new treatises (risālas) of Imam al-Shāfiʿī." I say: The number of hadiths Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal transmitted from Imam al-Shāfiʿī does not reach twenty. One of the finest hadiths he narrated from Imam al-Shāfiʿī is this: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
"The soul of the believer is a bird perched in the trees of Paradise, until it returns to its body on the Day of Resurrection."
In the year 190 AH, when Imam al-Shāfiʿī came to Baghdad for the second time, Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal, who was then in his thirties, was told: "O father of ʿAbd Allah! If you have a sound hadith with you, inform me of it so that I may act upon it and follow it, regardless of whether the one who transmitted it to you is from the Hijaz, Sham, Iraq, or Yemen—it makes no difference."
That is, Imam al-Shāfiʿī did not share the view of the jurists of the Hijaz who would not accept transmissions from anyone but themselves. The jurists of the Hijaz would lower the status of hadiths transmitted by others to the level of the statements of the People of the Book.
This statement of Imam al-Shāfiʿī to Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal is an expression of his respect and esteem for him. Indeed, Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal was held in high regard among scholars and imams. The scholars and imams of the ummah acknowledged his elevated status in knowledge and hadith. His fame spread everywhere in his time, and even in his youth his name reached all parts of the Islamic world.
Al-Bayhaqī transmitted Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal’s statements about iman (faith): that iman is both word and deed, and that it increases and decreases. He reported that Imam Ahmad stated the Qur'an is the speech of Allah and is not created. Imam Ahmad rejected those who said the Qur'an is created. However, he accepted that the utterance (lafẓ) of the Qur'an is muḥdath (originated, created), and cited as evidence the following verse: "When the two receivers receive, seated on the right and on the left. He utters no word except that with him is an observer prepared to record." (Qaf 50:17-18). The utterance consists of the words that come from people’s mouths, which are, of course, created.
It is also narrated from others that Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal said regarding the Qur'an:
"No matter how much manipulation is done to the words of the Qur'an, it is not created. As for our actions, they are created." I say: al-Bukhārī also accepted this meaning regarding the actions of the servants and stated so in his Sahih. He supported his view with the following hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Beautify the Qur'an with your voices." Many imams have said: "The speech is the speech of the Creator; the voice is the voice of the reciter." Al-Bayhaqī also adopted this view.
Al-Bayhaqī narrated that Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal said: "Whoever says the Qur'an is muḥdath (originated) is a disbeliever (kāfir)."
According to the narration of Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Maymūnī, when the followers of the Jahmiyya sect recited the verse, "No mention comes to them anew from their Lord except that they listen to it while they are at play and heedless" (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:2), and used it as evidence, Ahmad b. Hanbal replied: "It is possible that the revelation of the Qur'an to us is muḥdath (originated), but the Qur'an itself is not muḥdath."
It is narrated that Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal said: "It is possible that the word 'reminder' (dhikr) in the above verse refers to something other than the Qur'an, such as the admonition or sermon of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him)."
Then al-Bayhaqī transmitted Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal’s statements regarding the vision of Allah in the Hereafter, and cited Suhayb’s hadith on the vision as evidence. He also transmitted his recommendations to reject anthropomorphism (tashbīh), to avoid delving into theological disputes, to act according to the Book and the sunnah, and to adhere to the words of the Companions of the Messenger of God.
Al-Bayhaqī narrated that Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal interpreted the following verse: "Your Lord has come" (al-Fajr 89:22) as meaning, "The reward of your Lord has come."
Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal narrated from ʿAbd Allah b. Masʿūd: "What the Muslims consider good is good in the sight of Allah, and what they consider evil is evil in the sight of Allah." He then said: "All the Companions agreed upon selecting Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) as caliph."
I say: There is a story related to this narration, namely that the Companions reached consensus (ijmāʿ) in preferring Abū Bakr over others for the caliphate. The situation is as Ibn Masʿūd stated. Many imams have expressed this explicitly.
When Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal was being taken to Maʾmūn during the ordeal (miḥna), he passed through Homs. There, ʿAmr b. ʿUthmān al-Ḥumsī came to him and asked: "What do you say about the caliphate?" He replied: "In the caliphate, first is Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, then ʿAlī. Whoever puts ʿAlī before ʿUthmān insults the people of the shūrā, for the people of the shūrā placed ʿUthmān before ʿAlī in the caliphate."