The Glad Tidings Given to Imam Ahmad Before the Great Trial

Farhia Yahya

Its known that Allah `azza wa jall chooses from amongst Mankind those whom He wishes in order that they may carry out certain tasks. He chooses people and then He strengthens them, prepares them and builds their character, inner power and faculty of mind so they can fulfill the Qadr. Sometimes, in order to best prepare them, Allah subhanahu wa taala sends them glad tidings ahead of their trial.

Below are some incidents translated from Imam al-Maqdisis book Kitab Mihnat al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal where he has gathered many narrations that speak of the bushra (glad tidings) given by Allah to Imam Ahmad before the great Mihna (trial) and after.

It is narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hajjaj al-Marwadhi that he said:

I was sitting one day on an arched bridge (al-Tabanain) when I was approached by two men who were escorting a bedouin man on a camel of his. They stopped by me and said, This is him, here he is sitting. The bedouin said to me, Are you Ahmad ibn Hanbal? I said, No, I am his friend, what do you need? He said to me, I want him. So I said, Shall I take you to him? He said, Yes, by Allah.

So I led the way in front of him until I reached the door of Abu Abdillah (Ahmad ibn Hanbal) whereupon I knocked the door and they said, Who is it? I said, I am al-Marwadhi. They said, Come in so I said, I and the one with me? They said, (Yes) You and the one with you. When he saw Abu Abdillah, the bedouin said, Yes, by Allah three times ” and he greeted him. He (Ahmad) said, What do you need?He said, I am the messenger of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam).He said, Woe to you, what are you saying? He said, I am a bedouin man, between my village and al-Madinah is 40 miles and my family sent me to al-Madinah to purchase some wheat and dates for them. Night fell over me so I prayed Isha in the Mosque of the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) then I lied down. As I was sleeping, a person came to me and shook me saying, Will you carry out a task for the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam)?I said, Yes, by Allah!So he seized my left arm by his right hand and took me to the wall of the grave of the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam). He stood me at the head (of the grave) and I said, O Messenger of Allah Then I heard a caller from behind the wall saying, Will you carry out a task for us?I said, Yes, by Allah. Yes, by Allah.So he said, Go forth until you reach Baghdad (or al-Zawraa” al-Marwadhi was unsure which), and when you reach Baghdad ask for the house of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. When you meet him, say The Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) sends you his salaam and he says to you: Indeed Allah will test you with a great test, and surely he shall place you in a trial, but I have asked Him to make you patient therein, so do not worry.

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal: Life and Madhab

Abuz-Zubair

Imam Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Hanbal al-Shaibani, Abu Abdullah, was conceived in Merv in current day Turkmenistan. His mother carried him in her womb, on route to Baghdad, where he was born in the year 164 AH. His father passed away when he was little more than years old, and thereafter he was raised by his mother.

Childhood

He was a distinguished child known for his piety, cleanliness and asceticism. Once, his uncle sent him with several documents containing information about some people to the Caliph’s office. Ahmad took those papers and did not see his uncle for a long time. When his uncle eventually met him, he asked him about the documents and discovered that Ahmad ” who was then a boy” did not deliver them. When asked why, Ahmad replied: “I wouldn’t hand in those reports, and I have thrown them in the sea!” To this, his uncle replied: “This little boy fears Allah so much! What then of us?” Thus, Ahmad refused to act as an informant, even on behalf of his uncle, due to the fear of Allah that had been instilled in his heart from such a young age.

Youth and Education

He started his career by learning jurisprudence (Fiqh) under the celebrated Hanafi judge, Abu Yusuf, the renowned student and companion of Imam Abu Hanifah. He then discontinued his studies with Abu Yusuf, in the pursuit of Hadith, travelling around the Islamic Khilafa, at the tender age of 16. As a student, he was held in awe by his teachers, to the same degree that they would respect their own.. Ibn al-Jawzi states that Imam Ahmad had 414 Hadith masters whom he narrated from. Imam al-Shafi’i was from the most beloved of Ahmad’s teachers, held in high esteem by him for his deep insight into jurisprudence. Al-Shafi’i equally admired Ahmad, for his expertise in jurisprudence and Hadith. He would often say to Imam Ahmad: Tell us if you know of an authentic Hadeeth so that we may act on it. What demonstrates Imam Ahmad’s love and admiration for al-Shafi’i is that when the latter would pass by him riding a mule, Imam Ahmad would follow al-Shafi’i on foot to enquire about various issues of jurisprudence. The great affectopm and regard between the two Imams is clearly reflected in the resemblance between the Shafi’i and Hanbali schools of jurisprudence.

Imam Ahmad did not suffice himself with seeking knowledge, but he also adorned it with actions, by making Jihad, performing the guard duty at Islamic frontiers (Ribat) and making Hajj five times in his life, twice on foot.

The Principles of The Hanbali Madhhab – An Introduction

This is an introduction to the Hanbali madhhab. For this, I am making use of the introduction to the madhhab by Sh. Muhammad al-Habdan in his introduction to his Tahqiq of Zad al-Mustaqni’ (pp. 15-34, Dar al-Jawzi print). He has made an extremely brief presentation summarized from al-Madkhal al-Mufassal Ila Fiqh al-Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal Wa Takhrijat al-Ashab by Sh. Bakr Abu Zayd, may Allah have mercy on him. I am also making recourse to the work of Sh. Bakr and also the Madkhal of ibn Badran (which Sh. Bakr himself referred to extensively), amongst other works.

History of the Beginning of Madhhabs

The beginning of madhhabs can be traced back to before the era of the famous Imams. For example, we find the people of Madina relying on the fatawa of ibn Umar, the people of Makkah on the fatawa of ibn Abbas, and the people of Kufa on the fatawa of ibn Mas’ud.

The Types of Fiqh Addressed in Every Madhhab

(1) The ahkam of Tawhid. It would be incorrect to say about such ahkam that it is according to such-and-such madhhab, because these are definitive rulings agreed upon by the Ummah.

(2) Definitive juristic rulings. Such rulings can also not be referrred to as the madhhab of a particular Imam. Therefore, one would not say, “The madhhab of so-and-so is that the five prayers are obligatory”!

(3) Rulings based on ijtihad, coming from the Imam himself by way of narrations or indications (tanbihat).

(4) Rulings based on ijtihad, derived by the scholars of the madhhab by extracting them based on the established rulings of the madhhab on other issues. This is known as takhrij. Such rulings fall under what can be known as the madhhab istilahi. These rulings were not made by the Imam but can appropriately be considered to be part of the official ‘madhhab’.

(5) Rulings based on ijtihad dervied the scholars of the madhhab by practicing ijtihad in deriving the rulings without attempting to make takhrij on the madhhab.

Al-Shatibi states, “The Shari’a has not specified rulings for every individual issue in particular. It provides general rulings and broad expressions that address innumerable scenarios.”

The Foundational Principles Of The Four Imaams

We shall briefly look at the foundational principles that the four Imaams used to derive Laws from the Sunnah.

The Principles of the Hanafi Madh-hab

Imaam Abu Hanifah and his board of qualified students would derive from the Qur’an and the Sunnah using the following principles:

1. The Qur’an: The Qur’an being Allah’s Speech was the first and foremost source. Any hadeeth found to be in contradiction with the Qur’an was therefore rejected.

2. The Sunnah: Imaam Abu Hanifah and his students had two conditions for the acceptability of a hadeeth. Firstly that it be authentic [Saheeh] and secondly that the hadeeth be widely known [Mash-hur].

3. The Ijmaa’a [Consensus]: If the Qur’an and the Sunnah was unclear on any matter, then before arriving at their own opinion they would look to the consensus of the companions [Sahaabah].

4. Invidual opinions: If there was not a consensus on a particular matter, then the Imaam and his students would look at each opinion of the Sahaabah and stick to that which seemed to be most accurate.

5. Qiyaas [Analogical Reasoning]: In absence of any of the mentioned above, Imaam Abu Hanifah and his students would then turn to their own ijtihaad. They would make an analogy, and derive a ruling based on something from the texts in which they could deduce a ruling from due to its similarity.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali’s understanding of Bid’ah

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali writes under hadeeth no. 28 of his Jam’i:

Regarding the Holy Prophet’s ﷺ saying:

“Beware of newly introduced matters, for every innovation is a straying”

It is a warning to the community against following innovated new matters. He emphasised that with his words, “every innovation is a straying.” What is meant by innovation are those things which are newly introduced having no source in the Sharee’ah to proof them. As for whatever has a source in the Sharee’ah thereby proving it, then it is not an innovation in the Sharee’ah, even though it might linguistically be an innovation.

There is in Saheeh Muslim from Jaabir that the Prophet ﷺ used to say in his khutbah:

“The best discourse is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, and the worst of affairs are those which are newly introduced, for every innovation is an error”

So his saying , “Every innovation is a straying,” is one of the examples of concise and yet comprehensive speech which omits nothing, and it is one of the tremendous principles of the deen, closely resembling, “Whoever introduces into this affair of ours that which is not of it, then it is rejected.”

Every person who introduces something and ascribes it to the deen without having any source in the deen to refer back to, then that is an error, and the deen is free of it, whether it is in the articles of Imaan (creed), deeds or words, outward or inward. As for those things in the sayings of the right-acting first generations where they regard some innovations as good, that is only with respect to what are innovations in the linguistic sense, but not in the Sharee’ah.

An example of that is the saying of ‘Umar when he had united people to stand in prayer (taraaweeh) in Ramadaan behind a single imam in the mosque, and then he came in behind them while they were praying and said:

“What an excellent innovation this is!”

It is also narrated that he said:

“If this is an innovation, then what an excellent innovation!”

It is narrated that Ubayy ibn Kaab said to him, “This did not use to happen,” and Umar said, “I know, but it is good,” meaning that this action was not done in this way before that time, but it has sources in the Sharee’ah from which it is derived, for example that the Prophet ﷺ used to urge people to stand in prayer in Ramadaan, and stimulate people’s desire to do it, and people, in his time, used to stand in prayer in the mosque in different groups and individually, and he prayed with his companions in Ramadaan more than one night, and then stopped doing that, giving as the reason that he feared that it would be made obligatory for them and that they would be incapable of undertaking it, but there was no fear of this [that it would be regarded as an obligation] after him.