Ahmad ibn Hanbal

Ahmad ibn Hanbal
أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل
TitleShaykh al-Islam ('Shaykh of Islam')
Personal
BornNovember 780 CE (Rabi' al-Awwal 164 AH)[1]
Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate (modern-day Iraq)[2][3]
Died2 August 855 CE (12 Rabi' al-Awwal 241 AH; aged 74–75)[1]
Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate (modern-day Iraq)[9]
ReligionIslam
Children
  • Abd Allah
  • Salih
EraIslamic Golden Age (early Abbasid)
RegionAbbasid Caliphate
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceIndependent (eponym of the Hanbali school)
CreedAthari[4][5][6][7][8]
Main interest(s)
Notable idea(s)Hanbali school
Notable work(s)
  • Usul al-Sunna
  • al-Asami wa-l-Kuna
  • al-Ashriba
  • al-Zuhd
  • Fada'il al-Sahaba
  • al-Musnad
  • Risala fi al-Salah li-Ahl al-Qibla
Occupation
Arabic name
Personal
(Ism)
Aḥmad
أَحْمَد
Patronymic
(Nasab)
Ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal ibn Hilāl ibn Asad ibn Idrīs ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥayyān
ٱبْن مُحَمَّد بْن حَنْبَل بْن هِلَال بْن أَسَد بْن إِدْرِيس بْن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه بْن حَيَّان
Teknonymic
(Kunya)
Abū ʿAbd Allāh
أَبُو عَبْد ٱللَّٰه
Toponymic
(Nisba)
Al-Shaybānī al-Dhuhlī
ٱلشَّيْبَانيّ ٱلذُّهْلِيّ
Muslim leader

Ahmad ibn Hanbal[a] (Arabic: أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل, romanizedAḥmad ibn Ḥanbal; November 780 – 2 August 855) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, traditionist, ascetic and eponym of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence—one of the four major orthodox legal schools of Sunni Islam.[4] The most highly influential and active scholar during his lifetime,[4] Ibn Hanbal went on to become "one of the most venerated" intellectual figures in Islamic history,[10] who has had a "profound influence affecting almost every area" of the traditionalist perspective within Sunni Islam.[5] One of the foremost classical proponents of relying on scriptural sources as the basis for Sunni Islamic law and way of life, Ibn Hanbal compiled one of the most significant Sunni hadith collections, al-Musnad,[11] which has continued to exercise considerable influence on the field of hadith studies up to the present time.[4]

Having studied jurisprudence and hadith under many teachers during his youth,[12] Ibn Hanbal became famous in his later life for the crucial role he played in the Mihna instituted by the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun toward the end of his reign, in which the ruler gave official state support to the Mu'tazili doctrine of the Quran being created, a view that contradicted the orthodox position of the Quran being the eternal, uncreated word of God.[4] Living in poverty throughout his lifetime working as a baker, and suffering physical persecution under the caliphs for his unflinching adherence to the traditional doctrine, Ibn Hanbal's fortitude in this particular event only bolstered his "resounding reputation"[4] in the annals of Sunni history.

Ibn Hanbal later came to be venerated as an exemplary figure in all traditional schools of Sunni thought,[4] both by the exoteric scholars and ascetic Sufis, with the latter often designating him as a saint in their hagiographies.[13] The 12th-century jurist and theologian Ibn al-Jawzi relates he "was the foremost in collecting the prophetic way and adhering to it."[14] He was further praised by the 14th-century historian and traditionist al-Dhahabi, who referred to Ibn Hanbal as "the true shaykh of Islam and imam of the Muslims in his time; the traditionist and proof of the religion'."[15]

In the modern era, Ibn Hanbal's name has become controversial in certain quarters of the Islamic world, as the Hanbali reform movement known as Wahhabism has cited him as a principal influence along with the 13th-century Hanbali reformer Ibn Taymiyya. However, it has been argued by certain scholars that Ibn Hanbal's own beliefs actually played "no real part in the establishment of the central doctrines of Wahhabism,"[16] as there is evidence, according to the same authors, "the older Hanbali authorities had doctrinal concerns very different from those of the Wahhabis,"[16] due to medieval Hanbali literature being rich in references to saints, grave visitation, miracles, and relics.[17] In this connection, scholars have cited Ibn Hanbal's own support for the use of relics as one of several important points on which the theologian's positions diverged from those adhering to Wahhabism.[18] Other scholars maintain he was "the distant progenitor of Wahhabism", who also immensely inspired the similar conservative reform movement of Salafism.[19]

  1. ^ a b "مناهج أئمة الجرح والتعديل". Ibnamin.com. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2010.
  2. ^ Roy Jackson, "Fifty key figures in Islam", Taylor & Francis, 2006. p 44: "Abu Abdallah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal ibn Hilal al-Shaybani was born in Baghdad in Iraq in 780"
  3. ^ The History of Persia by John Malcolm, p. 245
  4. ^ a b c d e f g H. Laoust, "Ahmad b. Hanbal," in Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. I, pp. 272–77
  5. ^ a b Holtzman, Livnat, "Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson.[page needed]
  6. ^ Williams, Wesley (August 2002). "Aspects of the Creed of Imam Ahmad IBN Hanbal: A Study of Anthropomorphism in Early Islamic Discourse". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 34 (3). Cambridge University Press: 441–63. doi:10.1017/S0020743802003021. JSTOR 3879671. S2CID 162455371. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021. He chose to treat the anthropomorphic descriptions of God found in the scriptures as muhkamat, admitting to only the apparent meaning,..
  7. ^ Williams, Wesley (August 2002). "Aspects of the Creed of Imam Ahmad IBN Hanbal: A Study of Anthropomorphism in Early Islamic Discourse". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 34 (3). Cambridge University Press: 441–463. doi:10.1017/S0020743802003021. JSTOR 3879671. S2CID 162455371. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021. Scholars are almost unanimous in attributing to Ibn Hanbal the use of the ancient balkafa formula. Goldziher, Wensinck, Halkin, Laoust, Makdisi, Abrahamov, and Watt all find in the Imam an advocate of this mediating principle (balkafa), which reportedly allowed the traditionalists to deny the Mu'tazilite ta'wil or figurative interpretation of the Qur'anic anthropomorphisms while concomitantly affirming the doctrine of the "incorporeal, transcendent deity"... although he argued for the acceptance of the apparent (dhahir) meaning of the Qur'anic and prophetic statements about God, he was no fideist.' The imam was quite willing to engage in hermeneutical exercise.. The rise of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal during the Mihna resulted in the empowering and centering of corporealist ideas within the Sunni movement. When his ideas became the criterion of traditionalist orthodoxy...
  8. ^ Krawietz, Birgit; Tamer, Georges; Holtzman, Livnatz (2013). "Debating the Doctrine of jabr (Compulsion): Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Reads Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī". Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. Berlin, Germany: Walter De Gruyter. p. 63. ISBN 978-3-11-028534-5. The prominent traditionalists, such as Abū ʿAmr al-Awzāʿī (d.157/774) and Ahmad b. Ḥanbal (d.241/855)..
  9. ^ a b c A Literary History of Persia from the Earliest Times Until Firdawsh by Edward Granville Browne. p. 295
  10. ^ Mohammed M. I. Ghaly, "Writings on Disability in Islam: The 16th Century Polemic on Ibn Fahd's "al-Nukat al-Ziraf"," The Arab Studies Journal, Vol. 13/14, No. 2/1 (Fall 2005/Spring 2006), p. 26, note 98
  11. ^ 1st ed., Cairo 1311; new edition by Aḥmad S̲h̲ākir in publ. since 1368/1948
  12. ^ Manāḳib, pp. 33–36; Tard̲j̲ama, pp. 13–24
  13. ^ Christopher Melchert, The Ḥanābila and the Early Sufis, Arabica, T. 48, Fasc. 3 (Brill, 2001), p. 356
  14. ^ Ibn al-Jawzi, Abd ar-Rahman. Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad. p. 192.
  15. ^ Gibril F. Haddad, The Four Imams and Their Schools (London: Muslim Academic Trust, 2007), p. 301
  16. ^ a b Michael Cook, "On the Origins of Wahhābism," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jul., 1992), p. 198
  17. ^ Christopher Melchert, The Ḥanābila and the Early Sufis, Arabica, T. 48, Fasc. 3 (Brill, 2001); cf. Ibn al-Jawzī, Manāqib al-imām Aḥmad, ed. ʿĀdil Nuwayhiḍ, Beirut 1393/1973
  18. ^ Gibril F. Haddad, The Four Imams and Their Schools (London: Muslim Academic Trust, 2007), p. 390
  19. ^ Bearman, Bianquis, Bosworth, van Donzel, Heinrichs, P. , Th. , C.E. , E. , W.P. (1960). "Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal". In Laoust, Henri (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill. ISBN 9789004161214. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021. Founder of one of the four major Sunnī schools, the Ḥanbalī, he was, through his disciple Ibn Taymiyya [q.v.], the distant progenitor of Wahhābism, and has inspired also in a certain degree the conservative reform movement of the Salafiyya.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)


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