Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal and the Qur'an / ‫ٲحمد بن حنبل والقرآن‬

Author(s): Christopher Melchert and ‫کريستوفر ميلشرت‬

Source: Journal of Qur'anic Studies , 2004, Vol. 6, No. 2 (2004), pp. 22-34
Published by: Edinburgh University Press on behalf of the Centre for Islamic Studies
at SOAS

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728144

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 Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and the Qur'an
Christopher Melchert
University of Oxford

Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. Baghdad, 241/855) was the central, defining figure of Sunnism
in the earlier ninth century CE. He was a major collector and critic of hadith, as well
as stories of early renunciants, and his collected opinions would form the literary
basis of the Hanbal! school of law.1 Men would assert as a badge of orthodoxy that
their creed was Ahmad's.2 He famously resisted the Inquisition of Ma3mun and his
successors, refusing to acknowledge that the Qur'an was created.3 His respect for the
Qur'an was very high.

Ahmad's ideas about the Qur'an are found in collections of his answers to questions
(masa^il), in biographies (both of him personally and of his followers), and in his
Musnad. They show a devotion above all to the liturgical use of the Qur'an; for exam
ple, how it should be recited aloud, how it should be integrated with the ritual prayer.
He reportedly put together his own version of the text (qira?a), but it is not preserved.
(The report that he assembled a huge Qur'anic commentary is doubtful.) He did not
tend to infer the law directly from the Qur'an but from hadith. Therefore, it was not
as a record of Islamic law that Ahmad defended the transcendence of the Qur'an,
rather as the basis of Islamic piety.

The Written Qur'an

Ahmad is most famous for his defying the caliph in the Qur'anic inquisition begun by
Ma?mun in 218/833, when leading men of religion were required to profess that the
Qur'an is created. There is little need to rehearse the story here.4 Ahmad argued part
ly from the ambiguity of the Qur'anic evidence, mainly from the lack of evidence that
any Muslim of the first generations had professed such a doctrine. Montgomery Watt
famously proposed that the caliph wished the Qur'an to be created the more easily to
overturn its rules in favour of his own.5 This seems unlikely inasmuch as 1) little law
was actually Qur'anic and 2) the caliph's allies the Muctazila were precisely the lead
ing advocates of a Qur'an-based law as opposed to hadith-b&sed. More likely, the
caliph wished to establish his own authority to define orthodoxy.

A related controversy did not involve the caliph but did divide Ahmad from the party
of would-be Sunni theologians (mutakallimu ahl al-sunna), whether one's pronunci
ation of the Qur'an was created. A series of prominent ninth-century men of religion,
many associated with the nascent Shafici school of law, admitted that one's pronun

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 Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and the Qur'an 23

ciation was created even if the Qur'an itself was not: Nucaym ibn Hammad (d.
228/843), Ahmad al-Sharrak (fl. ca 240/854-5), Hisham ibn c Ammar (d. 245/859?6),
Karabisi (d. 248/862-3?), usually said to have invented the doctrine, Bukhari (d.
256/870), Muhammad ibn Sahnun (d. 256/869-70), Muzani (d. 264/877?), and
Dawud al-Zahiri (d. 270/884).7 Ahmad apparently preferred that one not address the
question at all. Similarly, he rejected Dawud al-Zahiri's concession that the Qur'an
was, if not created, at any rate muhdath, meaning that there had been a time when the
Qur'an was not.8 Ahmad's violent condemnations apparently had little effect on these
men's reputations for learning, except possibly Karabisi's.9

Touching the written Qur'an is one of the three things one may not do in a state of rit
ual impurity, the others being ritual prayer and circumambulation of the Kacba.
Mardawi (d. 885/1480) reports two versions of Ahmad's position concerning whether
boys may touch slates on which words of the Qur'an are written: that he accepted it,
although going no further (iqtasara calayhi; i.e., I take it, forbidding them to touch
entire copies), and that it was not permissible.10 It appears that Baghdad! boys in
Ahmad's time and perhaps for centuries after were taught solely by dictation, with
out the aid of writing anything themselves, or the question could not have arisen. Abu
Yacla ibn al-Farra3 (d. 458/1065) reported two versions of Ahmad's position con
cerning whether it was permissible for one in a state of ritual impurity to touch a
Qur'anic commentary: that it was permissible and that it was forbidden. The position
of the school as a whole was to permit it.11

As for selling the Qur'an, there seems to have been some disagreement among his
sons as to just what he taught. According to his son Salih, Ahmad quoted the opinion
of the Basran successor AbuT-cAliya (d. 90/709): 'If they did not sell it to you, you
could not buy it.'12 He also quoted Shacb! (d. after 100/718-19) as reassuring some
one that they were really selling only the hire of their hands and the cost of the writ
ing material (waraq), not the Book of God itself.13 According to his son cAbd Allah,
on the other hand, he cited the companions Ibn cUmar, Ibn c Abbas and Jabir as dis
liking to sell copies and as allowing one to buy but not to sell.14 cAbd Allah quotes
Ahmad personally as disliking to sell copies of the Qur'an (likewise charms consist
ing of words from the Qur'an) while thinking it less serious (qkhaff) to buy them.15
(But some, he observed, thought that hands should be amputated for selling the
Qur'an.)16 The qadi Abu Yacla ibn al-Farra3 quotes Ahmad as preferring that one trade
a copy of the Qur'an for something other than money (ibddl al-mushdf bi-mithlihi),
to avoid any appearance of wishing to be rid of the Qur'an and of seeking some
worldly equivalent of it.17 Ibn Qudama (d. Damascus, 620/1223) tends to agree with
cAbd Allah, for he quotes Ahmad as allowing one to buy a Qur'an as a relaxation
(rukhsa) but professing to know no relaxation in favour of selling copies of the
Qur'an.18 He asserts that the Hanbal! position against selling the Qur'an is supported

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 24 Journal of Qur'anic Studies

by the dicta of numerous companions and followers, against Shafi0!, ashab al-ra?y
and others, who hold that, after all, what is sold is the leather and paper, whose sale
is licit.19 Mardawi records the two positions, permission and forbidding, and names
numbers of later Hanbali authorities on each side of the question. Moreover, he says,
AbuT-Khattab (d. 510/1116) reported the view that selling the Qur'an was not even
discouraged iyajuzu min ghayr karaha). He states more firmly that the position of the
school is to permit buying the Qur'an without discouragement, but mentions one late
authority, Ibn cAbdus, who still discouraged it.20

Most schools forbid selling the Qur'an to a non-Muslim. Ahmad was particularly
upset by the idea of selling a non-Muslim a charm consisting of words from the
Qur'an (perhaps with additions), although he may not have strictly forbidden it.21 He
accepted the prophylactic power of such charms and thought it inappropriate to offer
it to persons who did not believe in the Qur'an.22 Ahmad's answer to the question of
whether one may teach a Magian youth anything of the Qur'an is interesting: 'If he
has converted, yes. Otherwise, I dislike that one put the Qur'an in other than its right
ful place (an yadaca'l-Qur'an fi ghayr mawdicihi)/23 This is in line with the feeling
of early Muslims that the sacredness of the Qur'an required that it be kept from the
very ears of unbelievers.24 But the qadi Abu Yacla ibn al-Farra3 was against prevent
ing non-Muslims from reading the Qur'an, mainly to encourage their conversion.25
Ibn Qudama reports that, alone among the early authorities, Dawud al-Zahiri allowed
the ritually impure to touch the Qur'an on the grounds that the Prophet himself had
included passages from it in his letter to the Roman emperor. This was the basis, he
says, of Hanbali permission for the ritually impure to touch Qur'anic commentaries.26

The Hanbali tradition credits Ahmad with assembling a huge Qur'anic commentary
comprising 120,000 hadith reports; that is, some four times as many as the Musnad.21
But Dhahabi (d. 748/1348?), normally no enemy to Ahmad and the Hanbali tradition,
casts doubt on the existence of such a book. Such a work by Ahmad should not have
disappeared without a trace, he argues, and it should have comprised 10,000 hadith
reports at most (for comparison, he guesses, Tabari's comprised 15,000).28 It is easy
to see what might have motivated a Hanbali of the early tenth century to imagine that
Ahmad had compiled a stupendous commentary, mainly anxiety not to be outdone by
Tabari (d. 310/923). This great polymath became the object of special hostility from
the Hanabila near the end of his life, to the point that they stoned his house, blockad
ed it against visitors, and forced his funeral to be held not in public with great crowds
but in his own house with a handful of worshippers (more on the conflict below).
Indeed, Ahmad is quoted as finding the traditionists nowhere more inclined to lie than
concerning three topics: raids (maghazi), battles (malahim), and explication of the
Qur'an (tafsir)29 His Musnad comprises relatively few historical and exegetical
hadith reports (history, including prophetic biography, makes up 13 percent of the

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 Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and the Qur'an 25

Musnad, compared with 20 percent of Muslim's Sahih; explication of the Qur'an

makes up 1 percent of the Musnad and 2 percent of Muslim's Sahih).

Correct Recitation

Ahmad is quoted several times in disapproval of the reading (qird0a) of Hamza (d.
156/772-3?), one of the Kufan readings that became canonical from about the end of
the fourth/tenth century.30 He also disapproved of another Kufan reading, that of
Kisa3! (d. 189/804-5?).31 But this is not to say that Ahmad favoured a smaller canon.
On the contrary, he could be cited in favour of putting together one's own reading of
the Qur'an on the basis of known variants.32 By one report, he had a complete read
ing of his own, without imdla.33 Among the traditional readings, he is usually said to
have preferred those of the Medinese Nafic (d. 169/785-6?) and the Kufan cAsim (d.
127/745?).34 But Ibn al-Jawzi reports that he recommended the reading of the Basran
Abu cAmr ibn al-cAla3 (d. 154/770-1?) on the grounds that he was a QurashT.35 Of
the ten whose readings are acceptable for the ritual prayer, all but Abu c Amr and the
Damascene Ibn c Amir (d. 118/736) were clients (mawdli), not ancestral Arabs. Given
his own family background, it is conceivable that Ahmad should have preferred a pure
Arab, also that he should have preferred a Basran over a Damascene. Occasionally,
variant readings are associated with legal problems. For example, Ahmad quoted Q.
4:43 and 5:6, lamastumu'l-nisd3 a, interpreting the verb to mean full sexual congress
(jimdc), hence the opinion of Ibn cAbbas and his followers that kissing did not spoil
ritual purity. He observed that Ibn Mascud had recited lamastumu'l-nisd3 a, and that
some Kufans, among them cAlqama (d. after 70/689-90?), Ibrahim al-Nakha?i
(d. 96/714-15), and Shacbi (d. 104/722-3?), had accordingly advocated renewed
ritual ablutions after mere touching. There is no hint of indignation over their dis
agreement. But doubtless it helped that Ahmad's own position was that kissing did
spoil ritual purity, in support of which he cited the opinions of two other companions,
Ibn Masctid and Ibn cUmar.36

As for pointing the Qur'an, Ahmad quoted the opinion of Ibn Mascud, the famous
companion: If you are in doubt as to the yd3 and ta3 [i.e. the points indicating
whether an indicative verb is masculine or feminine], make it a yd3, for the Qur'an is
a reminder (dhikr) so make it masculine (dhakkiruhu).'31 Ahmad permitted the skip
ping of case endings (lahn) in the course of recitation if one was not sure of the proper
declension.38 (However, Ahmad himself was said not to have skipped case endings,
even in normal speech.)39

Ahmad opposed musical recitation (al-qird?a bi'l-alhdn).40 Of course, we have no

recordings to tell us exactly what he disapproved of. Mohamed Talbi has proposed
that the musical recitation in question was quite unlike the chanting one usually hears
today. Rather, it was the setting of Qur'anic passages to song tunes with dancing,

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 26 Journal of Qur'anic Studies

probably an innovation of the court.41 Ahmad did indeed transmit hadith reports by
which the Prophet recited with tarjic, repeating sounds, also that the Prophet said, 'He
who does not sing the Qur'an (lam yataghanna bi'l-Qur?ari) is not of us.'42 But
Ahmad seems to have interpreted it narrowly: 'As for taghanni, some people say it
means doing without anything else [i.e. not singing] ... Some people say that when
one raises his voice, he has sung it.'43 Asked to explain the prophetic saying,
'Ornament the Qur'an with your voices', he explained, 'Ornamentation means doing
it well.'44 It seems likely to me that the musical recitation of which he disapproved
included a great deal more than the ludicrous display described by Talbi.

Devotional Recitation

Ahmad himself normally recited a seventh of the Qur'an every day so as to recite the
whole once a week 45 For others, he advocated reciting the whole Qur'an no less often
than once every forty days 46 Both practices reflect prophetic hadith reports 47 He rec
ommended particular short suras for recitation at the witr prayer but saw no harm in
reciting other suras instead 48

Early Muslim jurisprudents disagreed over which verses of the Qur'an occasioned
sujud al-Qur?an\ that is, on hearing which verses one should prostrate oneself. Ibn
Rushd (d. 595/1198) explains that Malik held that there were eleven occasions for
sujud al-Qur?dn, Abu Hanifa twelve, Ahmad fifteen, and Shafici fourteen 49 Ibn
Rushd's account of Ahmad's position is confirmed by the masd?il collections.50 Yet
the later Hanbali tradition apparently contradicts the masa?il collections, for Ibn
Qudama asserts that the required prostrations (cazd?im sujud al-QurDari) are four
teen.51 The contradiction is explained by Mardawi. Abu Bakr al-Khallal (d. 311/923)
and Ibn cAqil (d. 513/1119) did require fifteen prostrations. However, the majority
opinion of the school counts the prostration of Sad (Q. 38) as sajdat shukr, a prostra
tion of thanks, less certainly required than sujud al-tildwa.52 The authorities he cites
in favour of demoting the prostration of Sad are all later than Ibn Qudama, who thus
may have been the originator of this doctrine. It would be one example of many
whereby the Hanbali school drew closer to the ShaficI from Ibn Qudama's time.

There is disagreement whether Ahmad permitted recitation of the Qur'an at someone's

tomb. According to Abu Dawud, he curtly forbade it.53 Ibn Qudama acknowledges dif
ferent versions of Ahmad's position. Some related that Ahmad said, 'Reciting the
Qur'an at someone's tomb is an innovation Q)id?a)' But Ibn Qudama prefers the quo
tation, 'If you enter the cemetery, recite ayat al-kursi (Q. 2:255) three times, qui
huwa'lldhu ahad, then say "O God, His grace is for the people of the tombs".' He also
quotes a story by which Ahmad expressly reversed his position. He once told a blind
man that recitation at a tomb was an innovation. Then one Muhammad ibn Qudama al
Jawhari related by an acceptable isndd that the companion Ibn cUmar had requested that

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 Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and the Qur'an 27

the opening and closing of Surat al-Baqara (Q. 2) be recited when he was buried.
Ahmad then said, T take it back: tell the man to recite.'54

The Place of the Qur'an in Ahmad's Legal Thinking

In Ahmad's time, the proto-Muctazila were the chief advocates of inferring the law
from the Qur'an rather than hadith.55 They dismissed hadith as insufficiently well
attested for the Muslims to rely on it.56 The Sunni position, against the Muctazila,
respected the Qur'an but advocated heavy reliance on hadith to elaborate the law
where the Qur'an was silent. The chief polemical thrust of ShaficI's Risdla is to refute
those who would go by the Qur'an alone.57 Ahmad related this hadith report against
them:58

The Messenger of God forbade things on the day of Khaybar. Then he

said, 'One of you will almost give me the lie as he reclines on his
couch (carika). My speech will be related to him (yuhaddathu bi
hadlthl) and he will say, "Between us and you is the Book of God.
What we have found in it of the licit, we have counted licit. What we
have found in it of the forbidden, we have forbidden." Is not what the
Messenger of God has forbidden like what God has forbidden?'

Ahmad's activity was so strongly concentrated on hadith that the famous jurispru
dent, Qur'an commentator and historian Tabari notoriously dismissed him as only a
traditionist, not to be included in a book on disagreements among jurisprudents.59

Insofar as Ahmad discusses his own legal theory, he never depreciates the Qur'an but
plainly relies mainly on hadith. He would not say outright that hadith may overrule
the Qur'an. Asked about the principle that the Sunna overrules the Book (al-sunna
taqdi caid'l-kitab), according to cAbd Allah, Ahmad finally said, 'The Sunna indi
cates the meaning of the Book (al-sunna tadullu cald macnd'l-kitab).'60 Abu Dawud
quotes him as saying, 'I am afraid to say anything about this, but the Sunna is an
explication (tafsir) of the Qur'an. Nothing abrogates the Qur'an but the Qur'an.'61
Still, the main thing for Ahmad is to know hadith. Ibn Taymiyya's disciple Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) describes the bases of Ahmad's opinions as fol
lows: 1) well-attested prophetic hadith, ignoring opinions from companions and
claims of consensus to the contrary, 2) the well-attested opinions of the companions,
3) if the companions disagreed, whichever opinion of theirs was closest to the Qur'an
and prophetic Sunna, 4) weakly attested prophetic hadith, mainly mursal, and 5)
qiyds (analogy), in case of necessity.62 That he would follow the Qur'an goes without
saying, but the Qur'an practically never turns out to be sufficient by itself.

The most notorious example of conflict between Qur'an and Sunna is the stoning
penalty for adultery where the Qur'an mentions only flogging (Q. 24:2). The

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 28 Journal of Qur'anic Studies

majority Sunn! position developed as stoning for one who is muhsan (i.e., essential
ly, free, Muslim, and at some time married), flogging for one who is not. The stoning
penalty is sometimes justified by appeal to a verse of the Qur'an (ayat al-rajm) that
somehow failed to be included in the recited text but still has legal force.63 More usu
ally, it is justified by appeal to the Prophet's word and example.64 Some rationalists
considered this a gross example of Sunni disrespect for the Qur'an 65 There is some
disagreement over whether Ahmad tried to reconcile the Qur'anic and Sunnaic rules
by calling for the muhsan adulterer to be both flogged and stoned. According to Ibn
Hani3, he did.66 According to Salih, on the other hand, he called for stoning without
flogging.67 The later Hanbali tradition recognised that there were contradictory ver
sions of what Ahmad had called for but generally preferred to stone only.68

The masa3il collections confirm that hadith dominated his legal thinking much more
than the Qur'an. In a sample of 97 items chosen at random from the masa?il collec
tion of Abu Dawud, Ahmad cites the Qur'an as the basis of his legal opinion not once.
When he cites evidence to support his opinion, it is most often hadith from the
Prophet, followed by the opinions of companions, successors, and later jurisprudents.
Likewise, in a sample of 97 items from the masa?il collection of Salih ibn Ahmad,
Ahmad cites the Qur'an not once. When he cites evidence to support his opinion, it
is hadith from the Prophet and from companions about equally, with successors and
other later jurisprudents cited less often. In a sample of 167 items from the masa3il
collection ofc Abd Allah, he cites the Qur'an much more often - 3% of the time. But
when he cites his evidence at all, it is usually reports of what companions said (22%),
followed by citations of the Prophet (16%), then successors (5%). The same higher
figure for citing the Qur'an comes from a sample of 119 items from the masa?il col
lection of Ibn Hani3, where Ahmad cites the Qur'an 3% of the time; still, when he
cites his evidence at all, it is more often reports of what the Prophet said (9% of legal
opinions), companions (5%), or successors and later jurisprudents (7%).

(For comparison, a sample of 262 items in the Muwatta0 of Malik, recension of

Yahya, included six quotations of the Qur'an (about 2%). A sample of 184 items from
the Umm of Shafici included fifteen quotations of the Qur'an (about 8%), 31 citations
of Prophetic hadith (17%), and seventeen quotations of companions (9%). Although
Ibn al-Qayyim's summary of Ahmad's legal theory is fairly close to ShafiT s theory,
it was evidently ShafiTs practice to cite the Qur'an a great deal more than Ahmad,
the companions much less.)

Conclusion

Ahmad lived near the end of the formative period, before the schools of law had crys
tallised, before the Qur'anic readings had been restricted, before any canon of authen
tic hadith had emerged in the form of particular collections. (Biographers generally

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 Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and the Qur'an 29

refer to those who came before AH 300 as al-mutaqaddimun, those who came after as
al-muta?akhkhirun.)69 In the tradition of zuhd (renunciation), to which Ahmad con
sciously adhered, the Qur'an was read above all (and very credibly, I would say) as an
appeal to be serious.70 In Ahmad's book al-Zuhd, the Qur'an is quoted much more often
than in the masaJil collections.71 Right religion in the zuhd tradition was not mainly
about precisely following a lot of rules, although renunciants usually did precisely fol
low a lot of rules; rather, it was about an attitude, above all this unremitting seriousness
about life. The threat of death and judgement was to be taken seriously. Time was not
to be wasted on frivolous entertainments but directed to the performance of duties.72

Historically, there was some conflict over the place of the Qur'an as opposed to
hadith in defining Islamic law. The Khawarij and Muctazila upheld the Qur'an, the
nascent Sunn! party upheld hadith. Sunnism then won the argument in favour of
hadith, but the debate has revived in our own day, with advocates of a law based on
the Qur'an apparently on the ascendant. For example, I find that Muslims who come
my way as students normally assume that the first place to look for discussions of
Islamic law is in commentaries on the Qur'an. A cursory comparison of any premod
ern Qur'an commentary with any detailed fiqh handbook will show that their assump
tion is erroneous. Ahmad was plainly a strong advocate of hadith. He identified his
theological party by its special faithfulness to hadith, not the Qur'an: as ahl al-cilm,
ashab al-athar, and ahl al-sunna wa'l-jamaca.13 What he took from the Qur'an was
not so much his doctrine as the occupation of his personal devotions and the quality
of his piety - what after all may have been, to him, the most important thing.

NOTES

1 For now, see H. Laoust, 'Ahmad b. Hanbal' and 'Hanabila' in The Encyclopaedia of Isla
new edn; Christopher Melchert, The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, Studies in Islam
Law and Society 4 (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1997), chap. 7; Nimrod Hurvitz, The Formation
Hanhalism, Culture and Civilisation in the Middle East (London: Routledge Curzon, 200
Abu Zahra, Ibn Hanbal (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-cArabi, n.d.; repr. 1418/1997); Mustafa
Shakca, al-A?imma al-arbaca (Cairo: Dar al-Kitab al-Misri, and Beirut: Dar al-Kitab
Lubnani, 1399/1979; repr. in 4 vols, Dar al-Kitab al-Lubnani, 1404/1984).
2 E.g. Muzani, whose creed has sometimes been attributed directly to Ahmad ibn Hanbal,
which see Sezgin, GAS vol. 1, p. 493, no. 2, and p. 508, no. 22; Tabari, for which se
Dominique Sourdel, 'Une profession de foi de l'historien al-Tabari', Revue des etude
islamiques 36 (1968), pp. 177-99; Abu'l-Hasan al-Ashcari, for which see al-Ibdna can usul a
diyana ([Cairo]: Idarat al-Tibaca al-Muniriyya, 1348). The sincerity of both Tabari's an
Abu'l-Hasan al-Ashcari's assertions of adherence to Ahmad's creed have been doubted: Cla
Gilliot, Exegese, langue et theologie en islam: V exegese coranique de Tabari, Librar
philosophique (Paris: J. Vrin, 1990), pp. 258-9; Daniel Gimaret, 'Bibliographie d'Ashcari: u
reexamen', Journal asiatique 273 (1985), pp. 223-92, at p. 278.
3 For Ahmad's part, see Walter Melville Patton, Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Mihna (Leide
E.J. Brill, 1897).

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 30 Journal of Qur'anic Studies

4 See The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn, art. 'Mihna', by M. Hinds, and Fahmi Jadcan, al
Mihna: hahth fi jadaliyyat al-dini wa'l-siydsi fl'I-Is lam (Amman: Dar al-Shuruq, 1989).
5 E.g. W. Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period of Islamic Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1973), p. 179.
6 The question mark following this date indicates that it is one of several offered in primary
sources.

7 See Christopher Melchert, 'The Adversaries of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal', Arabica 44 (1997), pp.
234-53, at pp. 241-2. Additionally, for Nucaym b. Hammad, see Khallal, Musnad min masaHl
Abi cAbd Allah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal, ed. Diya^uddm Ahmad, Asiatic Society of
Bangladesh Publication 29 (Dacca: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, 1975), p. 548, and for
Hisham ibn cAmmar, see Ibn Hajar, Kitab tahdhib al-tahdhib (12 vols. Hyderabad: Majlis
Da3irat al-Macarif al-Nizamiyya, 1325-7, repr. Beirut: Dar Sadir, n.d.), vol. 11, p. 54, and for
Muzani, see KhalTli, al-Irshdd fi macrifat culamd:> al-hadith, abr. Silafi, ed. cAmir Ahmad
Haydar (Mecca: al-Shamiya, 1993/1414), p. 110.
8 See Melchert, Arabica 44 (1997), pp. 244-5.
9 Muhammad ibnc Abd Allah al-Sayrafi (d. 330/942?): Take warning from these two: Husayn
al-Karabisi and Abu Thawr. Husayn [was outstanding] in his knowledge and memorisation,
while Abu Thawr was not on his level in knowledge. Then Ahmad ibn Hanbal aspersed him on
account of the pronunciation [of the Qur'an], so he fell, while he praised Abu Thawr, and so he
rose, on account of his sticking to orthodoxy (al-sunna)' (al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, Tdrikh
Baghdad (14 vols. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1349/1931; repr. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, and
Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.), vol. 8, pp. 66-7). For lack of effect on others, see Hurvitz, Formation,
pp. 149-52, and cAmir Hasan Sabri, Mucjam shuyukh al-imdm Ahmad ibn Hanbal fi'l-Musnad
(Beirut: Dar al-Basha3ir al-Islamiyya, 1413/1993), pp. 51-3.
10 Mardawi, al-Insafflmacrifat al-rajih min al-khildf, ed. Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi (12 vols.
Cairo: Matbacat al-Sunna al-Muhammadiyya, 1955-8; repr. with new pagination Dar Ihya3 al
Turath al-cArabi, 1419/1998), vol. 1, p. 165, citing al-Talkhis, meaning Fakhr al-DIn ibn
Taymiyya (d. 622/1225), Talkhis al-matlab fi talkhis al-madhhab. Ibn Qudama states that there
are two opinions within the school on this point, but does not expressly attribute either to
Ahmad: Ibn Qudama, al-Mughni, ed. cAbd Allah ibn cAbd al-Muhsin al-Turkl & cAbd al
Fattah Muhammad al-Hulw (15 vols. Cairo: Hajr, 1406-11/1986-90), vol. 1, p. 204. They may
therefore have been ascribed to him by later jurisprudents of his school by extrapolation from
his known opinions, a process called takhrij, for which see Wael B. Hallaq, Authority,
Continuity and Change in Islamic Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp.
43-56.
11 Mardawi, Insdf, vol. 1, p. 166.
12 Salih ibn Ahmad, Masd3il al-imdm Ahmad ibn Hanbal, ed. Tariq ibn cAwad [sic] Allah ibn
Muhammad (Riyadh: Dar al-Watan, 1420/1999), p. 242.
13 Salih ibn Ahmad, MasaHl, p. 242.
14 cAbd Allah, MasaHl al-imdm Ahmad ibn Hanbal, ed. Zuhayr al-ShawIsh (Beirut: al
Maktab al-Islaml, 1401/1981), p. 284.
15 cAbd Allah, Masd'il, p. 291.
16 cAbd Allah, MasiT//, p. 291.
17 Mardawi, Insdf, vol. 4, p. 202, citing Ibn al-Farra3, Qa?ida, p. 143.
18 Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 6, p. 367.
19 Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 6, pp. 367-8.

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 Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and the Qur'an 31

20 Mardawi, Insdf, vol. 4, pp. 201-2. Ibn cAbdus, author of al-Tadhkira and al-Tashil, pre
sumably flourished in the earlier fifteenth century, for Mardawi identifies him in his introduc
tion as 'late, according to what is said'.
21 'This is worse' (hddhd ashadd, compared with selling a copy of the Qur'an); 'he disliked
it' (karihahu) (cAbd Allah, Masd?il, p. 291). Kurh (alternatively, karh) and kardha became
technical terms for the hukm (legal category) above tahrim or hair, that is, for what was dis
couraged without being prohibited. But Ahmad often seems to use the term non-technically,
probably in part from reluctance to suggest that his opinion was authoritative in the absence of
decisive evidence from hadith.

22 For recommendation of tacawidh for skin disease, fevers, and difficulty in childbirth, see
cAbd Allah, Masd'il, p. 447.
23 Muhanna (ibn Yahya) in Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 13, p. 251. Cf. vol. 6, p. 368, arguing
by analogy with the prohibition of taking copies of the Qur'an into enemy territory; that is, the
point of both rules is to prevent it from reaching the hands of unbelievers. Ahmad also dis
couraged hiring a Christian to copy the Qur'an, see Mardawi, Insdf, vol. 4, p. 167.
24 In cAbd al-Razzaq's short discussion of whether a polytheist may enter the mosque, the
stress seems to lie on the polytheist's being able to hear the Qur'an (al-Musannaf, ed. Habib
al-Rahman al-Aczami, Min manshurat al-Majlis al-cIlmi 39 (11 vols. Johannesburg: al-Majlis
al-cllml, 1390-2/1970-2), vol. 1, p. 414).
25 Mardawi, Insdf, vol. 4, pp. 174-5.
26 Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 1, p. 202.
27 Ibn Abi Yacla, Tabaqat al-Hanabila, ed. Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi (2 vols. Cairo:
Matbacat al-Sunna al-Muhammadiyya, 1371/1952), vol. 1, p. 8, quoting Abu'l-Husayn ibn al
Munadi (d. Baghdad, 336/947), on whom see Ibn Abi Yacla, Tabaqat, vol. 2, pp. 3-6.
28 Dhahabi, Siyaracldm al-nubald3, ed.c All Abu Zayd (25 vols. Beirut: Mu?assasat al-Risala,
1403/1983), vol. 13, p. 522.
29 Hurvitz, Formation, p. 141, quoting Suyuti, al-Itqdn fi ?ulum al-Qur?an. I have not myself
located the quotation in earlier, Hanbali sources.
30 The earliest extant known work to name precisely the seven readings that are most highly
regarded today is the Kitab al-Sabca of Ibn Mujahid (d. Baghdad, 324/936). However, it is
plain that his list did not become authoritative in his lifetime. See Christopher Melchert, 'Ibn
Mujahid and the Establishment of Seven Qur'anic Readings', Studia Islamica 91 (2000), pp.
5-22, especially pp. 21-2; Gotthelf BergstraBer & O. Pretzl, Geschichte des Qorans 3: Die
Geschichte des Korantexts (Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1938), especially
p. 225.
31 Ibn Hani3, Masa3il al-imdm Ahmad ibn Hanbal, ed. Zuhayr al-ShawIsh (2 vols. Beirut: al
Maktab al-Islaml, 1400), vol. 2, p. 174; Ibn Abi Yacla, Tabaqat, vol. 1, pp. 74-5, pp. 146-7,
p. 325. His express objections mainly concern pronunciation, secondarily that these readings
were little used (contra Ibn Mujahid, who asserted that the reading of Hamza had prevailed in
Kufa to his own time (Kitab al-Sabca fiyl-qira?at, ed. Shawqi Dayf (Cairo: Dar al-Macarif,
1972, 3rd printing 1988), p. 71)). Nevertheless, he agreed with Kisa3! on the reading of at least
one verse, Q. 11:46, preferring camila ghayru sdlihin to ?amalun (Abu Dawud, Kitab MasdHl
al-imdm Ahmad, ed. Muhammad Bahja al-Baytar (Cairo: Dar al-Manar, 1353/1934; repr.
Beirut: Muhammad Amln Damj, n.d.), p. 285).
32 Dhahabi, Tarikh al-islam, ed. cUmarc Abd al-Salam Tadmuri (52 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab
al-cArabi, 1407-21/1987-2000), vol. 24 (321-30 AH), p. 235.
33 Tarikh Harran, cited by Mughlatay ibn Qalij, Ikmal tahdhib al-kamdl, ed. Abu cAbd al

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 32 Journal of Qur'anic Studies

Rahman cAdil ibn Muhammad & Abu Bakr Usama ibn Ibrahim (12 vols. Cairo: al-Faruq al
Haditha, 1422/2001), vol. 1, p. 116.
34 Ibn Hani3, Masa3il, vol. 1, p. 102. Ibn Qudama adds that he preferred the reading of Nafic
as transmitted by IsmacIl ibn Jacfar (d. Baghdad, 180/796-7?) and the reading of cAsim as
transmitted by Abu Bakr ibn cAyyash (d. Kufa, 193/809?) (Mughni vol. 2, p. 165). The read
ings of NafT and cAsim are by far the easiest to find today but as transmitted by Warsh and
Hafs, respectively.
35 Ibn al-Jawzi, Mandqib al-imdm Ahmad ibn Hanbal, ed. Muhammad Amln al-Khanji
(Cairo: Matbacat al-Sacada, 1349), p. 204 = ed.c Abd Allah ibn cAbd al-Muhsin al-Turki & CA1I
Muhammad cUmar (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1979; repr. Cairo: Hajr, 1409/1988), p. 279.
36 c Abd Allah, Masd?il, p. 20.
37 Salih, Masd3il, p. 242.
38 Ibn Hani3, Masa3il, vol. 2, p. 177, citing as precedent the practice of Abu'l-Nadr (d.
205/821?).
39 Ibn Abi Yacla, Tabaqat, vol. 1, p. 7.
40 cAbd Allah, Masd?il, p. 442; Ibn Abi Yacla, Tabaqat, vol. 1, p. 57, p. 67, p. 74, p. 208, p.
225 and p. 396; Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 2, p. 613.
41 M. Talbi, 'La qird?a bi-l-alhdn\ Arabica 5 (1958), pp. 183-90.
42 Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Musnad (6 vols. Cairo: al-Matbaca al-Maymaniyya, 1313), vol. 5,
pp. 54-6 (tarjic), vol. 1, p. 172, p. 175 and p. 179 (taghannih). What should now become the
standard edition is Musnad al-imdm Ahmad ibn Hanbal, ed. Shucayb al-Arna3ut et al. (50 vols.
Beirut: Mu3assasat al-Risala, 1413-21/1993-2001). It is still convenient to cite the old Cairene
edition, though, for that is how Wensinck's Concordance cites the Musnad. Wensinck's cita
tions are still useful thanks to marginal cross-references in the Arna3ut edition (and most
others).
43 Salih, Masa3il, p. 82.
44 Salih, MasdHl, p. 81. For the hadith report, see Musnad, vol. 4, p. 283, p. 295, p. 296 and
p. 304.
45 Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 2, p. 611; but cf. Ibn Abi Yacla, Tabaqat, vol. 1, p. 9, where cAbd
Allah is quoted as saying that his father recited the Qur'an twice a week, once by night and
once by day.
46 Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 2, p. 611-2.
47 See Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 2, p. 158, p. 165 (to recite the whole Qur'an no more than
every three days), p. 195 (no more than every five days), p. 162, p. 163, p. 164, p. 188, p. 189,
p. 193, p. 195, p. 199, p. 200, p. 201 and p. 216 (no more than every seven days). Nearly all of
these begin with the Prophet's recommending one recite the whole Qur'an monthly. Elsewhere,
however, he recommends forty days (Abu Dawud, Sunan, K. al-Sala, B. Tahzib al-Qur3an (K.
Ramadan, B. 9, according to Wensinck); Tirmidhi, Jamic, K. al-Qira?at, pp. 8-11).
48 Abu Dawud, Masa?il, p. 64, recommending Q. 87 (sabbih), Q. 109 (qui yd ayyuhd'l
kdfirun), and Q. 112-14.
49 Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-mujtahid wa-nihayat al-muqtasid, K. al-Sala al-thdni, B. 9, ed.cAbd
al-Majid Tucma Halabi (4 vols in 2. Beirut: Dar al-Macrifa, 1418/1997), vol. 1, pp. 305-6.
50 cAbd Allah, Masa?il, pp. 102^; Ibn Hani3, MasdHl, vol. 1, pp. 97-8. Salih mentions the
question of prostration only concerning idha'l-sama3u'nshaqqat (Q. 84). Abu Dawud
mentions that he saw Ahmad prostrate himself at three disputed points: Q. 38 (Sad), where the
Shaficiyya do not recognise a prostration, and Q. 84 (idha'l-sama3u'nshaqqat) and Q. 96

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 Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and the Qur'an 33

(iqra3), where the Hanafiyya and Malikiyya do not recognise any prostration (Abu Dawud,
MasaHl, p. 63).
51 Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 2, p. 252.
52 Mardawi, Insaf, vol. 2, pp. 139^0.
53 Abu Dawud, Masa'il, p. 158. Similarly, cAbd Allah, Masd?il, p. 145.
54 Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 2, p. 518.
55 For the stages of Muctazilism, see D. Gimaret, art. 'Muctazila' in The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, new edn, based esp. on the work of Josef van Ess. I have treated the question of
Qur'an against hadith a little more fully in Christopher Melchert, Traditionist-Jurisprudents
and the Framing of Islamic Law', Islamic Law and Society 8 (2001), pp. 383^406, esp.
pp. 403-4.
56 For numbers of witnesses proposed as the minimum who might guarantee a report, see, for
example, Ibn Qutayba, Ta?wil mukhtalif al-hadith, ed. Muhammad Zuhri al-Najjar (Cairo:
Maktabat al-Kulliyyat al-Azhariyya, 1386/1966), pp. 65-6. Historically, the Sunn! position
applied tawatur (transmission by such a large number that textual corruption is out of the ques
tion) only to the Qur'an, accepting that reliance on hadith calls rather for defending khabar al
wahid, the hadith report that happens to be known through the transmission of only one at some
point in its history.

57 See John Burton, The Sources of Islamic Law (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
1990), p. 11, pp. 22-5.
58 Ahmad, Musnad, vol. 4, p. 132. Variants at Musnad, vol. 2, p. 367, p. 483, and vol. 4, p.
132. Another variant related by Abu Dawud from Ahmad ibn Hanbal: 'Let me not meet one of
you reclining on his couch, when there reaches him a command of mine or a prohibition, then
say "We do not know. We have not found anything in the Book of God for us to follow'"
(Sunan, K. Sunna, B. 6). Other variants in Darimi, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, also ShafTi, al
Risala, ed. Ahmad Muhammad Shakir (Cairo: Matbaca Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi wa
Awladihi, 1358/1940; repr. Beirut: n.p., n.d.), paragraph 295, p. 89; also idem, Bayanfarcfid
Allah, K. al-Umm (7 vols in 4. Bulaq: al-Matbaca al-Kubra al-Amiriyya, 1321-5, repr. Cairo:
Kitab al-Shacb, 1388/1968), vol. 7, p. 264, lines 13-15, p. 265, lines 5-8.
59 Yaqut, Irshad al-arib ila macrifat al-adib, ed. Ihsan cAbbas (7 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb
al-Islaml, 1993), vol. 6, pp. 2450-1; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fll-tarikh, s.a. 310, ed. C.J.
Tornberg (repr. 13 vols. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1965-7), vol. 8, p. 134. Tabari's Ikhtilaf al-fuqaha3,
parts of which are extant, indeed omits to cite the opinions of Ahmad. However, it should be
noted that other sources assert that the quarrel between Tabari and the Hanabila had to do with
his alleged defence of ShTci positions; e.g. Ibn Miskawayh, The Concluding Portion of the
Experiences of the Nations 1: Reigns of Muqtadir, Qahir and Radi, ed. H.F. Amedroz, The
Eclipse of the c Abbasid Caliphate (7 vols. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1920), vol. 1, p. 84; Ibn al
Jawzi, al-Muntaiam (6 vols. Hyderabad: Da?irat al-Macarif al-cUthmaniyya, 1357-60), vol. 6,
p. 172 = ed. Muhammad cAbd al-Qadir cAta & Mustafa cAbd al-Qadir cAta, with Nucaym
Zurzur (18 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya, 1412/1992), vol. 13, p. 217. One source
asserts that it had to do with lafz., the doctrine that one's pronunciation of the Qur'an is creat
ed: Ibn Hajar, Lisan al-Mizan (7 vols. Hyderabad: Majlis Da?irat al-Macarif, 1329-31; repr.
Beirut: Mu?assasat al-Aclami, 1406/1986), vol. 3, p. 295.
60 cAbd Allah, Masa'il, p. 438.
61 Abu Dawud, Masa?il, p. 276.
62 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Iclam al-muwaqqicln, ed. Muhammad cAbd al-Salam Ibrahim (4
vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya, 1411/1991), vol. 1, pp. 24-6.

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 34 Journal of Qur'anic Studies

63 Among other places, dyat al-rqjm is quoted by Malik, Muwatta3, recension of Yahya ibn
Yahya, K al-Hudud, B. Md jd?a fi'l-rajm, no. 10. It is referred to by Bukhari, Sahih, K al
Hudud, B. Rajm al-thayyib.
64 Burton, Sources, chap. 7.
65 No rationalist polemic survives, but it is briefly quoted for refutation by Ibn Qutayba,
TaJwll mukhtalif al-hadith, pp. 93-4, pp. 192-3 and pp. 313-14.
66 Ibn Hani3, Masa?il, vol. 2, p. 92. Ibn Rushd likewise identifies Ahmad as an advocate of
both flogging and stoning, along with Hasan al-Basri, Ishaq ibn Rahawayh and Dawud al
Zahiri (Bidayat al-mujtahid, K Fi ahkdm al-zina, B. 2, vol. 4, p. 273).
67 Salih, Masa% p. 310.
68 Khiraqi, Mukhtasar, ed. Muhammad Zuhayr al-ShawIsh (Damascus: Mu3assasat Dar al
Salam, 1378), p. 190, and Matn, ed. Abu Hudhayfa Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, Silsila Mutun al
Fiqh 2 (Tanta: Dar al-Sahaba hT-Turath, 1413/1993), p. 133; Ibn Qudama, Mughni, vol. 12, pp.
313-14; Qaquni, Kitab al-Furuc, ed. cAbd al-Latif Muhammad al-Subki & cAbd al-Sattar
Ahmad Qarraj (6 vols. Cairo: Dar Misr, 1379-88/1960-67; repr. Beirut: cAlam al-Kutub,
1402), vol. 1, p. 67; Mardawi, Insdf, vol. 10, p. 129.
69 E.g. Ibn Hajar, Lisan, vol. 1, p. 8.
70 The principal monument to his interest in zuhd is Ibn Hanbal, al-Zuhd (Mecca: Matbacat
Umm al-Qura, 1357; repr. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya, 1403/1983). The original seems to
have been about three times as large as the extant work, for Ibn Hajar describes it as compris
ing about a third as many items as the Musnad (Ibn Hajar, Tacjil al-manfaca, ed. Ikram Allah
Imdad al-Haqq (2 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Basha3ir al-Islamiyya, 1416/1996), vol. 1, p. 243). The
fullest survey of the early tradition of zuhd is Abu Nucaym al-Isbahani, Hilyat al-awliyd3 (10
vols. Cairo: Matbacat al-Sacada and Maktabat al-Khanji, 1352-7/1932-8).
71 In a sample of 91 items (this text of al-Zuhd comprises about 2,400 altogether, of which
about a third are additions from cAbd Allah, its compiler), I found eight quotations of the
Qur'an, usually with some renunciant's gloss.
72 On the piety of Ahmad and those closest to him, see further Christopher Melchert, 'The Piety
of the Hadith Folk', International Journal of Middle East Studies 34 (2002), pp. 425-39. For
good characterisations of the earlier zuhd tradition, see Tor Andrae, 'Zuhd und Monchtum', Le
Monde Oriental 25 (1931), pp. 296-327, and Ofer Livne-Kafri, 'Early Muslim Ascetics and the
World of Christian Monasticism', Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 20 (1996), pp. 105-29,
both fuller for the practice of early Muslim renunciants than for continuity with Christian
monasticism. The term 'renunciant' (for zahid and nasik), suggested by Michael Cooperson, is
more convenient than 'ascetic' inasmuch as it suggests no opposition to 'mystic'.
73 Ahmad, Creeds I, IV, apud Ibn Abi Yacla, Tabaqat, vol. 1, p. 24, p. 294.

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