Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal

In our previous blogs, we discussed the attributes of Allah that every accountable person must know. In the last two blogs, we focused on the attribute of Speech (Kalam) of Allah. In this blog, our topic will be mentioning the strife (fitnah) of the Mu^tazilah, the ones who denied the existence of the attribute of Speech of Allah, and their effect on the Muslims at the time of the honorable defender of Islam, Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal.

A short biography of Imam Ahmad:

Imam Ahmad, the Saint (Waliyy), was a great scholar of Islam. He defended Islam when a lot of scholars remained silent in fear of death or exile. Imam Ahmad learned from the great scholar Muhammad Ibn Idris Ash-Shafi^iyy several matters and was amongst the honest friends of Ash-Shafi^i.

Many anthropomorphists claim they follow the Hanbali School, yet Ahmad is free of all their false claims and is one of the greatest Scholars who Exalted Allah from anthropomorphism.

The Hanbali School, is one of the most famous schools of thought, and is one of the four greatly recognized schools, the Shafi^i, Maliki, Hanafi, and the Hanbali.

The Story of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal vs the Mu^tazilah:

Let it be known that over the years Muslims have faced several Fitnahs, but the Muslims were never defenseless. The Muslims always had honorable scholars defending the religion and protecting the lay Muslims from the misconceptions and falsehood of the misguided. Allah has preserved this religion and sent righteous scholars to defend it against the false claims and misguidance.

During the Abbasid rule, the Mu^tazilah had attained so much power due to their leaders being close to the Caliph, the Ma’moun. The Mu^tazilah influenced him to the extent that he started telling people to say the Qur’an is created. The Ma’moun at that time was unaware of the Mu^tazilah’s goals, which were denying the existence of an eternal and everlasting Speech of Allah. Although the Ma’moun ordered people to say the Qur’an is created, his understanding of the phrase was that the revealed scripture is created, but this wasn’t the goal of the Mu^tazilah.

After the Ma’moun and later on the Mu^tasim ordered people to say the Qur’an is created, they ordered the scholars either to say it or else stop teaching and preaching. Some scholars feared for themselves and didn’t say what the Ma’moun and Mu^tasim said, and stopped teaching to not get killed or exiled. On the other hand, there stood some honorable scholars who kept spreading the truth and warning against this saying as it might delude some people into thinking Allah’s attribute of Speech is created, which is obviously a belief that would render a person non-Muslim. Among these scholars is the most tortured scholar of that era, Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, the protector of Islam and the Muslims against the misguidance of the Mu^tazilah. Imam Ahmad remained unshaken in their face, even if it meant his death.

Why are we mentioning death?

Imam Ahmad was tortured day and night to say what the Mu^tazilah wanted. Yet never showed any hesitation or regret for his stance against the false claims of the Mu^tazilah. He suffered torture so barbaric that 150 executioners flogged him; when one grew tired, another took his place, yet Ahmad didn’t budge. One of his prison mates told him to say “The Qur’an is created in the sense that the revealed scripture is what’s created”, to which Ahmad replied: “You see those people outside holding their notepads, they are waiting for what Ahmad says so they would say Ahmad said so and so”. So, even if Ahmad said it intending the other meaning, he feared some lay people might be led astray by the Mu^tazilah’s campaign.

It is said that Ahmad’s survival was in extraordinary matter; had an elephant been flogged and tortured as Ahmad, the elephant would’ve died.

The Mu^tazilah have several doctrines that contradict Islam, which renders the believer in those doctrines a Non-Muslim, such as their denying that Allah has eternal and everlasting Speech and their deeming that Allah only creates the slaves and their involuntary deeds, but the slaves are the ones to create their voluntary deeds. Both sayings contradict the Qur’an, Hadith, and Scholarly consensus, and contradict the essentials of belief, so whoever believes those two doctrines of the Mu^tazilah is a Non-Muslim.

In our previous blog, we mentioned that the Qur’an is used for two meanings: the eternal and everlasting Speech of Allah and the revealed scripture, the latter of which is created and is letters, language, and a sound when recited. We also discussed that the person is forbidden from saying: “The Qur’an is created”, even if the intended meaning was the revealed scripture without a context, such as teaching.

Many scholars of Islam have faced torture, imprisonment, and beating due to their steadfastness in protecting the religion, but this didn’t let them neglect enjoining good and forbidding evil. By Allah’s Will, due to their sacrifices and steadfastness, the Muslims have received the authentic creed, which is clear from anthropomorphism, atheism, and other sorts of misguidance.

In our next blog, we will be starting to explain the attributes of the Prophets and what is impossible for them to be attributed with.

Stay Tuned…