Ahmad ibn Hanbal

Ahmad ibn Hanbal^[a] (Arabic: أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل, romanized: Aḥmad 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.^[5] The most highly influential and active scholar during his lifetime,^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[5]

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.^[5] 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"^[5] in the annals of Sunni history.

Ibn Hanbal later came to be venerated as an exemplary figure in all traditional schools of Sunni thought,^[5] 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]

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