A Call For Coexistence

Episode 18

In the name of Allah[1], The All-Merciful, The Ever-Merciful, All Prayers and Blessings of Allah be upon Prophet Muhammad (SAWS[2]).

This episode is about Imam[3] Ahmad Ibn-Hanbal, the last of the four great Imams of the Muslim World.  Many believe that Ibn-Hanbal was tough and strict in his rulings and opinions, but we will prove the opposite.  Ibn-Hanbal achieved two great things for Muslims, and today we will tackle the first one.

What was the first great accomplishment by Ibn-Hanbal?

The preservation of the Prophet’s (SAWS) Sunnah (Prophet’s Traditions).

During the time of Ibn-Hanbal, the 1^st and 2^nd Hijri century, there was a major misunderstanding between the Muslim Scholars of Iraq and Hijaz.  That was due to the difference in Ahadith (Prophet’s (SAWS) sayings) which resulted in confusion.  Imam Abu-Hanifa who was born in Hijaz and was one of its residents corrected and edited some ahadith based on supportive evidence or sources. On the other hand, people of Iraq were not aware of the changes so confusion occurred when the ahadith were discussed among the people from the two countries.  Imam Ibn-Hanbal knew that the Quran and the sunnah of the Prophet (SAWS) through ahadith were the most important in Islam, hence he wanted to eliminate the misunderstanding between Iraq and Hijaz and teach people how to coexist with each others. ‘Musnad Imam Ibn- Hanbal’ was the name of the book where he gathered all the ahadith for any further confusion among the Muslims.

The best reference nowadays for ahadith is the work of al-Bukhari which was simplified due to the hard work of Imam Ahmad Ibn-Hanbal.  The great scholars learned from each other.  They were like one chain.  Imam Ibn-Hanbal learned from all the preceding great scholars, and despite disagreeing with some of their views, he never insulted them nor created any confusion.  In fact, he discovered common points between their views to agree rather than oppose, and that is what we call coexistence.  We should have our own beliefs and views and if our views happen to conflict with those of others we do not have to depart or argue, nor give up our views for the sake of others but we should find ways of compatibility with other mentalities and views, i.e. coexist.

Islam is a very simple religion, but during the time of Ibn-Hanbal some people tried to prove the opposite as was done with other religions such as Christianity. They got closer to the rulers and convinced them to change some of the rules in order to simplify matters hence separate them from religion.  Imam Ibn-Hanbal fought solely against those people and was able to preserve the Sunnah until our present time.  Ibn-Hanbal is a symbol of strength and persistence for he stood firm in his beliefs.

Ahmad Ibn-Hanbal lived from 164 A.H.[4] until 241 A.H. and was born in Iraq.  He belongs to the tribe of Bani-Shayban; whose people were very well known for their strengths and good manners.  The Prophet (SAWS) once sought their support due to their strength but they politely refused for political reasons.  Despite their decision to not help the Prophet (SAWS), he admired their strength and good manners for they were very clear and straight forward with him.  Later, Muthana Ibn-Haritha who belonged to the same tribe was the first one to fight the Persians.  Muthana was the great grandfather of Imam Ibn-Hanbal.  It seems that Ahmad Ibn-Hanbal inherited his tribe’s legendary strength, good manners and persistence.

Ibn Hanbal was extremely poor, much more than Imam ash-Shafi’ey.  When he was three years old, his father and grandfather died in the same year. Hence he was brought up by his mother.  Imagine how strong his mother must have been; to bring up such a great scholar. She devoted her life after her husband’s death to properly bring up her son.  She learned the Qura’n and excelled in reading and writing in order to teach her son.  She helped Ibn-Hanbal develop handwriting skills.  In spite of being a very strong woman, she was a very affectionate mother.  She used to worry much about her son and sometimes limited his travelling.  Ahmad was a very obedient son who insisted to not hurt his mother by any means and used to stay back whenever asked by her.  When he was 16 years old, he travelled to a distant place without telling his mother in order to gain knowledge from a visiting Islamic jurist.  He knew that she would not have allowed him to go but on the way he fell sick and retuned saying, “I return to my mother and in repentance to my God!”

From that incident, his mother realized that he needed more space and freedom to gain knowledge. Therefore, she offered him more freedom and controlled her fears.  Consequently, Imam Ibn- Hanbal travelled all around the Muslim world to gather ahadith.

Ibrahim Ibn-Shamas once said, “When I saw that child praying during the night with the encouragement of his mother, I knew that he will be a great person in the Muslim nation when he grows up.”

At the age of fourteen, his uncle who was an employee at the post office of the Caliph, asked the head of the office to allow his brilliant fourteen year old nephew to replace him in his absence. In fact, this was the opportunity that Allah (SWT[5]) granted to Imam Ahmad to mix with people at this young age in order to prepare him for the great responsibility as a jurist.  It is evidently clear that a jurist should coexist with the society. Despite his young age, Imam Ahmad was well known for his piety; to the extent that they said about him, “We have never seen like him before”.

Imam Ahmad was responsible for writing messages. Upon encountering any thing that he considered illegal or sinful, he insisted on refusing to write it. Imam Ahmad succeeded in this job due to his talent and tolerance in coexisting with people. This leads me to say that whoever wants to attain success in his life, should mix with people and coexist with the society. The Prophet (SAWS) said in this regard, “The believer who mixes with people and is patient towards their harm is better than the believer who does not mix with people and is not patient towards their harm”. 

Despite leading a very poor life, Imam Ahmad did not depend on others for help, even those who were close to him. He earned his living through his magnificent handwriting which he used in writing books and pamphlets for others. Unlike the previous two scholars, Malik and ash-Shaf'iy who led a different life from Imam Ahmad, yet there was coexistence between them.

Imam Ahmad started his life-long journey of seeking knowledge at the tender age of sixteen. At first, he learnt under Abu-Yusuf, a student of Abu-Hanifa. However, this school did not appeal to him. Imam Ahmad did not refuse to take the knowledge of Abu-Yusuf although he was not convinced with it. This is indeed the essence of coexistence. We have to weigh matters, in order to be able to accept and not to give up. His great and only goal was to go around the Muslim countries, meet the scholars of hadith and collect the Sunnah in one volume in order to become a reference for Muslims. Here, I address my question to young men and women, do you live by setting a goal in your life and working to achieve it? 

Imam Ahmad's mother allowed him to start his journey of seeking knowledge at the age of sixteen. He started in Baghdad, where he met a great scholar there. This scholar was Hasheem Ibn-Hisham. He had learnt many ahadith of the Prophet (SAWS). Imam Ahmad collected about 3000 ahadith. At this point, he was convinced that he took all the knowledge available in Baghdad. Therefore, he took the initiative to visit three countries in Iraq, namely, Al-Basrah, Kufah and Wasit. Then he set off to visit Waki' in order to visit a friend of Imam ash-Shafi’y's.

He went to al-Basrah in order to meet the great scholar, Abdur-Rahman Ibn-Mahdi. He was one of the prominent scholars of hadith. Ibn-Mahdi asked the great imam ash-Shafi'y to write a book about rulings and send it to him.

Being very poor, Imam Ahmed traveled to these different places on foot, to the extent that his feet did not look normal. Here, let me pose another question. Could any of us do this for the sake of Islam? In fact, this does not mean that all students belonging to different field such as medicine, engineering, arts…etc have to leave their studies and concentrate on acquiring legal knowledge only. Nevertheless, I mean that we should learn the art of gathering people and coexisting with them.

After completing his mission of seeking knowledge in al-Basrah and Kufah, Imam Ahmad went to Wasit. He met the grand scholar, Yazid Ibn-Haroun. Here, let me draw your attention that there are many common things between both scholars; ash-Sahfi'y and Ahmad, such as both being orphans and poor as well as the goal of gathering the Ummah (Muslim nation). However, the former managed to gather the Ummah through his book of the rulings and the latter managed to do it through collecting the Sunnah.

The next phase in his plan to seek knowledge was to go to Makkah, the center of Islamic knowledge. Imam Ahmad went there during the occasion of Hajj. He was at the age of twenty three. He went there to learn from the great scholar of hadith, Syfyan Ibn 'Uyainah, who had a great circle of knowledge seekers at the Ka'ba. Ash-Shafi'y was present at the time, however, he was not yet well known.  Imam Ahmed left the circle of Sufyan, and went to learn from ash-Shafiy'. Ishaq Ibn Rahawiyah, a friend of Imam Ahmad, asked him to leave the circle of ash-Shafi'y and sit at that of Sufyan. Thereupon, Imam Ahmad said to him, “O Ishaq, if we left Sufyan, we can receive his knowledge anywhere else. However if we left this young man, we will lose his knowledge till the Day of Judgment.”

Despite the fact of belonging to two different schools of jurisprudence, both scholars Ahmad and ash-Shafi'y valued each other very much. Imam Ahmed used to say about him, “ash-Shafi'y is the scholar of every knowledge seeker.” He also said about him, “ash-Shafi'y for people is like the sun for this world and health for the body.” His opinion was that ash-Shafi'y was distinguished for four things; namely, language, hadith, Jurisprudence and gathering people. On the other hand, ash-Shafi'y said about Imam Ahmad, “I left Iraq and I have never seen anyone greater or more pious than Ahmad Ibn Hanbal”.  This is the utmost sense of coexistence that we have never seen before.  

The next phase of his journey was to Yemen and the Levant. He decided to go to Yemen after performing Hajj with his friend Yahiay Ibn Ma'in. In Yemen, there was a well known scholar of hadith who was called Abdur- Razzaq Ibn Hamam. While performing Tawaf (circumambulation of the Ka’ba) they met Abdur- Razzaq. Yahiay Ibn Ma'in rejoiced at seeing the scholar and asked Imam Ahmad to take knowledge at Makkah. However, Imam Ahmad refused because he pledged an allegiance with Allah (SWT) to travel to receive knowledge at Yemen. On his way to Yemen, he was lost and was obliged to work as a porter to earn his living and find people to guide him to the way.

The last phase of his journey was to The Levant, and then to a district called Tartous in Turkey. Finally he returned to Iraq at the age of thirty five. Imam Ahmad was once asked till when he would seek knowledge, he replied by saying his famous quotation, “I will never abandon seeking knowledge till I go to the grave”.

His book, known as Musnad, contained 800 of the companions, including 700 men and 100 women. His circle included more than 5000 people at the grand mosque in Baghdad.

Here, I address a message to all Muslims around the world; do your best to gather people and do not be scattered like this. All of us have to do this and create a space for accepting and coexisting with each other. And Prayers and Peace from Allah be upon our Prophet (SAWS).