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The Life Of Ibn HanbalIbn Al-Jawzi
109 chapters

The Life Of Ibn Hanbal

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who died in the 241st year of the Muslim calendar, 855 according to the Christian one, is probably one of the most famous Muslims in history. Thanks to him, many came to believe that the only right religion was the one practiced at the time of the Prophet Muḥammad. To keep their community together in this world and gain salvation in the next, Muslims needed to live as the Prophet and his Companions had lived: to eat what they ate, wear what they wore, buy and sell only as they had done. “Is there anything I’m doing wrong?” one of Ibn Ḥanbal’s wives asked him a few days after they were married. “No,” he answered, “except that those sandals you’re wearing didn’t exist at the time of the Prophet.

109 chapters

Chapters

  1. 1Foreword5 min read
  2. 2Acknowledgments3 min read
  3. 3Introduction17 min read
  4. 4The Life Of Ibn Hanbal3 min read
  5. 5Ibn Hanbal’s Birth And Family Background3 min read
  6. 6His Lineage1 min read
  7. 7His Childhood3 min read
  8. 8The Beginning Of His Search For Knowledge And The Journey He Undertook For That Purpose12 min read
  9. 9The Major Men Of Learning Whom He Met And On Whose Authority He Recited Hadith2 min read
  10. 10His Deference To His Teachers And His Respect For Learning2 min read
  11. 11His Eagerness To Learn And His Single-minded Pursuit Of Knowledge1 min read
  12. 12His Powers Of Retention And The Number Of Reports He Knew By Heart4 min read
  13. 13His Learning, His Intelligence, And His Religious Understanding8 min read
  14. 14Praise Of Him By His Teachers17 min read
  15. 15Teachers And Senior Men Of Learning Who Cite Him1 min read
  16. 16All The Men Of Learning Who Cite Him1 min read
  17. 17Praise Of Him By His Peers, His Contemporaries, And Those Close To Him In Age29 min read
  18. 18Praise Of Him By Prominent Successors Who Knew Him Well4 min read
  19. 19A Report That The Prophet Elijah Sent Him Greetings1 min read
  20. 20Reports That Al-khaḍir Spoke In His Praise1 min read
  21. 21Praise Of Him By Pious Strangers And Allies Of God1 min read
  22. 22Allies Of God Who Visited Him To Seek His Blessing5 min read
  23. 23His Fame6 min read
  24. 24His Creed12 min read
  25. 25His Insistence On Maintaining The Practices Of The Early Muslims4 min read
  26. 26His Reverence For Hadith Transmitters And Adherents Of The Sunnah2 min read
  27. 27His Shunning And Reviling Of Innovators And His Forbidding Others To Listen To Them6 min read
  28. 28His Seeking Of Blessings And Cures Using The Qurʾan And Water From The Well Of Zamzam, As Well As Some Hair And A Bowl That Belonged To The Prophet1 min read
  29. 29His Age When He Began Teaching Hadith And Giving Legal Opinions2 min read
  30. 30His Devotion To Learning And The Attitudes That Informed His Teaching2 min read
  31. 31His Works1 min read
  32. 32His Aversion To Writing Books Containing Opinions Reached Through The Exercise Of Independent Judgment At The Expense Of Transmitted Knowledge1 min read
  33. 33His Forbidding Others To Write Down Or Transmit His Words1 min read
  34. 34His Remarks On Sincerity, On Acting For The Sake Of Appearances, And On Concealing One’s Pious Austerities1 min read
  35. 35His Statements About Renunciation And Spiritual Weakness4 min read
  36. 36His Remarks On Different Subjects4 min read
  37. 37Poems He Recited Or Had Attributed To Him2 min read
  38. 38His Correspondence1 min read
  39. 39His Appearance And Bearing4 min read
  40. 40His Imposing Presence1 min read
  41. 41His Cleanliness And Ritual Purity1 min read
  42. 42His Kindness And His Consideration For Others11 min read
  43. 43His Forbearance And His Readiness To Forgive3 min read
  44. 44His Property And Means Of Subsistence2 min read
  45. 45His Refusal To Accept Help Even In Distress18 min read
  46. 46His Generosity3 min read
  47. 47His Accepting Gifts And Giving Gifts In Return2 min read
  48. 48His Renunciation5 min read
  49. 49His House And Furniture2 min read
  50. 50His Diet3 min read
  51. 51His Indulgences1 min read
  52. 52His Clothing4 min read
  53. 53His Scrupulosity13 min read
  54. 54His Shunning Appointment To Positions Of Authority3 min read
  55. 55His Love Of Poverty And His Affection For The Poor1 min read
  56. 56His Humility4 min read
  57. 57His Accepting Invitations And His Withdrawal Upon Seeing Things He Disapproved Of2 min read
  58. 58His Preference For Solitude2 min read
  59. 59His Wish To Live In Obscurity And His Efforts To Remain Unnoticed2 min read
  60. 60His Fear Of God2 min read
  61. 61His Preoccupation And Absentmindedness1 min read
  62. 62His Devotions4 min read
  63. 63His Performances Of The Pilgrimage2 min read
  64. 64His Extemporaneous Prayers And Supplications4 min read
  65. 65His Manifestations Of Grace And The Effectiveness Of His Prayers4 min read
  66. 66The Number Of Wives He Had3 min read
  67. 67His Concubines3 min read
  68. 68The Number Of His Children1 min read
  69. 69The Lives Of His Children And Descendants5 min read
  70. 70How And Why The Inquisition Began3 min read
  71. 71His Experience With Al-maʾmūn6 min read
  72. 72What Happened After The Death Of Al-maʾmūn4 min read
  73. 73His Experience With Al-muʿtaṣim30 min read
  74. 74His Reception By The Elders After His Release, And Their Prayers For Him8 min read
  75. 75His Teaching Of Hadith After The Death Of Al mu ʿtasim1 min read
  76. 76His Experience With Al-wathiq11 min read
  77. 77His Experience With Al-mutawakkil38 min read
  78. 78His Refusing Ibn Tahir’s Request To Visit Him2 min read
  79. 79What Happened When His Two Sons And His Uncle Accepted Gifts From The Authorities8 min read
  80. 80Some Major Figures Who Capitulated To The Inquisition2 min read
  81. 81His Comments On Those Who Capitulated8 min read
  82. 82Those Who Defied The Inquisition10 min read
  83. 83His Final Illness11 min read
  84. 84His Date Of Death And His Age When He Died1 min read
  85. 85How His Body Was Washed And Shrouded2 min read
  86. 86On Who Sought To Pray Over Him1 min read
  87. 87The Number Of People Who Prayed Over Him2 min read
  88. 88The Praising Of The Sunnah And The Decrying Of Innovation That Took Place During His Funeral Procession1 min read
  89. 89The Crowds That Gathered Around His Grave1 min read
  90. 90His Estate1 min read
  91. 91Reactions To His Death1 min read
  92. 92Reaction To His Death On The Part Of The Jinns2 min read
  93. 93On The Condolences Offered To His Family3 min read
  94. 94A Selection Of The Verses Spoken In Praise Of Him In Life And In Commemoration Of Him In Death2 min read
  95. 95His Dreams1 min read
  96. 96Dreams In Which He Appeared To Others18 min read
  97. 97Dreams In Which He Was Mentioned24 min read
  98. 98The Benefit Of Visiting His Grave2 min read
  99. 99The Benefit Of Being Buried Near Him3 min read
  100. 100The Punishments That Befall Anyone Who Attacks Him13 min read
  101. 101What To Think About Anyone Who Speaks Ill Of Him2 min read
  102. 102Why We Chose His Legal School Over The Others10 min read
  103. 103On The Excellence Of His Associates And Successors2 min read
  104. 104His Most Prominent Associates And Their Successors From His Time To Our Own18 min read
  105. 105[colophons]1 min read
  106. 106Notes102 min read
  107. 107Glossary Of Names And Terms17 min read
  108. 108Bibliography15 min read
  109. 109Further Reading1 min read