Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on transliteration
- Note on dating systems
- Glossary
- 1 The development of the genre
- 2 The caliph al-Maʾmūn
- 3 The Imam ʿAlī al-Riḍā
- 4 The Ḥadīth-scholar Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal
- 5 The renunciant Bishr al-Ḥāfī
- Conclusions
- Appendix: The circumstances of ʿAlī al-Riḍā's death
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - The Ḥadīth-scholar Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on transliteration
- Note on dating systems
- Glossary
- 1 The development of the genre
- 2 The caliph al-Maʾmūn
- 3 The Imam ʿAlī al-Riḍā
- 4 The Ḥadīth-scholar Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal
- 5 The renunciant Bishr al-Ḥāfī
- Conclusions
- Appendix: The circumstances of ʿAlī al-Riḍā's death
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
By God, I have given all I could in this effort; and I hope to come out of it even, without winning or losing.
Ibn Ḥanbal after his trial, as cited by his son ṢāliḥIntroduction
The Qurʾān exhorts the believers to obey the Prophet (59:7) and emulate his good example (33: 21). When he died, according to Ibn Hishām's Sīra, some of the mourners wanted to bury him in the mosque. Others, however, recommended interring him with his companions. Then Abū Bakr spoke up: “I heard the Messenger of God say that no prophet has ever been buried anywhere except in the place where he died.” His deathbed was accordingly lifted off the floor and his grave was dug on the spot. Ibn Hishām's account thus credits Abū Bakr with being the first to invoke Muḥammad's words as a source of guidance after his death. In later times, the Prophet's words and deeds, transmitted by such men as Abū Bakr, took on an importance second only to that of the Qurʾān. In the first and second centuries, however, the Prophet's practice was only one component of the sunna – the normative practice of the first Muslims. By force of circumstances, the judgements of the Companions appear to have been an equally rich source of precedent.
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- Information
- Classical Arabic BiographyThe Heirs of the Prophets in the Age of al-Ma'mun, pp. 107 - 153Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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