Imam Abu ʿUthman al-Sabuni said: I heard Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sulami relate, “I attended the funeral of the ascetic Abu al-Fath al-Qawwas together with Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni. When the procession reached that vast crowd, he turned to us and said, ‘I heard Abu Sahl ibn Ziyad al-Qattan say: I heard ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal say: I heard my father say, “Tell the people of innovation: the test between us and you is found in the funerals.”’ ”(1)
Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman then added, following this report: the estimators(2) who counted those who offered the funeral prayer over Ahmad put the number, by their calculation, at one million seven hundred thousand, not including those who were in the boats.
In the Shaykh’s own handwriting, some verses were found that he composed while in the fortress; they are(3):
I am the pauper in need of the Lord of the heavens;
I am the destitute one in every one of my states(4)
I am a wrongdoer to my soul—she has wronged me—
and every good that reaches us comes only from Him.
I have no power to bring benefit to myself,
nor to shield the soul from harmful things(5)
I have, apart from Him, no patron to manage my affairs,
nor any intercessor with the Lord of all creatures(6)