the grave, let him hold fast to the transmitted reports; and whoever wants the knowledge that brings bread, let him rely on personal opinion.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: “Thābit ibn Aḥmad ibn Shabbūyah narrated to me, saying:

‘I used to imagine that my father had an advantage over Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal because of his striving in jihād and his ransoming of captives. I therefore asked my brother ʿAbd Allāh, and he replied, “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal carries greater weight.”

Still unsatisfied, I was shown a shaykh surrounded by people who were asking him questions and listening to him. I asked him about the two men, and he said, “Glory be to Allah! Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was tried and bore it with patience, while Ibn Shabbūyah was spared. Is the one who is tested yet patient the same as the one who is left untried? Impossible!”’

Al-Bukhārī and Abū Ḥātim said: “He died in the year 230 AH.”

Al-Bukhārī added: “He was sixty years old.”

Ibn Mākūlā said: “He died at Tarsus in the year 239 AH.”

Al-Bukhārī also transmits in his Ṣaḥīḥ—in the books of Purification, Sacrifices, and Jihād (1)—from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, from Ibn al-Mubārak, and al-Dāraquṭnī said: “That Aḥmad is Ibn Shabbūyah.”

Al-Kalābādhī and a number of others said: “Rather, he is …”

3 – Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Simsār al-Marwazī * (Bukhārī, Tirmidhī, Nasāʾī)

Mardāwīh the ḥāfiẓ (2).

He is sometimes ascribed to his grandfather and called Aḥmad ibn Mūsā.

He narrated from Ibn al-Mubārak, Jarīr, Isḥāq al-Azraq, and a group of others.