Those who narrated from him include ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Dawraqī, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ṭabbāʿ, Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Ashʿarī, and others.

Ibn al-Junayd said: “I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn invoke mercy for him and say, ‘May Allah bring his life to a close with martyrdom. I have written ḥadith from him; he possessed every one of Hushaym’s compilations and had reports from Mālik as well.’

“He used to say of the caliph, ‘No one who enters upon him tells him the truth.’ Yaḥyā then added, ‘He would not relate ḥadith; he used to say, “I am not in that place.”’

Al-Ṣūlī recounted: “When al-Maʾmūn was in Khurasan, he and Sahl ibn Salāmah made the people pledge themselves to al-amr bi-l-maʿrūf (enjoining what is right) and al-nahy ʿan al-munkar (forbidding what is wrong). When al-Maʾmūn later entered Baghdad, Sahl offered him allegiance, but Ibn Naṣr stayed in his house. Toward the end of al-Wāthiq’s reign he became active again and a crowd gathered around him, all urging what is right.

“This continued until they virtually gained control of Baghdad. Two wealthy men among his companions exceeded all bounds, spending money and resolving to rise up in the year 231 AH. News of this reached the governor of Baghdad, Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm. He arrested Aḥmad, the two men, and a number of others; in the house of one of them he found banners. After flogging one of Aḥmad’s servants, the man confessed that they used to come to Aḥmad by night and inform him of what they had done. All of them were then sent to Sāmarrāʾ in chains.

“Al-Wāthiq convened a session for them and said to Aḥmad, ‘Leave aside the matter for which you were seized; what do you say about the Quran?’

“‘It is the speech of Allah,’ he answered.

“‘Then is it created?’ asked the caliph.

“‘It is the speech of Allah,’ he replied.

“‘Will you see your Lord on the Day of Resurrection?’

“‘Such are the reports that have come down to us,’ he said.

“Al-Wāthiq retorted, ‘Woe to you! Would He be seen like some bounded, corporeal body, confined to a place and encompassed by the gaze of the onlooker? I disbelieve in anyone described in that way. What is your ruling concerning him?’

“The judge of the western quarter declared, ‘His blood is permissible.’ The jurists concurred, but Aḥmad ibn Abī Duwād outwardly showed dislike for killing him and said, ‘An old man in confusion—his mind has changed; postpone the matter.’

“Al-Wāthiq said, ‘I see him only persisting in his disbelief, standing firm on what he believes.’ He then called for the Ṣamṣāmah (the executioner’s sword), rose, and said, ‘I seek reward for these steps I take toward this disbeliever,’ and he struck off his head.”