Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal came into view, and they said, “That is the man.”
Wakīʿ called out, “Over here, Abū ʿAbd Allāh.”
The people cleared a path for him, and they began recounting the statements of Abū ʿAbd Allāh to which they took exception.
Ahmad, for his part, replied by citing hadiths from the Prophet ﷺ.
They turned to Wakīʿ and protested, “This is happening in your presence—do you hear what he is saying?”
He answered, “A man is saying, ‘The Messenger of Allah said…’; what am I supposed to say to him?”
Then he added, “The only valid position is the one you have stated, Abū ʿAbd Allāh.”
The group retorted to Wakīʿ, “By Allah, the Baghdadi has tricked you!”
ʿĀrim said, “Ahmad deposited his travel money with me. One day I remarked, ‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh, I have heard that you are of Arab lineage.’ He replied, ‘Abū al-Nuʿmān, we are but a poor people.’ He kept parrying my questions until he left without giving me an answer.”
Al-Khallāl reports from al-Marwadhī that Abū ʿAbd Allāh said, “I did not marry until I was past forty.”
Ahmad al-Dawraqī relates from Abū ʿAbd Allāh: “We recorded hadith through six or seven separate routes and still failed to master it. How, then, can someone hope to master it who writes it down through a single route?”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ahmad said: “Abū Zurʿah told me, ‘Your father has memorised one million hadiths.’ Someone asked him, ‘How do you know that?’ He replied, ‘I tested him, reviewing the material chapter by chapter.’
“This is a sound account of the breadth of Abū ʿAbd Allāh’s knowledge. In that tally they included repeated isnāds, non-Prophetic reports, the legal opinions of the Successors, exegetical remarks, and the like. Strong, elevated texts traced back to the Prophet do not reach one tenth of one tenth of that figure.
“Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr once asked, ‘Abū Zurʿah, are you a better memoriser, or is Ahmad?’ He answered, ‘Ahmad, by far.’ I asked, ‘How do you know?’ He said, ‘I examined his notebooks. At the beginning of the fascicles he did not record the names of those who narrated to him; yet he could recall every fascicle along with the teacher from whom he heard it, whereas I cannot manage that.’”