He went on to relate from Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Būshanjī, who said, “I have never seen anyone who combined every virtue as perfectly as Ahmad ibn Hanbal, nor anyone more clear-minded than he.”
Ibn Wārah observed, “Ahmad was a man of fiqh, a master of memorization, and a possessor of penetrating knowledge.”
Al-Nasāʾī remarked, “Ahmad ibn Hanbal united expertise in hadith and fiqh with waraʿ (scrupulous piety), zuhd (ascetic detachment), and steadfast patience.”
ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Warrāq said, “When the Prophet ﷺ declared, ‘Then refer it to the one who knows it best’ (1), we referred it to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, for he was the most learned person of his time.”
Abū Dāwūd stated, “Ahmad’s gatherings were gatherings of the Hereafter; nothing of worldly affairs was ever mentioned in them. I never once heard him speak about the world.”
Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad Jazrah said, “Among all those I encountered, the one with the deepest understanding of hadith was Ahmad ibn Hanbal.”
ʿAlī ibn Khalaf related, “I heard al-Humaydī say, ‘As long as I am in the Ḥijāz, Ahmad is in Iraq, and Ibn Rāhwayh is in Khurasan, no one can outstrip us.’"
(1) Imam Ahmad reports in his Musnad, 2/181, through the chain of Anas ibn Iyad – Abu Hazim – Amr ibn Shuayb – his father – his grandfather, who said: “My brother and I once attended a gathering for which I would not exchange a herd of red camels. We approached and found some elders from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sitting at one of his doors. We did not wish to intrude, so we sat a little apart. They cited a verse of the Quran and began arguing about it until their voices grew loud. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out, angry and red-faced, threw dust at them and declared: ‘Calm down, people! It was just this that destroyed the nations before you: their disagreement with their prophets and setting their scriptures against one another. The Quran was not revealed for one part to belie another; rather, each part confirms the rest. Act on what you understand of it, and whatever you do not know, refer it to someone who is learned.’ ”
Its chain of transmission is sound (hasan). Ahmad also recorded it in an abbreviated form, 2/195; Ibn Majah, no. 85; and Abd al-Razzaq in his Musannaf, no. 20367. Ahmad’s version at 2/196 specifies that their dispute concerned qadar (divine decree).