I said: al-Dhuhli spoke out of grief, not on the basis of the Sacred Law (1).
Ahmad ibn al-Qasim the Qur’an-reciter said: I heard al-Husayn al-Karabisi say, “The case of those who speak against Ahmad ibn Hanbal is like a people who come to Mount Abu Qubays (2) intending to demolish it with their sandals.”
Al-Tabarani said: Idris ibn ʿAbd al-Karim al-Muqriʾ narrated to us; he said, “I saw our scholars—al-Haytham ibn Kharijah, Musʿab al-Zubayri, Yahya ibn Maʿin, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah and his brother, ʿAbd al-Aʿla ibn Hammad, Ibn Abi al-Shawarib, ʿAli ibn al-Madini, al-Qawariri, Abu Khaythamah, Abu Maʿmar, al-Warkani, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ayyub, Muhammad ibn Bakkar, ʿAmr al-Naqid, Yahya ibn Ayyub al-Maqabari, Surayj ibn Yunus, Khalf ibn Hisham, Abu al-Rabiʿ al-Zahrani, and more than I can count—exalting Ahmad, venerating him, respecting him, honouring him, and making a point of visiting him simply to greet him.”
Abu ʿAli ibn Shadhan said: Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Shafiʿi told me, “When Saʿid ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal passed away, Ibrahim al-Harbi came to ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad. ʿAbd Allah rose to receive him, so Ibrahim said, ‘Do you rise for me?’ He replied, ‘By Allah, if my father had seen you, he would have risen for you.’ Ibrahim answered, ‘By Allah, if Ibn ʿUyaynah had seen your father, he would have risen for him.’”