Muhammad ibn Ayyub al-ʿUkbarī said: I heard Ibrāhīm al-Harbī state:

“All of the Followers (tābiʿūn)—the last of them being Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who, in my estimation, surpasses them all—hold that if a man swears an oath of divorce not to do a certain thing and then does it forgetfully, the divorce nevertheless takes effect according to every one of them.”

Al-Athram related: “I debated a man who asked, ‘Who has ever given this ruling?’ I replied, ‘A man unmatched in East or West.’ He said, ‘Who is he?’ I answered, ‘Ahmad ibn Hanbal.’”

A number of Allah’s devoted servants praised Abū ʿAbdullāh and sought blessings through him. This was reported by Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī and by Shaykh al-Islām, though some of the isnāds for these reports are weak.

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmayrah narrated to us; Ibn Qudāmah narrated to us; Abū Ṭālib ibn Khudayr narrated to us; Abū Ṭālib al-Yūsufī narrated to us; Abū Isḥāq al-Barmakī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim narrated to us; Abū Zurʿah narrated to us. He was asked, “Do you prefer the chosen opinions of Ahmad and Isḥāq, or the view of al-Shāfiʿī?” He answered, “Rather, I prefer the verdict selected by Ahmad, then by Isḥāq. I do not know of anyone among our black-haired contemporaries more learned in jurisprudence than Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and I have never seen anyone whose knowledge is more comprehensive than his.”

Concerning his virtues, piety, and noble traits:

By this same chain, Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Ṣāliḥ ibn Ahmad narrated to us; he said:

“I once entered upon my father during the reign of al-Wāthiq—Allah knows best the state we were in—and he had gone out for the ʿAṣr prayer. He possessed a felt mat on which he would sit; many years had passed over it until it had become worn. Beneath it I found a sheet of paper (1) on which was written:

‘It has reached me, O Abū ʿAbdullāh, that you are in hardship and burdened by debt. I have therefore sent you four thousand dirhams through the hand of So-and-so. This is neither charity nor zakāt, but merely wealth I inherited from my father.’

I read the letter and set it down, …"