knocked at the door, and my mother came out walking on her own two feet.

This incident was transmitted by two reliable narrators on the authority of ʿAbbās.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said: My father used to perform 300 cycles of prayer every day and night. After he fell ill from those lashes and his strength diminished, he still prayed 150 cycles each day and night.

Abū Ismāʿīl at-Tirmidhī reported: A man once brought 10,000 (silver coins) from the profit of his trade to Aḥmad, but he returned the money.

It is also said that a money-changer offered Aḥmad 500 dinars, yet he would not accept them.

Among his refined manners:

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said: I saw my father take a single hair from the Prophet’s hair—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—place it upon his lips and kiss it. I think I also saw him place it upon his eye, dip it into water, and then drink the water, seeking healing thereby.

I saw him take the Prophet’s bowl, wash it in a large vessel of water, then drink from it. I saw him drink from the water of Zamzam, seeking cure by it, and wipe his hands and face with it.

I say: Where is the hairsplitting critic who censures Aḥmad, when it is firmly established that ʿAbd Allāh asked his father about someone who touches the pomegranate-shaped knob of the Prophet’s pulpit or the Noble Chamber, and he replied, “I see no harm in that.”

May Allah protect us and you from the views of the Khārijites and from every innovation.

Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ad-Dārimī said: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal wrote to me, “To Abū Jaʿfar—may Allah honour him—from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān az-Zuhrī said: My father narrated to us: My uncle Aḥmad ibn Saʿd went to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and greeted him; when Aḥmad saw him, he rose to his feet and honoured him.