He remained silent for a moment and then said, “If he is not one of the people of hadith, I cannot say.”

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Adamī relates: al-Faḍl ibn Ziyād told us, “I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal say: ‘Whoever rejects a hadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stands on the brink of destruction.’ ”

Abū Muzāḥim al-Khāqānī reports: My uncle ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yaḥyā ibn Khāqān said to me, “Al-Mutawakkil ordered that Aḥmad be consulted about whom he would entrust with the judiciary. I asked my uncle to show me Aḥmad’s reply, and he sent me a copy of it:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate. This is a copy of the note that I presented to Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal after questioning him; he answered me, and I have written down his words.

I asked him about Aḥmad ibn Rabāḥ, and he said of him: ‘A known Jahmite; if he is given any post among the Muslims, it will harm them.’

I asked him about al-Khilanji (1), and he said the same.

I asked him about Shuʿayb ibn Sahl, and he said: ‘A Jahmite, well known for that.’

I asked him about ʿUbayd Allah ibn Aḥmad, and he said the same.

I asked him about the one known as Abū Shuʿayb, and he said the same.

I asked him about Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr, the judge of Ahwāz, and he said: ‘He was with Ibn Abī Dāwūd, cooperating in his jurisdiction and activities, though he was the best of them.’

I asked him about ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, and he said: ‘He was known for Jahmite leanings, but I have since heard that he recanted.’

I asked him about al-Faṭḥ ibn Sahl, and he said: ‘A Jahmite, one of al-Marīsī’s followers.’

I asked him about al-Thaljī, and he said: ‘An innovator, a man of whim.’

I asked him about Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAṭṭāb, and he said: ‘I do not know him, except that he was among the followers of Bishr al-Marīsī.’

In sum, people of innovation and capricious desire should not be employed in any of the Muslims’ affairs, together with what