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Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī said: Aḥmad was asked about a Muslim who says to a Christian, “May Allah honour you.” He replied, “Yes—provided he means by it, ‘May Allah guide you to Islam.’ ”

It is also related that Aḥmad was asked about a man who vowed to perform tawāf on all fours. He answered, “He should perform two proper tawāfs and must not go round on all fours.”

Ibn ʿAqīl said: One of the strangest things I have heard from these ignorant youngsters is their claim, “Aḥmad is not a jurist; he is only a ḥadīth scholar.” He commented, “This is sheer ignorance, for he laid down legal opinions based on ḥadīths with a method that most of them do not understand, and he even surpassed many of their senior scholars.”

I say: They must imagine that he was merely a transmitter of ḥadīth(1); indeed they liken him to the ḥadīth teachers of our own day. By Allah, in jurisprudence he attained the rank of al-Layth, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Abū Yūsuf; in asceticism and scrupulousness the rank of al-Fuḍayl and Ibrāhīm ibn Adham; and in memorisation the rank of Shuʿbah, Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, and Ibn al-Madīnī. The ignorant man does not even know his own station—so how can he recognise the station of anyone else?

A fabricated tale
Ibn al-Jawzī felt no shame in citing it. He said:
“Ibn Nāṣir informed us; Ibn al-Ṭuyūrī informed us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn informed us; the qāḍī Hammām ibn Muḥammad al-Uballī informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn al-Khaṭīb narrated to us; al-Ḥusayn ibn Bakr al-Warrāq told us; Abū al-Ṭayyib Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar informed us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad narrated to us, saying:

‘When my father was released from the ordeal (miḥna), he feared that Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh might come to see him, so he travelled to meet him instead. When he reached Rayy, he entered a mosque, and suddenly heavy rain began…’