He then withdrew, saying, “Whoever imitates a people is counted as one of them.”
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ al-Sawwāq recounted: “We were at a wedding banquet when Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal entered. As soon as he noticed a chair in the house inlaid with silver, he turned around and left. The host followed him, but Aḥmad waved his hand in front of him and exclaimed, ‘The way of the Magians! The way of the Magians!’”
In another narration, Ṣāliḥ reports: “If an invitation involved intoxicants, or anything reprehensible borrowed from the Magians—such as gold or silver vessels, or hanging cloth to cover the walls—Aḥmad would leave and eat nothing.”
Were we to gather everything on this topic transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ, along with the evidence in the Book of Allah, the discussion would become exceedingly lengthy.
(1) All copies read “Ibn Abi Salih,” but the correct form is “Ibn Abi Subh.” See Tabaqat al-Hanabila 1/234.
(2) ʿAli ibn Abi Subh al-Sawwaq is listed by Ibn Abi Yaʿla in Tabaqat al-Hanabila, where he writes: “He transmitted a number of reports from our Imam.” He appears in the first tier, 1/234, entry no. 326.
(3) Ibn Abi Yaʿla also cites the account in Tabaqat al-Hanabila 1/234, but in place of the phrase “ʿalayhi fidda” (it bore a silver ornament) he records “ʿalayhi sura” (it bore an image).
(4) This is Salih ibn Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu al-Fadl, the eldest of Ahmad’s children. He served as judge in Isfahan and Tarsus, was a trustworthy and devout scholar famed for his generosity, and died in Isfahan in 266 AH/879–80 CE after being born in 203 AH/818 CE. See Tabaqat al-Hanabila 1/173–176, no. 232.
(5) MS B reads: “at the walima, the invitation.”
(6) I.e. the Prophetic texts that forbid imitating unbelievers, non-Arabs, and the like.
(7) The printed edition adds the phrase: “bina al-qawl” (“thus our argument stands”).