prison, would lead the other inmates in prayer even though the fetters never left his legs. When al-Muʿtaṣim ordered him brought out, he actually increased the weight of those irons. Ahmad recalled: “I could no longer walk with them, so I tied them to my belt and carried them in my hand. They then brought me a mount; when I was lifted onto it, I almost pitched forward onto my face from the weight of the chains, and no one was beside me to steady me. Yet Allah kept me safe until we reached al-Muʿtaṣim’s residence. I was put in a room whose door was shut upon me. There was no lamp, and when I wanted to perform ablution I stretched out my hand and found a vessel of water. I washed, then stood to pray, though I had no idea where the qiblah was. At dawn I discovered that I had been facing the qiblah—praise be to Allah. After that I was summoned and admitted to al-Muʿtaṣim.”

Ibn Kathīr—may Allah have mercy on him—relates the debate that ensued between Ahmad and his adversaries in the caliph’s presence over the question of the Qur’an’s createdness. He says: “They kept telling the Commander of the Faithful, ‘He is misguided, misguiding, an unbeliever.’ So he ordered that I be punished. I was made to stand between two posts and a chair was brought; I was placed upon it. One of them told me to grip one of the two cross-pieces with my hands, but I did not understand, and my shoulders were dislocated. Then the floggers arrived with their whips. One would strike me twice while al-Muʿtaṣim—meaning the caliph—shouted, ‘Harder! May Allah sever your hand!’ Then another came and struck me twice, and a third did the same. They lashed me repeatedly until I lost consciousness again and again; whenever the beating paused my senses returned. Al-Muʿtaṣim would come over and urge me to accept their doctrine, but I refused. They said, ‘Woe to you! The caliph stands above your head,’ yet I would not comply. They resumed the flogging; he returned, and still I did not answer. They beat me once more; he came a third time and called me, but by then I could not grasp his words because of the severity of the blows. They beat me yet again until I no longer felt anything. That alarmed him, so he ordered that I be released. I only regained awareness to find myself in a chamber, the shackles removed from my legs. The caliph then commanded that I be sent home. Altogether I was struck a little over thirty lashes—others say eighty.”