Ibn Badrān says in his book al-Madkhal⦗1⦘, while enumerating Aḥmad’s writings: “The Musnad numbers thirty thousand hadiths. He used to say to his son ʿAbd Allāh, ‘Safeguard this Musnad, for it will be an Imam for the people.’ ʿAbd Allāh related, ‘Our father read the Musnad to us, and no one besides us heard it from him. He told us, “This is a work I have compiled and selected from more than seven hundred thousand hadiths.”’” End of quote.
This testifies to the breadth of his expertise in hadith, his distinction in the field, and the strength of his critical judgment. Whoever, like him, learns knowledge from its original sources—the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger—studies under its custodians among the eminent scholars, and couples that with sincere intention and practice, is likely to be granted success in carrying beneficial knowledge and to become a leader in the religion, just as Imām Aḥmad and the other Imams of Islam, the custodians of the Sacred Law, were. May this serve as an incentive for today’s Muslim youth—who now enjoy abundant means of learning—to rise up and shoulder this knowledge, the source of their honor and dignity in this world and the next. We pray for that.
- His knowledge and character:
It is well known that knowledge is a means to action and a corrective for it; the sought-after goal is righteous deed, while knowledge is the instrument that leads to that goal. As the old adage puts it, “Knowledge without action is like a tree without fruit.” Allah the Exalted says, “Be mindful of Allah, and Allah will teach you; and Allah is Knowing of everything.”⦗2⦘