Isḥāq then asked him, “What did you mean by saying that He is All-Hearing and All-Seeing?”
He replied, “I meant by it what Allah Himself meant; He is exactly as He has described Himself, and I will add nothing beyond that.”
Isḥāq wrote down the scholars’ answers and dispatched them to al-Maʾmūn. Among those present were some who affirmed that the Qurʾān is created merely to ingratiate themselves, doing so under compulsion (1).
Soon after, a letter (2) from al-Maʾmūn reached his deputy, instructing him to examine them yet again: whoever agreed was to have his compliance announced publicly, while anyone who refused was to be sent to him in chains and kept under guard.
Accordingly, Isḥāq summoned them and informed them of the caliph’s command. All of them yielded except four: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Sijādah (3), al-Qawārīrī (4), and Muḥammad ibn Nūḥ (5). Isḥāq therefore ordered that they be shackled in irons.
(1) See: Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya (The Beginning and the End), vol. 10, pp. 309–310. It states that the reason some of those present feigned agreement was that they used to remove anyone who failed to fulfill his duties—even cutting off his stipend from the bayt al-mal (public treasury); if he was a mufti, they barred him from issuing fatwas; if he was a hadith master, they prevented him from teaching and listening.
(2) Ibn Jarir (al-Tabari) records it in detail in his History, 8:640–644, including praise for his deputy’s actions and a refutation of each individual who did not explicitly affirm “the Quran is created,” naming them, censuring them, and imposing the measures mentioned there.
(3) Abu al-Hasan ibn Hammad al-Hadrami al-Baghdadi, known as al-Sajada, was a trustworthy hadith scholar of the Sunnah who maintained a circle of students. He died in 241 AH. See al-Ibar fi Khabar man Ghabar (Lessons in Tales of Past Generations) by al-Dhahabi, 1:342; and Shadharāt al-Dhahab (Glimmers of Gold) by Ibn al-Imad, 2:99.
(4) Abu Saʿid Ubayd Allah ibn ʿUmar ibn Maysara al-Jushami al-Qawariri was a reliable and truthful narrator from whom al-Bukhari, Muslim, and others transmitted. He died in 235 AH. See Tarikh Baghdad (History of Baghdad) by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, 10:320–323; and Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubala (Lives of Noble Figures) by al-Dhahabi, 11:442–446.
(5) Muhammad ibn Nuh ibn Maymun ibn ʿAbd al-Hamid al-Ajli—whose father was known as al-Madhrub—was among the renowned scholars of the Sunnah. He died in 218 AH, and Imam Ahmad led his funeral prayer. Imam Ahmad—may God have mercy on him—said of him, as reported by Hanbal ibn Ishaq: “I have not seen anyone, given his youth and limited learning, more upright in the service of God than Muhammad ibn Nuh, and I earnestly hope …”