For this reason, many leaders of the various groups—jurists, hadith scholars, and Sufis—have continued to say, even though they follow one of the imams of the Muslims in subsidiary matters of Islamic law—may Allah be pleased with them all—“In the foundations of religion, or in matters of the Sunnah, we follow the school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.” They do not say this because Ahmad alone held a view that the other imams did not hold, nor to disparage the other imams as having opposed the Sunnah, but because he gave prominence to aspects of the Sunnah upon which