Al-Khaṭīb (1) relates, on the authority of Yaḥyā al-Jallāʾ—or Aḥmad ibn al-Muwaffaq—that he said: “A man from the Wāqifiyya (2) debated me about the claim that the Qur’an is created, and I suffered from him what I detested. When evening came, I went home to my wife; she set supper before me, but I was unable to eat a single bite. I lay down and slept, and I saw the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—in the congregational mosque. There was a study-circle in which Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and his companions were sitting, [and another circle in which were Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād and his companions] (3).
The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—then recited the verse, ‘If these people disbelieve in it…,’ while pointing to the circle of Ibn Abī Duʿād; ‘…We have entrusted it to a people who do not disbelieve in it’ [Al-Anʿām: 89], while pointing to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and his companions—may Allah be pleased with them.
Some reported: I saw in a dream [on the night Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād died] (4) as though someone were saying, ‘Tonight Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād has perished.’ I asked, ‘What caused his destruction?’ He replied, ‘He angered Allah, so the One above the seven heavens became angry with him.’
Another said: That same night I saw the Fire give a mighty sigh and flames burst forth from it. I asked, ‘What is this?’ and it was said, ‘This has been prepared for Ibn Abī Duʿād.’
He died on a Saturday, with seven (5) days remaining of Muḥarram that year. His son al-ʿAbbās led the funeral prayer over him, and he was buried in his house in Baghdad at the age of eighty. Four years before his death he had been struck with paralysis and remained bedridden, unable to move any part of his body (6).
Someone once visited him and said, ‘By Allah, I have not come to visit you as a patient; I have come only to praise Allah—Exalted is He—for imprisoning you within your own body’ (7).
The previous year his property—an enormous sum—had been confiscated (8), as explained earlier (9).
Ibn Khallikān said (10): He was born in the year 160 AH.