One of the courtiers said to al-Mutawakkil, the Caliph: “Commander of the Faithful, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal will neither eat your food, nor drink your beverages, nor sit upon your couches; indeed, he declares what you drink to be unlawful.”
Al-Mutawakkil replied, “By Allah, even if al-Muʿtaṣim were resurrected and spoke to me about Aḥmad, I would not heed him.”
From that time the Caliph’s envoys came to the Imām every single day, enquiring about his condition. Al-Mutawakkil also sought his legal opinion regarding the confiscated assets of Ibn Abī Duʾād, but Aḥmad gave no reply. Ibn Abī Duʾād was then brought down from Sāmarrāʾ to Baghdad after he had been made to attest to the sale of his estates, and all of his wealth was seized.
ʿAbd Allah said, “When my father returned from Sāmarrāʾ to Baghdad, his eyes had sunk deep into their sockets, and his strength did not return for six months. He refused ⦗1⦘ to stay in the house of any relative or to benefit from anything they possessed, because they had accepted money from the authorities ⦗2⦘.”
Aḥmad’s journey to al-Mutawakkil took place in 237 AH, and from then until the year of his death scarcely a day passed without a letter from the Caliph consulting him and seeking his counsel.
When al-Mutawakkil entered Baghdad, he sent Ibn Khāqān to Aḥmad with one thousand dinars to distribute as he deemed fit. Aḥmad refused to accept them, saying, “The Commander of the Faithful has already spared me what I dislike,” and he returned the money.
A man sent a note to al-Mutawakkil stating, “Commander of the Faithful, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal insults your forefathers and accuses them of heresy.”
Al-Mutawakkil wrote on the note: “As for al-Maʾmūn, he was confused and brought people’s hostility upon himself; as for my father al-Muʿtaṣim, he was a man of war and had no understanding of speculative theology; as for my brother al-Wāthiq, he deserved what has been said about him.” He then ordered that the man who had delivered ⦗3⦘ the note be given two hundred lashes. ʿAbd Allah ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm administered five hundred lashes instead.
The Caliph asked him, “Why did you strike him five hundred times?”
He replied, “Two hundred for obeying you, two hundred for obeying Allah and His Messenger, and one hundred because he slandered this shaykh, the righteous man Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”
The Caliph had also written to Imām Aḥmad seeking guidance—without obstinacy or intent to test him—on the correct doctrine concerning the Quran. Aḥmad, rahimahu Allah (may Allah have mercy on him), sent a fine reply filled with reports from the Companions and others, together with authenticated Prophetic narrations. His son Ṣāliḥ included the entire letter in his account of the ordeal, and more than one ḥadīth master has transmitted it.