of Peace. I asked him, “What has Allah done with you?”
He replied, “He forgave me, crowned me, and put upon my feet two sandals of gold. Then He said to me, ‘O Aḥmad, this is because of your statement: The Qur’an is My speech.’ He next said, ‘O Aḥmad, call upon Me with those supplications that reached you from Sufyān al-Thawrī, the ones you used to recite in the worldly life.’
“I said, ‘O Lord of everything, by Your power over everything, forgive me every thing, so that You will not question me about any thing.’
“He said, ‘O Aḥmad, here is Paradise—rise and enter it.’ I entered, and there was Sufyān al-Thawrī with two green wings, flying from one palm-tree to another while saying: ‘All praise is due to Allah, who has fulfilled for us His promise and has made us inherit the land, to settle in Paradise wherever we please. How excellent is the reward of those who labor.’ (Qur’an 39:74).
“I asked him, ‘What has become of Bishr al-Ḥāfī?’ He replied, ‘Splendid, splendid! Who can match Bishr? I left him before the Majestic One, with a table of food set in front of him, and the Majestic One inclining toward him, saying, “Eat, you who (1) never ate; drink, you who never drank; enjoy, you who never enjoyed,” or words to that effect (2).’
Abū Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥātim narrated from Muḥammad ibn Muslim ibn Wārah, who said: When Abū Zurʿah died I saw him in a dream. I asked, ‘What did Allah do with you?’ He replied, ‘The Compeller said, “Join him to Abū ʿAbd Allah, Abū ʿAbd Allah, and Abū ʿAbd Allah”—that is, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.’
ʿUthmān (3) ibn Khurrāzād al-Anṭākī said: I saw in a dream as though the Day of Resurrection had begun and the Lord had come forth to render judgment. A herald was calling from beneath the cushions of the Throne: ‘Admit Abū ʿAbd Allah, Abū ʿAbd Allah, Abū ʿAbd Allah, [and Abū ʿAbd Allah] (4) into Paradise.’ I asked Fulk, who was beside me, ‘Who are they?’ He answered, ‘Mālik, al-Thawrī, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.’
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah related from Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb al-Maqdisī, who said: I saw the Messenger of Allah in a dream, lying down with a cloak covering Him, while Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn were fanning Him.
It has already been mentioned (5) in the biography of Aḥmad ibn Abī Duwād, on the authority of Yaḥyā al-Jallāʾ, that he saw Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal seated in one circle of the congregational mosque and Aḥmad ibn Abī Duwād in another, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was standing between the two circles reciting: ‘Those are the ones to whom We gave the Book, judgement, and prophethood; but if these disbelieve in it…’ (Qur’an 6:89), and pointing toward the circle of Ibn