He was asked about the disbelievers:
“Will they be brought to account on the Day of Resurrection or not?”

He replied:

This “question” has been disputed by later scholars among Ahmad’s followers and others. Those who said that they will not be brought to account include Abū Bakr Abd al-Azīz, Abū al-Hasan al-Tamīmī, al-Qādī Abū Ya'lā, and others. Those who said that they will be brought to account include Abū Hafs al-Barmakī, one of Ahmad’s followers, Abū Sulaymān al-Dimashqī, and Abū Tālib al-Makkī.

The decisive distinction is that “reckoning” may mean having their deeds presented to them and being rebuked for them, or it may mean weighing good deeds against evil deeds. If reckoning is understood in the first sense, there is no doubt that they will be brought to account in this respect. If it is understood in the second sense, and what is intended is that the disbelievers retain good deeds by which they deserve Paradise, this is plainly mistaken. But if what is meant is that their punishments differ in severity, then the punishment of those whose evil deeds are more numerous is greater than