for him had he refrained.” This is evident from his hesitation over fighting, his dissatisfaction with it, and the remonstrance of his son al-Hasan, who said to him:

“Did I not advise you against it, Father?”

And from his own saying:

“What an admirable stance Sa‘d ibn Mālik and ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Umar took! If it was righteous, its reward is indeed great; and if it was sinful, the fault in it is indeed slight.”

This conflicts with the obligation to obey him. They used this argument to urge Imam Ahmad not to recognize him as the fourth caliph. When he publicly affirmed this recognition, some of them said to him:

“If you say that he was an imam whom it was obligatory to obey, this entails disparaging Talhah and al-Zubayr, since they did not obey him but fought him instead.”

Ahmad replied:

“I have nothing to do with their warfare.”

He meant: “I do not intervene in the dispute between ‘Alī and his brothers, for it involved independent judgment and interpretation, matters of which they had greater knowledge than I do. Nor is it among the scholarly questions that concern me, requiring me to ascertain the precise circumstances of each of them. I am commanded to seek forgiveness for them and to keep my heart free of ill will toward them. I am commanded to love them and maintain allegiance to them. Their early services to Islam and their virtues cannot be disregarded.

“Yet belief in his caliphate and leadership is established by the transmitted text, and whatever is established by the transmitted text must be followed, even if some eminent figures did not follow it. Likewise, the leadership and caliphate of ‘Uthmān remained established until the end of his life, whatever interpretive grounds some may have had for withholding obedience or support from him, or for opposing him, since this was the least grave of what occurred during ‘Alī’s caliphate.”

This is the point on which the independent judgments of earlier and later scholars differed. Some maintain that fighting alongside ‘Alī was obligatory, as did those who fought alongside him, and as many maintain