were also driven from their homes and deprived of their property, besides the other harm inflicted on them. Their persecutors even killed some of them, beat others, denied others what they needed, and would place a boulder on one of them on the scorching ground of Mecca, among other forms of abuse.

Likewise, a believer from the community of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, chooses to suffer harm while obeying Allah rather than receive honour while disobeying Him. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, for example, chose shackles, imprisonment, and beating rather than agree with the ruler and his soldiers to speak falsely about Allah concerning His speech, or to say what he did not know. They would put forward statements which he knew contradicted the Quran and Sunnah and were therefore false, as well as statements whose meaning required clarification.

Imam Ahmad would say to them, “I do not know what this means.” Thus, he would neither agree to speak falsely about Allah nor to say about Allah what he did not know.