Biographical Notice of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—may Allah have mercy on him

He is Imām Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal ibn Hilāl ibn Asad, Abū ʿAbd Allāh: the foremost authority among the hadith scholars, a champion of the religion, a defender of the Sunnah, and the one who remained steadfast during the ordeal. His family came from Marw. While pregnant with him, his mother travelled to Baghdad, where she gave birth to him. He grew up there, sought knowledge, and listened to hadith from its shaykhs. He then travelled to Kūfa, Baṣra, Mecca, Medina, Yemen, Syria, and the Jazīrah, writing down what he heard from the scholars of his time.

His father, Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal, died at the age of thirty, so his mother undertook his upbringing.1

He was born in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 164 AH.

Abū Bakr al-Marwadhī said:

‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh told me, “When I was a young boy I used to attend the kuttāb (elementary Qurʾānic school), and later I would go to the dīwān (government office) when I was fourteen years old.2 I began the study of hadith when I was sixteen.3”’

As for his knowledge and leadership in the religion, Ibrāhīm al-Harbī said:

‘I saw Abū ʿAbd Allāh as though Allah had gathered for him…’