the knowledge of the earlier and later generations, across every discipline.¹’

Al-Shāfiʿī said: ‘Aḥmad is an imam in eight respects: an imam in hadith, an imam in jurisprudence, an imam in language, an imam in the Quran, an imam in faqr (contented poverty), an imam in asceticism, an imam in scrupulous piety, and an imam in the Sunnah.²’

Ṣāliḥ and ʿAbd Allāh, the two sons of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, said: ‘Our father wrote out with his own hand one million hadith reports.’

Abū Zurʿah said to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad: ‘Your father has memorised one million hadith reports.³’

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd al-Khuraybī said: ‘Al-Awzāʿī was the most virtuous man of his time, and after him Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī was the most virtuous man of his time.’

Naṣr ibn ʿAlī said: ‘And I maintain that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was the most virtuous man of his time…’

Qutaybah said: ‘Were it not for al-Thawrī, scrupulous piety would have died; and were it not for Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal they would have introduced innovations into the religion.’

I said—clarifying the chain—‘The speaker was Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Shabwayh.’ I then asked him, ‘Do you count Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal among the Tabiʿīn?’ He replied, ‘Among the senior Tabiʿīn…’

Qutaybah also said: ‘Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh are both imams…’