If this (1) Imāmī says, “Then I accept that,” he is told:

“You have contradicted yourself, for in your terminology you excluded the Ash'aris and Karrāmis from the Mushabbiha. You use terms whose meanings (2) and contexts of usage you do not understand. Rather, a conception merely arises in your mind, and you build [upon it] (3).

“It seems—and Allah knows best—that by ‘the Hashwiyya who liken Allah to creation’ (4) you meant the Hanbalis and their like in Baghdad and Iraq, or the Hanbalis alone, to the exclusion of everyone else. This stems from your ignorance. The Hanbalis hold no doctrine unique to them and not shared by the other [groups] (5) of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā'ah. Everything they say has also been said by other groups of Ahl al-Sunnah; indeed, other groups affirm even more than they do.

“The doctrine (6) of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā'ah is an ancient doctrine that was [well known] (7) before Allah created Abū Hanīfa, Mālik, al-Shāfi'ī, and Ahmad. It is the doctrine of the Companions, who received it from their Prophet. Anyone who opposes it is regarded as a religious innovator by Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā'ah. They agree that the consensus of the Companions constitutes authoritative proof, while they differ over the consensus of those who came after them.”

[Ahmad ibn Hanbal and the Inquisition over the Createdness of the Quran]

Although Ahmad ibn Hanbal became renowned as an imam of the Sunnah (8) and for his steadfastness during the