Imam Ahmad’s companions and the author of some four hundred works (1); Abū Muhammad ibn Hazm al-Andalusī; and Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī.
The Quran and Sunnah attest to this, as has been explained at length in al-Ihāta (2) and elsewhere.
Likewise, the early and later generations knew that Allah Most High creates rain from air and rising vapor. Yet His creation of rain from these is like His creation of the human being from a sperm-drop and His creation of trees and crops from seeds and kernels. This is merely knowledge (3) of the material from which a thing was created. All rational people agree that the material itself does not necessitate what is created from it. Rather, there must necessarily be One by whom that form is created (4) in that particular manner. This is the evidence for the all-powerful, freely choosing, wise Creator, who creates rain in a determined measure when it is needed and, as for barren land (5), drives water to it (6) from wherever rain has fallen, as He says:
(1) Abū al-Husayn Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn Muhammad ibn al-Munādī was born in 256 AH and died in 336 AH. A Baghdadi scholar of Quranic exegesis and hadith, he was one of the leading Hanbali jurists. See his biography in *Tabaqāt al-Hanābila*, 2:3–6; *al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya*, 11:219; Abd al-Rahmān ibn Muhammad al-Ulaymī, *al-Manhaj al-Ahmad fī Tarājim Ashāb al-Imām Ahmad*, 2:37–39 (al-Madanī ed., edited by Shaykh Muhammad Muhyī al-Dīn Abd al-Hamīd, 1383 AH/1963 CE); *Manāqib al-Imām Ahmad*, ed. Dr. Abd Allah al-Turkī, p. 617; *Tārīkh Baghdād*, 4:69–70; and *al-A‘lām*, 1:103.
(2) In *al-Uqūd al-Durriyya*, p. 51, Ibn Abd al-Hādī lists *al-Ihāta al-Kubrā* among Ibn Taymiyyah’s works, and on p. 52 he lists *al-Ihāta al-Sughrā*.
(3) (H), (R), (B), and (Y) read: “knowledge of it.”
(4) (H) reads: “Rather, there must necessarily be material; He creates those forms.” (R) reads: “Rather, there must necessarily be material that creates that form; rather, there must necessarily be water by which that form is created.” (M) reads: “Rather, its water is indispensable; He creates that form.”
(5) *Lisān al-Arab* states: “Land described as *majrūza*, *juruz*, *jurz*, or *jarz* produces no vegetation, as though it devours plants. It is also said to be land whose vegetation has been consumed, or land that has received no rain.”
(6) (H) and (B) read the feminine form: “to it.”