Ahmad ibn Hanbal (Arabic: أحمد بن حنبل) (780, Baghdad – 31 July 855, Baghdad) was the muhaddith (hadith scholar) and faqih (jurist), the Islamic scholar who founded the Hanbali school. He was a student of Imam al-Shafi'i. His hadith book titled al-Musnad contains thirty thousand hadiths. As the borders of the Islamic state expanded and questions on matters of fiqh multiplied and differences of opinion increased, he opposed the Mu'tazilites, who on certain points advocated the use of reason alongside the Quran. He opposed the idea that the Quran is created (Mihna), which the Abbasid caliphs al-Ma'mun, al-Mu'tasim, and al-Wathiq accepted and tried to impose by force, and was sentenced to prison for several years. On matters of belief he has a work titled al-Radd 'ala al-Zanadiqa wa'l-Jahmiyya, meaning in Turkish "an anti-thesis against the partisans of heresy and of the Jahmiyya." The point of origin of an Islamic movement, Salafism, is traced back to Hanbalism.
Sources
- Turkish Wikipedia: tr.wikipedia.org
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam: islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
- English Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org