SACRIFICE OF THE 'ULAMAA
IN THE SEARCH OF KNOWLEDGE
IMAAM AHMAD IBN HANBAL [ra]
Imam Ahmad began his quest for the knowledge of hadith at the age
of 16. He set out for kufah in the year : 183 a.h. and to basrah in
186 a.h. and to Sufyaan bin 'uyaynah in makkah in :187 a.h. and he
went to Imam Abdur Razzaq in San'aa –together with Imam Yahya bin
Ma'een- in the year : 197 a.h. [pg. 53]
He is quite renown due to his celebrated work known as : "Musnad
Imam Ahmad".
Ibnul Jawzi {r.a.} states : " Imam Ahmad traveled the world twice
and thereafter he compiled his Musnad" [pg. 54]
Imaam Ahmad {r.a.} says: " I traveled in the search of knowledge
and hadith to : Shaam, Morocco, Aljazaair, Makkah, Madinah, Yemen, 'Iraaq,
Persia and Khurasaan and then returned to Baghdaad. And when I went
to Kufah, I was once at a stage when I only had a brick as my
pillow"! [ibid]
Yahya ibn Ma'een narrates a few outstanding incidents that
occurred in his journey with Imaam Ahmad to San'aa in Yemen for the
sake of benefiting from Imaam Abdur Razzaq.
He says : " When we set out for Imaam Abdur Razzaq to Yemen, we
first went for Haj. One day whilst I was in tawaaf, I spotted Imaam
Abdur Razzaq. So I greeted him and said to him : " Here is your
brother Imaam Ahmad ibn Hambal !" He replied : " May Allah keep him
alive and steadfast for verily I have heard every good about him".
Then I said to Imaam Ahmad : "Allah has shortened our distance,
granted us abundance of wealth and he has saved us from a month long
journey". Imaam Ahmad said : "In Baghdaad I had intended to hear {
hadith } from Abdur Razzaq in San'aa, by Allah I shall never change
my Intention".
Yahya says : "When we went to Sa'aa, Imaam Ahmad's wealth became
exhausted so Imaam Abdur Razzaq offered him a large sum of money but
he refused to accept it. Then he asked him to take it as a loan, but
he still refused. He also refused our wealth that we had offered
him. When we checked on him we found that he use to sell belts and
eat of it's profit".
Imaam ibnul Jawzi {r.a.} states in his book : Manaaqibul Imaam
Ahmad" that once Imaam Abdur Razzaq mentioned Imaam Ahmad and tears
came to his eyes. He then said : "He came to us and stayed for
approximately 2 years. I once came to know that his money finished
so I took him by his hand behind the door and when we were alone I
said to him : "Verily I do not accumulate a lot of wealth. When we
sell the crops the money gets used up in something or the other yet
I have found 10 dinaars by the women folk of the house, so take it
and I hope that before you spend it we would have acquired more. He
replied : " Oh Abdur Razzaq ! if I ever accepted anything from
people I would have accepted from you" [ pg. 235-236]
Ibnul Jawzi then narrated from Imaam Ishaaq ibn Raahuyah {1} He
said :" When Imaam Ahmad went to Abdur Razzaq and his expenditure
became exhausted, his compatriots offered to assist him he refused
and instead he had hired himself out as a porter until he reached
San'aa."
Ahmad bin Sinaan Al-Waasity says:" I have heard that Imaam Ahmad
on one occasion pawned his shoes by a baker in lieu of food that he
had taken from him"!!
Haafiz Ibn Katheer {r.a.} while discussing the hardships that
Imaam Ahmad undertook in his student days mentions : " And his
clothes were stolen while he was in Yemen so he stayed in his room.
When his companions became aware of this they offered him gold coins
but he refused. Infact he only took 1 Dinaar with the condition that
he will become their scribe! { he took it as a payment for his
effort}
{ The lesson to learn from this aspect of the life of such a
great Imaam is that he had remained independent from everyone
besides Allaah Ta'ala.
Let us also follow his footsteps in that if we are poverty
stricken we would rather earn our money through our own effort
instead of accepting handouts from people.
After all, in this way he became "Imaam ul Muslimeen" { the words
of Yahya ibn Ma'een in the previous story…}
From the works of Shaykh Abdul-Faffaah
Abu Ghuddah
Last modified:
July 19, 2007
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