Читать книгу The Life of Ibn Ḥanbal - Ibn al-Jawzi - Страница 14
ОглавлениеIN THE NAME OF GOD, FULL OF COMPASSION, EVER COMPASSIONATE 0.1
The Virtues of Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal, of the tribe of Shaybān—God be pleased with him!—by the great religious authority Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Jawzī, God be pleased with him!
IN THE NAME OF GOD, FULL OF COMPASSION, EVER COMPASSIONATE 0.2
Praise God, Who did all things create with skill unmatch’d and chose of men who would come first and who behind. From humankind He raised His prophets and His seers, and of them both did make the righteous scholars heirs. Then of those knowing men did He a lesser number find, and to those few with gen’rous hand a special virtue give. May God bless and keep Muḥammad, of those who alight in desert lands the noblest rider of his race; and bless and save the ones who in joining him touched greatness, and those who followed him in faith, until the Day when He shall set this tott’ring world aright.
I pray, my brothers, that God crown your efforts with success; and I ask you to recall that He, mighty and glorious, made Muḥammad—God bless him and keep him—the most virtuous being in creation, and likewise placed his community above the rest. The reason for this precedence was knowledge: knowing, and acting on what one knows. Examine the life of our Prophet and you will realize that his superiority to other prophets arises from what he knew and how he put that knowledge into practice. Consider, likewise, the sciences of our learned men, and you will readily see how they elude the powers of the rabbis. Note, too, how the devotions of our worshippers put even monks to shame, for devotion restrained by the Law and undertaken against the grain of one’s desires is more arduous—and worthier—than monasticism, which merits no regard. By the grace of God, our community suffers no dearth of knowledge or of action. Even so, when I set out to find people of the Successors’ generation or later who had reached perfection in both respects—in what they knew and how they lived—I found only three whose achievement is perfect and uncompromised: al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Sufyān ibn Saʿīd al-Thawrī, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 0.3
After compiling one volume on the merits of al-Ḥasan and another on Sufyān, I realized that Aḥmad deserves more attention than either. He gathered more knowledge than they did and suffered more for telling the truth. Several authors, admittedly, have already collected reports of his attainments. Some, however, collected too little material, while others made no effort to organize what they had amassed. I therefore resolved to devote some time to making a proper collection of reports about his manners and merits, so that those who emulate him may know the man whose example they have set out to follow.1 May God grant success! 0.4
CONTENTS
I have divided this book into one hundred chapters, as follows—and may God help me choose aright! 0.5
Chapter 1. Ibn Ḥanbal’s Birth and Family Background
Chapter 4. The Beginning of His Search for Knowledge and the Journey He Undertook for That Purpose
Chapter 5. The Major Men of Learning Whom He Met and on Whose Authority He Recited Hadith
Chapter 6. His Deference to His Teachers and His Respect for Learning
Chapter 7. His Eagerness to Learn and His Single-minded Pursuit of Knowledge
Chapter 8. His Powers of Retention and the Number of Reports He Knew by Heart
Chapter 9. His Learning, His Intelligence, and His Religious Understanding
Chapter 10. Praise of Him by His Teachers
Chapter 11. Teachers and Senior Men of Learning Who Cite Him
Chapter 12. All the Men of Learning Who Cite Him
Chapter 13. Praise of Him by His Peers, His Contemporaries, and Those Close to Him in Age
Chapter 14. Praise of Him by Prominent Successors Who Knew Him Well
Chapter 15. A Report That the Prophet Elijah Sent Him Greetings
Chapter 16. Reports That al-Khaḍir Spoke in His Praise
Chapter 17. Praise of Him by Pious Strangers and Allies of God
Chapter 18. Allies of God Who Visited Him to Seek His Blessing
Chapter 21. His Insistence on Maintaining the Practices of the Early Muslims
Chapter 22. His Reverence for Hadith Transmitters and Adherents of the Sunnah
Chapter 23. His Shunning and Reviling of Innovators and His Forbidding Others to Listen to Them
Chapter 25. His Age When He Began Teaching Hadith and Giving Legal Opinions
Chapter 26. His Devotion to Learning and the Attitudes That Informed His Teaching
Chapter 29. His Forbidding Others to Write Down or Transmit His Words
Chapter 31. His Statements about Renunciation and Spiritual Weakness
Chapter 32. His Remarks on Different Subjects
Chapter 33. Poems He Recited or Had Attributed to Him
Chapter 34. His Correspondence
Chapter 35. His Appearance and Bearing
Chapter 36. His Imposing Presence
Chapter 37. His Cleanliness and Ritual Purity
Chapter 38. His Kindness and His Consideration for Others
Chapter 39. His Forbearance and His Readiness to Forgive
Chapter 40. His Property and Means of Subsistence
Chapter 41. His Refusal to Accept Help Even in Distress
Chapter 43. His Accepting Gifts and Giving Gifts in Return
Chapter 45. His House and Furniture
Chapter 50. His Shunning Appointment to Positions of Authority
Chapter 51. His Love of Poverty and His Affection for the Poor
Chapter 53. His Accepting Invitations and His Withdrawal upon Seeing Things He Disapproved of
Chapter 54. His Preference for Solitude
Chapter 55. His Wish to Live in Obscurity and His Efforts to Remain Unnoticed
Chapter 57. His Preoccupation and Absentmindedness
Chapter 59. His Performances of the Pilgrimage
Chapter 60. His Extemporaneous Prayers and Supplications
Chapter 61. His Manifestations of Grace and the Effectiveness of His Prayers
Chapter 62. The Number of Wives He Had
Chapter 64. The Number of His Children
Chapter 65. The Lives of His Children and Descendants
Chapter 66. How and Why the Inquisition Began
Chapter 67. His Experience with al-Maʾmūn
Chapter 68. What Happened After the Death of al-Maʾmūn
Chapter 69. His Experience with al-Muʿtaṣim
Chapter 70. His Reception by the Elders After His Release, and Their Prayers for Him
Chapter 71. His Teaching of Hadith After the Death of al-Muʿtaṣim
Chapter 72. His Experience with al-Wāthiq
Chapter 73. His Experience with al-Mutawakkil
Chapter 74. His Refusing Ibn Ṭāhir’s Request to Visit Him
Chapter 75. What Happened When His Two Sons and His Uncle Accepted Gifts from the Authorities
Chapter 76. Some Major Figures Who Capitulated to the Inquisition
Chapter 77. His Comments on Those Who Capitulated
Chapter 78. Those Who Defied the Inquisition
Chapter 80. His Date of Death and His Age When He Died
Chapter 81. How His Body Was Washed and Shrouded
Chapter 82. Those Who Sought to Pray over Him
Chapter 83. The Number of People Who Prayed over Him
Chapter 85. The Crowds That Gathered around His Grave
Chapter 87. Reactions to His Death
Chapter 88. Reaction to His Death on the Part of the Jinns
Chapter 89. On the Condolences Offered to His Family
Chapter 92. Dreams in Which He Appeared to Others
Chapter 93. Dreams in Which He Was Mentioned
Chapter 94. The Benefit of Visiting His Grave
Chapter 95. The Benefit of Being Buried Near Him
Chapter 96. The Punishments That Befall Anyone Who Attacks Him
Chapter 97. What to Think about Anyone Who Speaks Ill of Him
Chapter 98. Why We Chose His Legal School over the Others
Chapter 99. On the Excellence of His Associates and Successors
Chapter 100. His Most Prominent Associates and Their Successors from His Time to Our Own
