al-Azharī, who cites Abū ʿUmar Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās, who heard Jaʿfar ibn Abī ʿImrān report that he heard Ṣadaqah report that he heard Abū ʿAmr al-Makhzūmī report:
[Al-Makhzūmī:] I was in Mecca walking around the Kaʿbah with Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr when I heard a voice behind me say: “Today is the flogging of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”
Later I found out that he had been flogged that day.
In another telling:
Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr asked me, “Did you hear what I heard?”
I told him I had.
“Remember what day this is,” he said.
Later we found out that he had been flogged that day.
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أخبرنا أبو منصور القزاز قال: أخبرنا أبو بكر أحمد بن عليّ بن ثابت قال: أخبرنا الأزهري قال: أخبرنا عليّ بن محمّد بن لؤلؤ قال: حدثنا هيثم١ الدوري قال:
حدثنا محمّد بن سُويد الطحّان قال: كنا عند عاصم بن عليّ ومعنا أبو عُبيد القاسم بن سلاّم وإبراهيم بن أبي الليث، وذكر جماعة، وأحمد بن حنبل يُضرب ذلك اليوم، فجعل عاصم يقول: ألا رجل يقوم معي فنأتي هذا الرجل فنكلّمه؟
قال: فما يُجيبه أحد، فقال إبراهيم بن أبي الليث: يا أبا الحسين أنا أقومُ معك.
فصاحَ: يا غلام خُفّي!
فقالَ له إبراهيم: يا أبا الحسين أبلغ إلى بناتي فأوصيهنّ وأُجدّد بهنّ عهدًا.
قال: فظننّا أنه ذهب يتكفّن ويتحنّط.
ثم جاء فقال عاصم: يا غُلام خُفّي!
فقال: يا أبا الحسين إني ذهبت إلى بناتي فبكين.
قال: وجاء كتاب ابنتي عاصم من واسط: يا أبانا إنه بلغنا أنّ هذا الرجل أخذ أحمد بن حنبل فضربه بالسوط على أن يقول: القرآن مخلوق فاتَّقِ الله ولا تُجبه إن سألك فوالله لأنْ يأتينا نعيّك أحبّ إلينا من أن يأتينا أنّك قلت.
١ د: هشيم.
We cite Abū Manṣūr al-Qazzāz, who cites Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Thābit, who cites al-Azharī, who cites ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Luʾluʾ, who heard Haytham al-Dūrī report that he heard Muḥammad ibn Suwayd al-Ṭaḥḥān report:
[Al-Ṭaḥḥān:] On the day Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was flogged, I was with Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, Ibrahīm ibn Abī l-Layth, and several others at the home of ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī.
“Will anyone come with me and talk to that man?” asked ʿĀṣim.117 He repeated the question several times but no one answered, until finally Ibrāhīm said, “I’ll come.”
ʿĀṣim shouted to the servant boy to bring his boots. But then Ibrāhīm said, “Let me go and see my daughters first. I haven’t seen them in a while and I have some things to tell them.”
He left, and we suspected that he had gone to perfume himself and put on his shroud.
When he returned, ʿĀṣim again called for his boots.
“I went to see my daughters,” said Ibrāhīm, “and they wept.”
Then a letter came from ʿĀṣim’s two daughters in Wāsiṭ. It read, “Father, we’ve heard that that man has taken Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and flogged him to make him say that the Qurʾan is created. If he asks you to do the same thing, be fearful of God and refuse. By God, we’d rather hear that you’d died than that you gave in.”
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أخبرنا محمّد بن أبي منصور قال: أخبرنا عبد القادر بن محمّد قال: أخبرنا محمّد بن عليّ الخيّاط قال: أخبرنا أحمد بن عبد الله بن الخضر قال: حدثنا أبو جعفر أحمد بن يعقوب الأصفهاني قال: حدثنا عمر بن الحسن الشيباني قال:
أخبرني أبو شُعيب الحَرّاني قال: كنا مع أبي عُبيد القاسم بن سلاّم بباب المعتصم وأحمد بن حنبل يُضرب، قال: فجعل أبو عُبيد يقول: أيُضرب سيّدنا؟ لا صبرَ! أَيضرب سَيدنا؟ لا صبرَ!
قال أبو شُعيب: فقلت أنا:
| ضَرَبوا ابْنَ حَنْبَلَ بالسِّياطِ بظُلْمِهِمْ | بَغيًا فَثُبِّتَ بالثَّباتِ الأَنَوَرِ |
| قالَ المُوَفَّقُ حينَ مُدِّدَ بَيْنَهُم | مَدَّ الأَدِيمِ على الصَّعيد القَرْقَرِ |
| إِني أَموتُ ولا أَبوءُ بفَجْرَةٍ | تُصْلي بَوائقُها مَحَلَّ المُفْتَري |
We cite Muḥammad ibn Abī Manṣūr, who cites ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī l-Khayyāṭ, who cites Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Khaḍir, who heard Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Iṣfahānī report that he heard ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī cite Abū Shuʿayb al-Ḥarrānī, who reports:
[Al-Ḥarrānī:] While Aḥmad was being flogged, Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām and I were waiting at al-Muʿtaṣim’s gate. Abū ʿUbayd started saying, “Are we going to let them do this to the best of us? It’s unbearable!”
I said:
They had no right to flog him so
But let them strike, for firm he stood,
And even as they stretched him flat
As highland earth, he said, inspired:
“I may die, but you, not I, will burn
With the liars in the pits of Hell!”
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