The Hanbali Madh’hab
The Founder: Ahmed ibn Hanbal (778-855CE)
Among the greatest students of Imam Ash-Shafi'i was none other than Ahmed ibn Hanbal. He was born and bred in Baghdad and became one of the greatest scholars of his time. He studied Hadith and Fiqh under the likes of Abu Yusuf (The student of Abu Hanifa).
He was particularly noted for the stance that he took against the Mu’tazilite thought, which had been adopted by the Caliphate during the time of his prominence, and they sought to promote and force their ideas on the Ummah as a whole. One of the key issues which was being promoted was their view that the Qur’an was created, whereas the view held by the earlier generations is that the Qur'an, being the word of Allah is uncreated, as Allah Himself is uncreated.
Scholars were being called to hold the Mus'haf and swear that it was created. There were some scholars who would swear with the intention of referring to their hands, not the Mus'haf.
But due to the prominence he had reached in the eyes of the masses, it was unacceptable for Ahmed ibn Hanbal to do that. He had to take a stance and speak out openly, which was exactly what he did. Due to this he was jailed and tortured. He was then freed and he began to teach again. After this period of ease, he was persecuted again and went into hiding for 5 years. Finally, when Caliph Al-Mutawakkil took over, who was not known to be particularly religious, he accepted the teachings of Ahmed ibn Hanbal and rejected the Mu'tazalite philosophy and overturned their dominance. Ahmed ibn Hanbal continued to teach until he died in Baghdad in 855CE.
Formation of the Hanbali madh’hab:
This Madh'hab was formed around Hadith. Ahmed ibn Hanbal was primarily a Hadith scholar. He wrote “AlMusnad” which contains over 30,000 Hadiths. He would narrate his Musnad, teaching Hadith primarily, and then would go into the Fiqh of Hadiths. He did not limit himself to the compilation of Hadith because he studied under the leading scholars of his time.
His Musnad wasn't organized into chapters of Fiqh, as the books of Bukhari, Muslim, and other collections of hadith were. Bukhari and Muslim were both students of Ahmed ibn Hanbal and they reorganized the collections of Hadith. Ahmed ibn Hanbal, being a Hadith scholar first and foremost, compiled the Hadiths alphabetically according to the names of the Sahabah, as his primary concern was the narrators of the Hadith.
In his interpretations, he would draw Hadiths from various other sources and fill out his explanations. He would also mention the opinions of the Sahabah. He gave prominence to it, and forbade his students from recording his rulings. He felt that the rulings he gave were dependant on their situation, and there could be other possible rulings given in other situations based on needs which might be similar. He didn’t want his opinions to be recorded for fear that people would become rigid regarding it. He recognized that his opinions were not like those of the Sahabah and didn’t want people to look at it in that like.
Neither he or his main students recorded his Madh'hab. It was his students students who did.
The main difference between the approaches of Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal and Imam Malik (who was also a Hadith scholar):
Imam Malik did not forbid his students from recording his opinions, and he recorded the opinions of the scholars around him. One of the main differences between the two, in terms of their own compilations, is that Imam Malik did his compilations mainly from Madinah and didn’t travel whereas Ahmed ibn Hanbal travelled far and wide collecting Hadith.
What you tended to find in Ahmed ibn Hanbals compilation, because it was vast, is that he used to give more than one evidence and opinion on many topics. He has two opinions in virtually every topic, because he didn’t restrict himself to one. He stayed away from any rigid approach to Fiqh in general.
Sources of Law:
1) Qur’an
2) Sunnah
3) Ijmaa of the Sahabah
He recognized the Ijmaa of the Sahabah but rejected it after the time of the companions, due to the fact that the scholars had scattered when the Umayyad rulers had deviated from the Prophetic norm in the subsequent generation.
4) Individual opinions of the Sahabah
Abu Hanifa, Malik, and Ash-Shafi’i used to pick among the opinions of the companions the ones they considered the most accurate where the companions differed. In the case of Ahmed ibn Hanbal, his mode was to mention all of the opinions as possible options. There's this flexibility he left behind as a legacy.
5) Weak Hadiths
Where he couldn’t find the aforementioned, he would refer to weak Hadiths, giving it precedence over his own opinion.
We come across people who quote his position to justify using weak Hadiths. Its important to note that Imam Ahmed took this position with a key conditions: The reasons behind the weakness of the hadith could not be due to the fact that the narrator was a liar or degenerate; a person who would then be classified as a fabricator.
Even if the text is Saheeh, that particular hadith would never be elevated to the level of authenticity, due to the narrator.
E.g. (Saheeh Lighairihi – A hadith Hasan which has been elevated to Saheeh because of other narrations which are authentic). (Hasan Lighairihi -> A hadith which is da’eef which has been elevated to this due to supporting narrations)
The reason why that Hadith would not be elevated is because once you have elevated that Hadith, you've elevated the status of the liar. You’ve opened the door for clearly fabricated hadiths.
Ahmed ibn Hanbal would accept narrations which were weak due to weak memories, etc. but not due to a break in the chain because that break could have been a result of a fabricator.
6) Qiyas.
He used it in a limited sense, based on whatever evidence he had before.
The Students of this Mad'hab:
His main students were his two sons Saleh and Abdullah, but of his students were Bukhari and Muslim.The Followers of his Mahd’hab:
They can be found in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq to some degree, and Syria. By the 19th century this Madh'hab began disappearing.Muhammed ibn AbdalWahhab studied the works of Ibn Taymiyah who grew up in the Hanbali Madh'hab, so when he returned to Saudi Arabia and started calling people to the Islam of the first generations, the Fiqh he taught was that of the Hanbali Madh'hab. Later on when Abdulaziz ibn Saud captured the Arabian Peninsula and set up the Saudi Dynasty, the Hanbali Madh'hab became the foundation for the legal system of Saudi Arabia. However they maintained its flexibility, since there's a lot of leeway in choosing appropriate rulings for appropriate circumstances.
Because of this so called Wahhabi movement, Hanbali came to mean super strict in Arab countries. In reality this is the complete opposite of what the Hanbali Madh'hab is.
Q. Why was the approach of Muhammed ibn Abdal-Wahhab not called a Madh’hab, whereas the reasoning of these earlier scholars were?
A. Some people do actually consider the people of Saudi Arabia to follow what they call the "Wahhabi Madh'hab"
The fact of the matter is that he followed and taught the Hanbali Madh’hab, although he didn't restrict himself to it, and that is why it is the official Madh'hab of Saudi Arabia today.
They were labelled Wahhabis because of their revival of the approach of the Salaf in matters of Aqeedah.
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