Description
Book SynopsisIn this pioneering biography, Christopher Melchert examines the forefather of the fourth of the four principal Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the Hanbali. Upholding the view that the Qur’an was uncreated and the direct word of God, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855) thought that the holy text should be read literally, rejecting any possibility for metaphorical or revisionist interpretation. Showing that even in his own lifetime, ibn Hanbal’s followers were revising his doctrines in favour of a more commodious Islam, Melchert assesses the importance of ibn Hanbal’s teachings and analyses their relevance in modern Sunni Islam.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
CHAPTER 1: LIFE
Religious knowledge
Family man
Ahmad’s character
The Inquisition
The end
CHAPTER 2: HADITH
The character of hadith
The age for collecting hadith
Writing down hadith
Ahmad’s quest for hadith
The Musnad
Hadith criticism
CHAPTER 3: LAW
The spectrum of opinion in the ninth century
Hanbali literature
Ahmad’s jurisprudence
The Hanbali school of law
CHAPTER 4: CORRECT BELIEF
Who is in, who is out?
What Ahmad believed
Rejected theological parties
Politics
Ahmad the fundamentalist?
Sunni theology after Ahmad
CHAPTER 5: PIETY
Ahmad and the renunciant tradition
An ideal within the range of most men
Ahmad’s practice
CONCLUSION
Bibliography
Suggestions for further reading
