Ahmad ibn Hanbal: Biography from Answers.com Mobile

Ahmad ibn Hanbal

(born 780, Baghdad, Iraq — died 855, Baghdad) Muslim theologian and jurist. He began to study the Hadith (Traditions) at age 15. He traveled widely to study with the great masters and made five pilgrimages to Mecca. In 833 – 835 he bravely endured floggings and imprisonment rather than subscribe to the Mu'tazili doctrine of a created (rather than eternal) Qur'an, and he is remembered as a staunch upholder of Muslim traditionalism. He compiled the Traditions of Muhammad and is the eponym of the Hanbali school, the most traditional of the four orthodox Islamic schools of law. Opposing codification of the law, he believed jurists needed the freedom to derive legal solutions from the Qur'an and the sunna. He is revered as one of the fathers of Islam.

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