Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal summary: Learn about the life of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and his contributions to Islam.

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, (born 780, Baghdad, Iraq—died 855, Baghdad), Muslim theologian and jurist. He began to study the Ḥadīth (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 Muʿtazilī doctrine of a created (rather than eternal) Qurʾān, and he is remembered as a staunch upholder of Muslim traditionalism. He compiled the Traditions of Muhammad and is the eponym of the Ḥanbalī 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 Qurʾān and the sunna. He is revered as one of the fathers of Islam.