Imam Ahmad (may Allah have Mercy on him) and his Approach to the Musnad

Abstract

The subject of this research was the approach of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad,.  I studied what is related to the method of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad, which is his method in collecting hadiths, and his method in arranging the musnad and narrating the hadith from his sheikhs.

In the current research, I relied on the analytical and inductive method, which is an approach that relies on research and review of the scholars’ texts, writings, and opinions about it.

In collecting the texts, I was keen to rely on the original sources from among the sources and references related to the subject, from the books of hadiths and what is related to the approach of Imam Ahmad in his upbringing, his scientific journeys, and the classification of Musnad writing.

After completing writing this modest research, I reached the following points:

Imam Ahmad’s approach in his Musnad has arranged the hadiths in his Musnad according to the order of the Companions with several considerations, including priority such as the ten promised people of Paradise, precedence in Islam, relative nobility, and so on at the end of the chapter.

The  text contains several chaises of narration in various places in the narrations of the author of the chapter.

I mentioned the scholars’ praise of the Musnad because the Musnad collected many hadiths in it and were selected from among seven hundred hadiths. They mentioned that the Musnad was an alternative to the six books, and he memorized a thousand hadiths, as some scholars mentioned.

The number of companions who have chaise the transmission in the Musnad reached (904) companions. In the Musnad, some companions with different companionships have narrations about it.

The number of companions with different companionships in Al-Musnad reached (56) companions. Some of the Companions share the Musnad of Imam Ahmad with the six books.