Ahmad Bin Hanbal and Politics (164-241A.H \ 780-850A.D)

Abstract

 The Islamic political thought had been subject to a campaign of distortion and falsification that any researcher who thinks of writing on the predecessors' thoughts and their opinions on politics and government may seem to be taking a road leading to a closed door. Hence, right and wrong were mixed and intermingled and wrong doing was at the climax of its strength while Right was at extreme dilemma.

 This paper is a study of Islamic political thought which deals with the opinions of the greatest thinker of the ancestors in politics, namely Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal. The paper begins with a biographical note shedding light on his early life, education and his Sheikhs and then it deals with the political nature of his age reviewing his opinions concerning Imamship, the shape of his relationship with the Imams and Caliphs of his days as well as his attitude towards opposition of political authority, his ideas on the Imamship the Prophet's Companions, their ranks and his attitude to takfir. The paper attempts to find answers whether Ibnu Hanbal was one of the advocates of opposition to political authority or takfir through examining his sayings and attitudes in this regard.