Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, may Allah have mercy on him (d. 241 AH)

Answer

He was the universally acknowledged imam of his time and a muḥaddith of the greatest eminence. ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī used to say that Allah Most High granted honor to the religion through two men: the first, at the time of the fitnah of apostasy (irtidād), was Ḥaḍrat Abū Bakr aṣ-Ṣiddīq; and the second, at the time of the fitnah of the createdness of the Qurʾān (khalq al-Qurʾān)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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