The Hanbali school

المذهب الحنبلي

Ahmad ibn Hanbal · d. 241 AH

Ahmad’s fiqh is in his masail — answers his sons and students wrote from him — and in the Musnad he gathered. He disliked a mukhtasar in his own name. The school was given its mutun by al-Khiraqi, then Ibn Qudamah, then the later Hijazi and Najdi books the muftis still open.

A path through the books

Zad al-Mustaqni with al-Rawd al-Murbi → Dalil al-Talib → al-Muqni / al-Kafi → al-Mughni when you need the dalil of the early school.

مسائل الإمام أحمد
Masail of Imam Ahmad
His sons and students (Salih, Abd Allah, Abu Dawud, and others)
The imam’s own furu, as heard. Not one book — a file of answers.
مختصر الخرقي
Mukhtasar al-Khiraqi
al-Khiraqi (d. 334 AH)
The first great Hanbali matn. Ibn Qudamah’s Mughni is a sharh of it.
العمدة
al-Umdah
Ibn Qudamah (d. 620 AH)
A short matn for the beginner of the school.
المقنع
al-Muqni
Ibn Qudamah
The middle matn. Later books (Iqna, Muntaha) grow from it.
الكافي
al-Kafi
Ibn Qudamah
A complete school-text with some dalil.
المغني
al-Mughni
Ibn Qudamah
The great comparative sharh of al-Khiraqi. Hanbali, and a library of the four.
زاد المستقنع
Zad al-Mustaqni
al-Hajjawi (d. 968 AH)
Abridged from al-Muqni. The beginner’s matn in Najd and beyond.
الروض المربع
al-Rawd al-Murbi
al-Buhuti (d. 1051 AH)
The famous sharh of the Zad. Still the classroom book.
كشاف القناع
Kashshaf al-Qina
al-Buhuti
On al-Iqna. A later mutamad of the school.
دليل الطالب
Dalil al-Talib
Mari ibn Yusuf (d. 1033 AH)
A clear later matn, often paired with Manar al-Sabil.

Ahmad’s Musnad is hadith, not a fiqh matn. The fiqh is in the masail and in Ibn Qudamah. Do not confuse the two shelves.