All praise be to Allāh, and may peace and blessings be on the messenger, his family, and companions. When al-Mamun, the Abbasid caliph, imprisoned Imām Aḥmad b. Hanbal and tortured him in order to compel him to accept the heretical belief in the ‘createdness’ of the Qur’ān, Imām Aḥmad refused…