“People are in greater need of knowledge than of food and drink, for a person needs food once or twice a day, but he needs knowledge with every breath.”

Ibn al-Qayyim quotes this from Imam Ahmad in Madarij as-Salikin, in a passage on the rank of seeking knowledge; right after it he gives al-Shafi‘i’s view that seeking knowledge is better than voluntary prayer. Ahmad ibn Hanbal (164–241 AH / 780–855 CE) was the imam who held out under interrogation and flogging rather than concede a point of creed, and the comparison is characteristic of how he ranked things.