Ahl al-Hadith

Ahl al-Hadith (Arabic: أهل الحديث‎‎, "The people of hadith"; also Așḥāb al-ḥadīṯ; أصحاب الحديث) first emerged in the 2nd/3rd Islamic centuries as a movement of hadith scholars who considered the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only authority in matters of law and creed. Its adherents are also known as traditionalists and traditionists (from "tradition" as a translation of the word hadith).

In jurisprudence Ahl al-Hadith opposed contemporary jurists who based their legal reasoning on informed opinion (ra'y) or living local practice, referred to as Ahl ar-Ra'y. In matters of faith, they were pitted against the Mu'tazilites and other theological currents, condemning many points of their doctrines as well as the rationalistic methods they used in defending them. The most prominent leader of the movement was Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Subsequently, all Sunni legal schools gradually came to accept the reliance on the Quran and hadith advocated by the Ahl al-Hadith movement, while al-Ash'ari (874-936) used rationalistic argumentation favored by Mu'tazilites to defend most tenets of the Ahl al-Hadith doctrine. In the following centuries the term ahl al-hadith came to refer to the scholars, mostly of the Hanbali madhhab, who rejected rationalistic theology (kalam) and held on to the early Sunni creed. This theological school, which is also known as traditionalist theology, has been championed in recent times by the Salafi movement. The term ahl al-hadith is sometimes used in a more general sense to denote a particularly enthusiastic commitment to hadith and to the views and way of life of the Salaf (exemplary early Muslims).

The Ahl al-Hadith movement emerged toward the end of the eighth century CE among scholars of hadith who held the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only acceptable sources of law and creed. At first these scholars formed minorities within existing religious study circles, but by the early ninth century they coalesced into a separate movement under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. In legal matters, these scholars criticized the use of personal opinion (ra'y) common among the Hanafi jurists of Iraq as well as the reliance on living local traditions by Malikite jurists of Medina. They also rejected the use of qiyas (analogical deduction) and other methods of jurisprudence not based on literal reading of scripture. In matters of faith, they were pitted against Mu'tazilites and other theological currents, condemning many points of their doctrines as well as the rationalistic methods they used in defending them. Ahl al-Hadith were also characterized by their avoidance of all state patronage and by their social activism. They attempted to follow the injunction of "commanding good and forbidding evil" by preaching asceticism and launching vigilante attacks to break wine bottles, musical instruments and chessboards.

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