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Ahl al-Hadith (Arabic:أَهْل الحَدِيث,romanized: Ahl al-Ḥadīth,lit. 'people of hadith') is anIslamic school ofSunni Islam that emerged during the 2nd and 3rd Islamic centuries of the Islamic era (late 8th and 9th century CE) as a movement ofhadith scholars who considered theQuran and authentic hadith to be the only authority in matters of law and creed.[1] They were known as "Athari" for championingtraditionalist theological doctrines which rejected rationalist approaches and advocated a strictly literalist reading of Scriptures.[2][3] Its adherents have also been referred to astraditionalists and sometimestraditionists (from "traditions", namely,hadiths).[4] The traditionalists constituted the most authoritative and dominant bloc ofSunni orthodoxy prior to the emergence ofmad'habs (legal schools) during the fourth Islamic century.[5]
Injurisprudence,Ahl al-Hadith opposed many of their contemporary jurists who based their legal reasoning on informed opinionرَأْي (raʼy) or living local practiceعُرْف (ʽurf), who were referred to, often derogatorily, asAhl ar-Ra'y.[1][6] Thetraditionalists condemned the practice oftaqlid (following scholarly opinions orra'y without asking for scriptural proofs) and advocatedittiba (adherence to scholarly traditions by asking for proofs from the Quran and Sunnah and taking only their literal meaning). In turn, theAhl al-Hadith upheldijtihad (scholarly legal reasoning) by adhering to Scriptures.[7][8][9]
In matters of faith,Ahl al-Hadith were pitted against theMu'tazilites and other theological currents, condemning many points of their doctrines as well as the excessive rationalistic methods Mu'tazilites used in defending and justifying themselves.[10] The most prominent leader of the movement wasʼAḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal.[10] Subsequently, other Islamiclegal schools gradually came to accept the reliance on the Quran and hadith advocated by the Ahl al-Hadith movement as valid,[10] whileal-Ash'ari (874-936) used rationalistic argumentation favored by Mu'tazilites to defend most of the same tenets of the Ahl al-Hadith doctrine, carrying on the legacy provided byIbn Kullab.[11] In the following centuries, the termahl al-hadith came to refer to those scholars of theHanbali andZahiri schools; who rejected rationalistic theology (kalam) and held on to the creed of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and especially Imam Zahiri.[12][13] This theological school, which is also known astraditionalist theology, has been championed in recent times by theSalafi movement.[14] The termahl 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 theMuhammad's contemporaries and the early generations of believers.[15]
Ahl al-Ḥadith (orAșḥāb al-Ḥadiṯh (Arabic:أَصْحَاب الحَدِيث,lit. 'The adherents of the tradition') or theʼAṯariyyūn (Arabic:أَثَرِيُّون,lit. 'The Traditionalists')) were often approvingly termedAhl al-Sunnah (Arabic:أَهْل السُّنَّة,lit. 'The people of [Prophetic] traditions'), referring to their claim of representing orthodox (that is, entirely tradition-based) Sunni Islam, while they were known pejoratively asal-Ḥashwiyya (Arabic:الحَشْوِيَّة,lit. 'The verbose'), referring to the overabundance of narratives and traditions in their works and compilations.[citation needed] In theological polemics, they were often included under the labelal-Mujassimūn (Arabic:المُجَسِّمُون,lit. 'The anthropomorphists'), referring to how their depictions of the Islamic God were received by their ideological rivals, especially theMu'tazilites, who asserted the absoluteincorporeality ofGod in Islam.
Muslim historians andjurists theorized that aSahabi (Companion of the Prophet) namedZubayr ibn al-Awwam was one of the earliest traditionalist, and textualist scholar who influenced later eraAthari scholars. Scholarship of jurisprudential history highlighted that Zubair's methodology of proto-textualism had greatly impacted the scholars ofAhl al-Hadith who were characterized by their approach to hold a strictly textualist understanding ofQuran andHadith, while mostly rejecting theQiyas (analogy) method ofAhl al-Ra'y (scholars of Logic).[citation needed] Zubayr's strict views on exegetical field of Qur'anic interpretation were recorded in his primary biographies preserved by contemporary Muslim scholars, such as the saying of az-Zubayr when he advised one of his children to never argue about the Qur'anic texts with logic. The interpretation of Qur'an, according to az-Zubayr, should be strictly bound with understanding the tradition of Hadith andSunnah.[citation needed]
Such anti-rationalist, traditionalist and hadith oriented views were also shared by many influential scholars throughout history, many of whom reached the rank of absoluteMujtahid (scholars who allowed to open their own Madhhab due to their knowledge vastness) such as theShafiiteIbn Kathir,Hanbalite Ibn Taymiyyah,[16][17]Ibn Hazm,Bukhari independent Madhhab, and also scholars fromJariri, andZahiriMaddhabs.[citation needed]
Another companion of the prophet who was known to hold this textualist stance wasAbdullah ibn Umar. When asked by a group of hisTabi'in disciples regarding his views on theQadariyah sect, Ibn 'Umar responded withtakfir (excommunication from Islam) on the Qadariyah group for their reasoning to rejectqadar.[18] Ibn 'Umar further condemned those Qadariyah and warned his disciples from their analogical methodology. According to contemporary scholars, the reason of Ibn Umar condemned theQadariyya was because they were similar toZoroastrianism andManichaeism due to theirdualism philosophy, which aligned withHadiths (Prophetic traditions) that stated "Qadariyah wereMagi of thisUmmah".[19]
The Ahl al-Hadith movement emerged toward the end of the 8th century CE among scholars of hadith who held the Qur'an and authentic hadith to be the only acceptable sources of law and creed.[6] At first these scholars formed minorities within existing religious study circles but by the early 9th century had coalesced into a separate movement under the leadership ofAhmad ibn Hanbal.[6] In legal matters, these scholars criticized the use of personal scholarly opinion (ra'y) common among theHanafi jurists of Iraq as well as the reliance on living local traditions byMalikite jurists ofMedina.[6] They also rejected the use ofqiyas (analogical deduction) and other methods of jurisprudence suchHiyal (legal deductions) when it gave precedence toRa'y (individual opinion) overHadith and was not based on literal reading of scripture.[6][20]Ahl al-Hadith strongly opposed the practice ofTaqlid, which depended on the opinions of past Imams. They prescribedIjtihad, which relied on the usage of hadiths. The scholars of theAhl al-Hadith did not standardise themselves into an officialmad'hab (legal school) and held diverse juristic approaches.[21]
In matters of faith, they were pitted againstMu'tazilites and other theological currents, condemning many points of their doctrines as well as the rationalistic methods they used in defending them.[6] Ahl al-Hadith were also characterized by their avoidance of all state patronage and by their social activism.[6] They attempted to follow the injunction of "commanding good and forbidding evil" by preaching absolute asceticism and at times even launching vigilante attacks to break wine bottles, musical instruments, and chessboards.[6]
The next two centuries witnessed a broad convergence of legal methodologies which gave rise to the classical theories of Sunni jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh), which, despite long disputes, share formal similarities. Hanafi and Maliki jurists gradually came to accept the primacy of the Quran and hadith advocated by the Ahl al-Hadith movement[citation needed], restricting the use of other forms of legal reasoning to interpretation of these scriptures.[10] This "traditionalizing" of legal reasoning is exemplified in the work ofMalik's studentAl-Shafi'i, which laid the foundation of theShafi'i legal school.[10] In turn, Hanbali jurists, who led the traditionalist movement and initially opposed the use of qiyas, gradually came to accept it as long as its application was strictly founded on scriptural sources.[10]
During the 14th century, theAhl al-Hadith school underwent a religious renewal and crystallisation through the polemics and scholarly treatises of the medieval Hanbali polymath andproto-Salafist theologianAhmad ibn Taymiyyah.[22]
The self-understanding of traditionalists is, that their basic views and doctrines can be traced back to the teachings of the Islamic prophet before what they saw as the unacceptable blending of Islamic orthodoxy with the opinions of menرَأْي (raʼy) and the customs of peoples, leading toheterodoxy, orheresy. They condemned the synthesis of "philosophies" (that is, un-Islamic ideas) with the doctrines of the religion as taught by the Islamic prophet and elucidated by his companions, and thus they called for the subordination of all religious disputes tothe literal interpretation of the Islamic Scriptures and the prophetic traditions, while also valuing reports of the opinions of earlier generations of believers over later jurists and judges, as the earlier Muslims were held to be professors of orthodoxy.[citation needed] Many of them, includingAhmad ibn Hanbal, the eponymous founder of theHanbali school of law, nonetheless did not hesitate to reject and criticize the reported opinions and actions of the Islamic prophet's contemporaries, such asAbu Umamah al Bahili's reported greeting of Christians, when they were deemed to be clashing with orthodoxy. The attribution of orthodoxy and non-orthodoxy to figures, however, varies greatly between different religious polemics, especially with regard to theHanafi school and its eponymous originator,Abu Hanifa. AlthoughAhmad ibn Hanbal's son, Abdullah, ascribed to his father the condemnation of Abu Hanifa multiple times in his compendiumKitāb al-Sunnah, a number of medieval and modern traditionalists consider the eponyms of the four major and one minorSunni schools of Islamic law (Abu Hanifa,Malik ibn Anas,Al-Shafiʽi, Zahiri and Ahmad ibn Hanbal) to have all been adherents of "Ahl al-Hadith".[23][better source needed]
Scholars of theAhl al-Hadith strongly condemned the doctrines ofKalam (speculative theology) and its various schools such asAsh'arism andMu'tazilism; accusing them of deviating from theQur'an andHadith.[24] They believed thatTawhid (Islamic monotheism) is to be understood strictly on the basis ofQur'an andHadith, shunningKalam and affirming the ScripturesBila Kayfa, "without asking how".[25] Ahl al-Hadith held that thezahir (literal; apparent) meaning of the Qur'an and the hadith have sole authority in matters of faith and that the use of rational disputation is forbidden even if it verifies the truth.[26] They did not attempt to conceptualize the meanings of the Qur'an rationally, especially those related to the attributes of Allah, accepting them without asking "how" (bi-la kaifa), and asserted that their realities should be consigned to God alone (tafwid).[27]
They believed that every part of theQur'an, including its Arabic letters, are uncreated (ghayr makhluq); since they held the Speech of God to be an Eternal Divine Attribute.[28][29][30] Ahl al-Hadith also held thatiman (faith) increases and decreases in correlation with the performance of prescribed rituals and duties, such as the five daily prayers.[31][32]
In 833 the caliphal-Ma'mun tried to imposeMu'tazilite theology on all religious scholars and instituted an inquisition (mihna) which required them to accept the Mu'tazilite doctrine that the Qur'an was a created object, which implicitly made it subject to interpretation by caliphs and scholars.[33] Ibn Hanbal led traditionalist resistance to this policy, affirming under torture that the Quran was uncreated and hence coeternal with God.[34] Although Mu'tazilism remained state doctrine until 851, the efforts to impose it only served to politicize and harden the theological controversy.[35] This controversy persisted untilAbu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (874-936) found a middle ground between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, using the rationalistic methods championed by Mu'tazilites to defend most tenets of the Ahl al-Hadith doctrine.[36]
A rival compromise between rationalism and traditionalism emerged from the work ofal-Maturidi (d. c. 944), and one of these two schools of theology was accepted by members of all Sunnimadhhabs, with the exception of most Hanbalite and some Shafi'i scholars, who persisted in their rejection ofkalam, although they often resorted to rationalistic arguments themselves, even while claiming to rely on the literal text of scripture.[36] Although the scholars who rejected theAsh'ari andMaturidi synthesis were in the minority, their emotive, narrative-based approach to faith remained influential among the urban masses in some areas, particularly in Abbasid Baghdad.[37]
While Ash'arism and Maturidism are generally called the Sunni "orthodoxy", the traditionalist school has thrived alongside it, laying rival claims to be the orthodox Sunni creed.[38] In the modern era it has had a disproportionate impact on Islamic theology, having been advocated byWahhabi and otherSalafi currents and spread beyond the confines of the Hanbali school of law.[39] The classical theologianTaqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328 C.E/ 728 A.H), played the most influential role in formalising the creedal and doctrinal positions of Ahl al-Hadith through his numerous treatises. Ibn Taymiyya became the most important classical scholar for adherents of theSalafiyya movement and his theological treatises are the primary classical scholarly references taught in Salafi seminaries.[40]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)HR. Abu Daud no. 4691. Hadits ini dinilai hasan oleh Al-Albani (As-Shahihah no 2748, dan lihat juga penjelasan As-Safaarini di Lawami an-Anwaar 1/304-306).
ashab al-hadith were unreservedly critical of taqlid and the reliance on the individual opinion of preceding Imams. The ijtihad of ashab al-hadith, however, was based on the authority of the text ... since ashab al-hadith were not organized in a formal school, they showed a considerable degree of variation in their outlook on Fiqh and the use of hadith