Ahl al-Sunnah and Ahl al-Hadith in the Understanding of the Salaf

This excerpt is taken from the book Aḥkām wa Masāʾil in the Light of the Qur’an and Sunnah by Shaykh Mubashshir Aḥmad Rabbānī.

Question​

Is it established from the Salaf al-Ṣāliḥīn that Ahl al-Sunnah refers to Ahl al-Ḥadīth?

Answer​

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“A group from my Ummah will always remain upon the truth. Those who abandon them will not be able to harm them, until the Hour is established.”

Reference: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb al-Imārah, Bāb Qawlihi: Lā Tazālu Ṭāʾifatun min Ummatī Ẓāhirīn ʿalā al-Ḥaqq: 1920, 1923; Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, Kitāb al-Fitan, Bāb Mā Jāʾa fī Ahl al-Shām: 2192

Imām ʿAlī bin al-Madīnī رحمه الله said:

“They are Ahl al-Ḥadīth.”

Reference: Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 4/485; Dhamm al-Kalām by al-Harawī 3/292

And Ahl al-Sunnah and Ahl al-Ḥadīth are one and the same.

Imām Ibn Ḥazm رحمه الله said:

“Ahl al-Sunnah are those whom we call Ahl al-Ḥaqq (the people of truth), and besides them are the people of innovation. Those who adhere to the Sunnah are the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the Tābiʿīn who followed their truth, then the Ahl al-Ḥadīth, and then those who followed them generation after generation up to our time, and those who adopted their methodology in the East and the West.”

Reference: al-Faṣl fī al-Milal wa al-Ahwāʾ wa al-Niḥal 2/271

Imām Ibn al-Jawzī رحمه الله said:

“There is no doubt that Ahl al-Ḥadīth are those who follow the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the reports of the Companions, and they are the Ahl al-Sunnah.”

Reference: Talbīs Iblīs p.21

Imām Abū Ṭāhir al-Salafī رحمه الله said:

“I am among the Ahl al-Ḥadīth, and this is the best group.”

Reference: Fatḥ al-Bārī 1/80

Imām al-Farāʾīnī رحمه الله said:

“The Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth are Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah.”

Reference: al-Tabṣīr fī al-Dīn p.185

For further details, see:
al-Azhār al-Manthūrah fī Bayān anna Ahl al-Ḥadīth hum al-Firqah al-Nājiyah wa al-Ṭāʾifah al-Manṣūrah by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin ʿAbdullāh al-Atharī, published in Ajman.

Imām Qutaybah bin Saʿīd رحمه الله said:

“When you see a man who loves Ahl al-Ḥadīth, then he is upon the Sunnah; and whoever opposes Ahl al-Ḥadīth is an innovator.”

Reference: Ashraf Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth p.134; al-Iʿtiqād by al-Ṣābūnī p.121