Difference between Ahle-Sunnat and Ahle-Hadeeth

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1

I couldn’t clearly understand the difference between the two schools…only based on their practices etc

Hadith and Sunnat sounded kind of same to me…because you would know about sunnat from hadeeth only

i read it somewhere and somebody plz clarify..

Sunni- They believe on following the ‘practice’ of their predecessors (scholars/aalims etc) which they believe to have been passed down from generation to generation…“Taqleed”..and thats from where they derive their information besides the Quran

Ahle-Hadit… they believe that the knowledge/information which was recorded in text books is the sole/only/pure thing to follow. Must refer to the books of hadeeth for every matter and not follow predecessors…

So basically the main difference is that the sunni believe that
The Prophet SAW guidance/practice/information that has been passed through generation is the source

and

Guidance/practice/information that was converted into texts is the original source that needs to be consulted everytime

Please shed some light on the above viewpoint

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Re: Difference between Ahle-Sunnat and Ahle-Hadeeth

The parity of Ahl-us-Sunnah is not with Ahl-al-Hadith, it is with Shi'a.

1) Ahl-us-Sunnah Wal Jamah

1.1) Hanafi
1.1.1) Deobandi
1.1.2) Barelvi
etc

1.2) Shafi'
etc

1.3) Hanbali
1.3.1) Ahl-al-Hadith (Wahabi)
etc

1.4) Maliki
etc

..........

2) Shi'a

2.1) 5er's
etc

2.2) 12er's
etc

...........

There are three parts of the Islamic identity:

Aqeedah, Fiqh, Tariqah (tassuwwuf)

The above shows the fiqh classification. There is no rule that any given fiqh needs to match given 'aqeedah, but there are three accepted aqaid (theology) of Ahl-us-Sunnah which are:

Ash'ariyya
Maturidiyya
Athariyya

(Tahawiyya) - this is considered a corpus - a theological foundation, it is no longer an established school of theology, but all accepted schools acknowledge and include this work and then expand upon it.

The first has the most esoteric content, then the second and atharis tend to prefer no esoteric content in their theology. Now both Barelvi and Deobandi are based on the Maturidiyya 'aqeedah, but deobandis tend to undertake taqleed with self-study as backup, whereas barelvis tend to undertake taqleed more devotedly. Atharis tend to argue against taqleed but can't avoid it really. (personal opinion)

In terms of tariqah, these are practices and exercises designed to increase our capabilities in the areas of finesse, sublimity, compassion, humility, brilliance, etiquette, God-consciousness, etc ... these are considered acceptable by deobandis and their version of this would be khuruj/ tabligh, but having a shaykh, with dhikr as a personal activity. Barelvis have full consent for tassuwwuf and often prefer to be called people of tariqah (i.e. sufis), examples are dawat-e-islami who are qadiri barelvis. Qadiri being one of the schools of tariqah, in fact it is the oldest one. Some traditional deobandis would still do this as well, but modern trends have affected this in them.

Ahl-al-hadith are against tassuwwuf and a more stringent version of (wahabis) are the Salafis who the Sufis call Neo-wahabis. In fact it is wrong to call the salafis wahabis because they do not strictly follow a madhab, but they do consider the ideas of Abd-ul-Wahab as correct especially in the line of textual evidences.

Ahl-al-hadith tend to focus on Bukhari and Muslim, Tabarani, Ibn Kathir and Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allah (SWT) Mercy be on all of them)

Hanafis will not limit their textual references. Shama'il-e-Tirmidzi is a famous compilation for many hanafi fiqh rulings. Otherwise, Ahmad, Dawud, and others are all considered.

According to this ahl-al-hadith are part of Ahl-us-Sunnah ... Ahl-us-Sunnah is just the complete title for "Sunnis" (actually to be complete the term wal-jama should come after it). There are other differences but I have left them out since it would more complicated to explain.

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Re: Difference between Ahle-Sunnat and Ahle-Hadeeth

Dear NomiCA, the difference between ahlal hadith and ahlal sunnah is very simple in deeds. Ahlal sunnah are muqallidoom and ahlal hadith are ghairal muqallidoon. Sunnies believe in the opinions of their imaams of four schools of juresprudence ie hanafi, shaafai, malaki and hambali. Each person has to choose which school he wants to follow and then stick to opinions of only and only that school. Ahlal hadith also look at opinion of all imaams but they verify those opinions themselves from the quran and the hadith as well. Therefore they are not accepted as muqallid because muqallid means some one asks an opinion of a learned person and then follows it without verification from the original sources of islam on the assumption that the learned man must be telling from the quran and the hadith. Beside this there is also difference in detail of aqaaid as well but taqleed is not allowed in aqaaid.

See following links for more help if you know urdu.


Word sunnah means way and in islamic sense it means way of the prophet. The prophet has been sent by allah with a way of life. So those who follow that way are sunnies.

Hadith means report ie the way the prophet acted on commandments of allah is reported by people and the collection of that information is called hadith.

regards and all the best

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Re: Difference between Ahle-Sunnat and Ahle-Hadeeth

Thanks for your replies....very good input...

but psyah touched it more..i was talking about the basis / foundation of the schools.....and not the subsequent adherence to specific schools.....

I know main two classficiation is sunni/shia and ahle-hadith come under the sunni class...

my question was based more on the difference between the ahle-hadith and '4 school sunni'
because the 4 schoolers distance themselves from the ahle-hadith/wahabi.......and i was more interested in this second difference...

4 schoolers are adherent to the 'taqleed' to a more or less degree (eg. barelvi and deobandi)

and ahle-hadeeth prefer verifying/judging every ruling/judement's basis from hadeeth books (and not books of rulings and interpretations) and not necessarily follow any imams/scholars to the letter

am i correct in saying that or not??

5

Re: Difference between Ahle-Sunnat and Ahle-Hadeeth

as-salaamu alaykum

Bismillah

much of discussion about this topic is based upon lots of misunderstandings. Many laymen who involve in this don't even have the ilm about the whole picture.

Pardon me my brother psyah, could you please explain how paki ahle-hadith come under hanblis? Rest of what you've said, I'm sure we've discussed some of it in the past and it's full of misconceptions.

brother nomi,

Let's go to the beginning: in fiqh, there has always been three schools of ahl al-hadith and 1 school ahl al-ray. Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanablis have been the 3 schools of ahl al-hadith while ahnaf have been known as ahl al-ray. And then we've the modern day paki/indo ahle-hadith. So when someone says ahl al-hadith, you need to make a distinction between the two.

I don't think it's right thing to say that 4 schools distance themselves from paki/indo ahle-hadith. I mean within fiqh all schools have differences. But it's true the much of the fiqh of paki/indo ahle-hadith is based upon zahiri school, which was establish by Ibn Hazam (rahimahullah).

As far issue of taqleed and ahle-hadith verifying directly from the hadith books, this is a big misconception among both camps. First, a layman has no particular math-hab - his math-hab is math-hab of his mufti. Secondly, everyone, excluding the mujtahid off course, makes taqleed of scholars one way or another.

and Allah knows best

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Re: Difference between Ahle-Sunnat and Ahle-Hadeeth

As far As i know, Ahlesunnat who are also called "Sunni" are the blind followers of either Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi and Imam Hanbli whereas Ahle-hadith and the followers of Imam of Imams Janab Hazrat Muhammad peace be upon him