Ahl-i Hadith

Ahl-i Hadith, "the followers of the Prophetic tradition", is the name in India and Pakistan of a Muslim movement that claims the views of the early ashab al-hadith. It takes the authentic traditions, with the Qur'an, as its guide, and it is known for its rejection of innovation.

The Ahl-i Hadith do not regard themselves as bound by taqlid, obedience to any of the four recognised imams of the law schools. They consider the authentic traditions, which with the Qur'an are for them the only worthy guide, as the source of religious faith and practice, and they set aside the opinions of the founders of the four schools when these are not supported by traditions from the Companions. They reject the common view that the ijtihad of the founders has final authority, and hold that every believer with enough learning may interpret the Qur'an and traditions for himself, so they do not treat the consensus of earlier generations as binding. Their chief disputes are with the Hanafis, who form the majority of Sunnis in India and Pakistan, though these concern minor ritual points, such as raising the hands and saying "amin" aloud, and there is broad agreement on the important doctrines. ¹

The Ahl-i Hadith seek the original simplicity and purity of faith. They stress the unity of God and deny that any creature has occult powers or knowledge of the unseen, so they reject the miraculous powers of saints and the exaggerated veneration paid to them, and they try to remove customs that come from innovation or from Hindu and other non-Islamic systems. Their programme resembles that of the Wahhabis of Arabia, and opponents often call them Wahhabis, a name they reject, since their tenets come from the authentic traditions and not from the Arabian Wahhabis, whom they regard as followers of Ahmad b. Hanbal. ¹

The movement first appeared as a distinct sect in the nineteenth century, partly through the writings of Nawwab Siddiq Hasan Khan (d. 1307/1890) and partly through the teaching of Sayyid Nadhir Husayn (d. 1320/1902) at Delhi, a theologian who specialised in hadith. Among his pupils were 'Abd Allah Ghaznawi, who settled at Amritsar after being banished from Afghanistan; Muhammad Husayn of Batala, who edited the monthly Isha'at al-Sunna; and Abu l-Wafa Thana' Allah, who edited the weekly Ahl al-Hadith until 1947. Thana' Allah took a leading part in founding the All-India Ahl-i Hadith Conference, whose first annual meeting was held at Delhi in 1912. ¹

The Ahl-i Hadith have their own journals, mosques and seminaries. They are known for their effort, only partly successful, to purify Islam of innovations and superstitions, for promoting the study of hadith literature, and for their polemics against the Arya Samaj and the Christian missionaries. ²