Who are the Ahle Sunnah?

There are no two opinions about the fact that light and darkness, water and fire, truth and falsehood and guidance and misguidance are at odds with each other.  If one dominates the other is suppressed.  The progress of one is the decline of the other.  It is also a fact that whenever the forces of falsehood are suppressed, they rise again in a different guise.  This struggle between truth and falsehood has been going on in every era.  Only that person is successful who grasps the truth and remains steadfast on it.  Only that person will be triumphant who accepts guidance and walks on that path.

 

The disagreement of the Ummah and the successful group

 

The big question is who are those who are on the path of guidance and who are those who have been misguided?  What is the distinguishing factor between truth and falsehood?  What are the signs of falsehood and how can we recognize truth?  What is touchstone on which truth can be tested?  In this regard also, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) has guided us as mentioned in this Hadith:

 

Translation: It is narrated on the authority of Hadhrat ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr (May Allah be well pleased with them) that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  The nation of Israil was divided into 72 sects and my Ummah will be divided into 73 sects.  Except one, all will be in hell.

 

The Companions asked: Which is that group, O Prophet of Allah (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam)? The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  The path on which me and my Companions are.  (Jame’ Tirmidhi, Hadith No. 2852/2853; Musnad Imam Ahmed bin Hambal, Hadith No. 8620/12815; Mustadrak ‘Alas Sahihain, Hadith No. 406)

 

The sign of the successful group was described by the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) in these words:  …..on my path and my Companions’.  “My path” means the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and “my Companions’” means a group.  Because of this Hadith, the name of this group is “Ahle Sunnah”.

 

Ahle Sunnah is the group which is on the path of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and the Companions in both tenets of faith and in deeds, as Hadhrat Mulla ‘Ali Qari says:

 

Translation: What it means is that only those people are considered to be guided who grasp my Sunnah and the Sunnah of my caliphs after me.  Without any doubt, they are the Ahle Sunnah.  That’s why it has been said in the interpretation of this Hadith that these blessed words mean those people who are on the same path as me and my Companions.  This can be recognized by the consensus of the Ummah that if the scholars of the Ummah agree on beliefs and deeds, that is the truth and anything apart from this is falsehood.  (Mirqaat Ul Mafateeh, Vol. 1, Pg. No. 204)

 

The excellence of the Ahle Sunnah

 

The Ahle Sunnah has been addressed with terms like, “Firqa Najiya” (the delivered group), “Taifa Mansurah” (the victorious group), etc.

 

There is no doubt that excellence is only for those who are right.  For this reason, we find the attributes of the Ahle Sunnah and its excellence scattered across the writings of the Imams and the famous scholars.  Hadhrat Mulla ‘Ali Qari (May Allah shower His mercy on him) writes in the interpretation of “only one group:”  This delivered group is the Ahle Sunnah, whose outward aspect is the beacon of guidance for the populace and whose inward aspect, the Tariqah on which the elite walk.

 

Translation: The successful group are those people who accept the shining and pure Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  The outward aspect of the Sunnah is the Shariah, which is the path of the populace and the inward aspect is the Tariqah which is the path of the elite.  (Mirqaat Ul Mafateeh, Vol. 1, Pg. No. 204)

 

Hadhrat Khwaja Fudhail bin ‘Ayaaz (May Allah shower His mercy on him) says about the excellence of the Ahle Sunnah:

 

Translation: Indeed, there are such slaves of Allah Most High for whose sake Almighty Allah grants life to other slaves and keeps many cities established and that is the Ahle Sunnah.  (Hilyatul Auliya, Vol. 3, Pg. No. 399)

 

The Ahle Sunnah is the treasure of Islamic knowledge

 

When the false sects started fabricating Hadith and were on the verge of breaking up Islam, the Hadith-Experts codified the principles of accepting Hadith.  Among them is that Hadith should be accepted only from those who belong to the Ahle Sunnah and not from anybody else, as mentioned in Sahih Muslim:

 

Translation: Hadhrat Ibn Sireen (May Allah shower His mercy on him) said:  Earlier, the narrators weren’t asked about the chains of narration of the Hadith.  When wrong beliefs started spreading, then the Hadith-Experts started asking the narrators about the people in the chains of narration.  If the narrators belonged to the Ahle Sunnah, the Hadith would be accepted and if they were from the false sects, it wouldn’t be accepted.  (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 28; Hilyatul Auliya, Vol. 1, Pg. No. 335)

 

Each and every person of the Ahle Sunnah is so important that even if the profound sadness expressed by the Hadith-Experts on the death of a single Sunni is written in golden letters, it will be not be evenly valued.  Hadhrat Ayyub Sikhtiani (May Allah shower His mercy on him) says:

 

Translation: When I get the news of the death of a person of the Ahle Sunnah, I feel as if I have lost a part of my body.  (Hilyatul Auliya, Vol. 1, Pg. No. 392)

 

On the Day of Judgment, only those faces will be radiant and illuminating who belong to the Ahle Sunnah as Hadhrat ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar (May Allah be well pleased with him) has described in the exegesis of this verse of Surah Imrah:106

 

Translation: Those whose faces will be radiant will be the Ahle Sunnah and those whose faces will be dark will be the ones who follow their desires, those with false beliefs.  (Lisaan Ul Meezaan, Vol. 1, Pg. No. 83)

 

Any opposition of the consensus of the Ahle Sunnah is of no value whatsoever

 

If those apart from the Ahle Sunnah agree on something, no matter what they agree on, their agreement against the consensus of the Ahle Sunnah isn’t acceptable at all.  The Ahle Sunnah have a consensus on the superiority of Hadhrat Abu Bakr Siddiq (May Allah be well pleased with him) over all other Companions.  The opposition of the Raafdhi sect to it doesn’t affect the consensus of the Ahle Sunnah.  ‘Allama ‘Aini (May Allah shower His mercy on him) says:

 

Translation: It can’t be said that how has a consensus been reached on the superiority of the Hadhrat Abu Bakr (May Allah be well pleased with him) although the Raafdhi sect denies it.  We say that the opposition of the false sects doesn’t mean anything.  The consensus of the Ahle Sunnah is what counts.  (‘Umdatul Qari Sharh Sahih Bukhari, Babu Tafaazuli Ahlil Imaan)