Ahl ar-Ra'y

Ahl ar-ra'y (Arabic: أهل الرأي‎‎; advocates of ra'y, 'common sense' or 'rational discretion') or Ahl al-Dirayah is a school of thought that has been described as modernist or rationalist Islam.

It formed in opposition to ahl al-Hadith (Ahl ar-Riwayah), "The people of hadith", a school which professes the belief that Muslims should not be bound by taqlid (religious jurisprudence) but, on the contrary, be free to seek guidance in matters of religious faith and practices from the authentic hadith which, together with the Qur'an, are in their view the principal worthy guide for Muslims.

The Ahl Ar-Ray's were prominent during the Umayyad period in the city of Kufa, in Iraq. They were noted for using Fiqh or Islamic Jurisprudence in an hypothesized manner as opposed to applying them in realistic problems (as was practiced in Medina in those times).^[1]

Ahl Ar-Ra'y's main ideology was that the traditions of the companions of the Prophet, and local custom were sources of authority to base law upon. In the second century of Islam, Imam Shafi closed the matter, giving more authority to the tradition of the Prophet and held that the traditions of others held no legal authority whatsoever. Instead, these traditions could only be used as legal authority if they had clear basis in Quran and Prophetic tradition.

References

• 1. USC http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/glossary/term.AHLRAY.html
• 1. Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1975)