[14] The term ahl al-hadith is sometimes used in a more general sense to denote a particularly enthusiastic commitment to hadith and to the views and way of life of the Muhammad's contemporaries and the early generations of believers.
According to contemporary scholars, the reason of Ibn Umar condemned the Qadariyya was because they were similar to Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism due to their dualism philosophy, which aligned with Hadiths (Prophetic traditions) that stated "Qadariyah were Magi of this Ummah".
[6] They attempted to follow the injunction of "commanding good and forbidding evil" by preaching absolute asceticism and at times even launching vigilante attacks to break wine bottles, musical instruments, and chessboards.
[6] The next two centuries witnessed a broad convergence of legal methodologies which gave rise to the classical theories of Sunni jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh), which, despite long disputes, share formal similarities.
Hanafi and Maliki jurists gradually came to accept the primacy of the Quran and hadith advocated by the Ahl al-Hadith movement [citation needed], restricting the use of other forms of legal reasoning to interpretation of these scriptures.
[10] In turn, Hanbali jurists, who led the traditionalist movement and initially opposed the use of qiyas, gradually came to accept it as long as its application was strictly founded on scriptural sources.
[10] During the 14th century, the Ahl al-Hadith school underwent a religious renewal and crystallisation through the polemics and scholarly treatises of the medieval Hanbali polymath and proto-Salafist theologian Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah.
[23] [better source needed] Scholars of the Ahl al-Hadith strongly condemned the doctrines of Kalam (speculative theology) and its various schools such as Ash'arism and Mu'tazilism; accusing them of deviating from the Qur'an and Hadith.
[25] Ahl al-Hadith held that the zahir (literal; apparent) meaning of the Qur'an and the hadith have sole authority in matters of faith and that the use of rational disputation is forbidden even if it verifies the truth.
[26] They did not attempt to conceptualize the meanings of the Qur'an rationally, especially those related to the attributes of Allah, accepting them without asking "how" (bi-la kaifa), and asserted that their realities should be consigned to God alone (tafwid).
[36] A rival compromise between rationalism and traditionalism emerged from the work of al-Maturidi (d. c. 944), and one of these two schools of theology was accepted by members of all Sunni madhhabs, with the exception of most Hanbalite and some Shafi'i scholars, who persisted in their rejection of kalam, although they often resorted to rationalistic arguments themselves, even while claiming to rely on the literal text of scripture.
[36] Although the scholars who rejected the Ash'ari and Maturidi synthesis were in the minority, their emotive, narrative-based approach to faith remained influential among the urban masses in some areas, particularly in Abbasid Baghdad.
[39] The classical theologian Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328 C.E/ 728 A.H), played the most influential role in formalising the creedal and doctrinal positions of Ahl al-Hadith through his numerous treatises.