This term refers to Muslims who, following the death of the 3rd Sunni Caliph Uthman b. Affan, called themselves Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat. This sect then split into two groups, the Ahl al-Rai (People of Opinion, including Hanafis and other major Sunni schools of legal thought), and the Ahl al-Hadith (the people of the tradition of the Prophet).

Ahlehadith, is also an Islamic reformist school of thought centered in Pakistan and characterized by strict adherence to interpretations derived from textual sources of the early Islamic era. The Ahl al-hadith differentiate themselves from Deobandi Hanafite, Barlevi, and other Sunni schools of thoughts in India and Pakistan. They strongly reject taqlid (the unquestioning acceptance of legal precedent), and they form theology solely on the teachings of the Quran, which they believe cannot be interpreted by reason but rather with the use of hadith and ijma (concesus).

Their presence in the subcontinent grew during the Indian resistance to British rule. Many scholars of the Ahlehadith organization took part in this movement which included the Ahlehadith scholar Shah Abdul Aziz, who issued the fatwa proclaiming India as the Darul Harb (land of war) therefore inciting Muslims to join the revolution against the British Empire. The Ahlehadith movement, was first made into an organization on October 5th 1906 in Amritsar India under the guidance of Moulana Thanuallah who began a weekly journal inviting several Ahlehadith scholars to contribute in its publication. See also: Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat