about the partisans of hadith: "These are the ones through whose transmission the Sharia has been safeguarded, and through whom the roots of the Sunna have been preserved. Thus, they are owed gratitude by the entire nation, and supplication to Allah for their forgiveness. They are the bearers of His knowledge, the transmitters of His religion, His emissaries between Him and His nation, and His trustees in conveying the revelation from Him. It is fitting that they be the people closest to him in his life and after his death. Every group among the nations refers back to them regarding the authenticity and weakness of his hadith... They are the Victorious Group, the Saved Sect, the Guiding Band, and the Just Congregation that holds fast to the Sunna, desiring no substitute for the Messenger of Allah, no alteration to his statement, and no deviation from his Sunna, nor are they deterred from it by the changing of eras and times..." etc.

And see the book: Sharaf Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī.

• (1) Ḥarb al-Kirmānī, may Allah have mercy on him, said similarly regarding whoever opposes the People of the Sunna and what they believed and formed a consensus upon, saying in his creed: "This is the school of the imams of knowledge... and the People of the Sunna who are known for it and emulated in it, from the time of the Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, to this day of ours. I met whomever I met from the scholars of the people of Iraq, the Hijaz, the Levant, and others upon it. So whoever opposes anything of these schools, or attacks them, or disparages the one who professes them, then he is an opposer, an innovator, outside the congregation, and deviating from the methodology of the Sunna and the path of truth." End quote. [al-Sunna by Ḥarb al-Kirmānī (1 and 90), with my editing]
• (2) Narrated by Muslim in the Muqaddima of his Ṣaḥīḥ (1/15), Ibn Abī Ḥātim in al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl (2/16), and al-Harawī in Dhamm al-Kalām (1016). In Sharaf Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth (80), Ibn al-Mubārak, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "The likeness of the one who seeks the matter of his religion without a chain of transmission is like the one who climbs to the roof without a ladder."