Ahl ar-ra'y is an Arabic term that means 'people of opinion'.
Ahl 'ar-ra'y is a school of thought that formed in opposition to ahl al-hadith, a school which professes the same views as the early Muslims, and is partisan to their traditions.
Ahl 'ar-ra'y, on the contrary, has been described as a modernist or rationalist school of Islamic thought. One source claims that ahl 'ar-ra'y are the people who are to be consulted on matters of Islam, as they are the most learned. The people of the ahl al-hadith school would most likely disagree.