What is your opinion of one who refuses to be called a Salafi and says that this designation is an innovation?

The questioner : We were discussing in the car, with your permission, the issue of calling some of our brothers Salafis. It is something that happens with our Shaykh, Abu Islam (may Allah preserve him). He studies all types of people, including all the parties. He is gentle in his approach, Abu Islam, because he does not use these names. And these names cause us some embarrassment. By Allah, we are Salafis, and this is a Salafi mosque. You find the Haririyyah and the Muslim Brotherhood and such, and they listen to him and are pleased with his speech. He conveys to them that he understands the methodology of the Companions. So, when I intended to ask our Shaykh about the naming, and I had heard the Shaykh Adnan al-Arur say that being called a Salafi, or saying "I am a Salafi," is an innovation, what is your comment, Shaykh?

The Shaykh : As for saying that the naming is an innovation, this naming is not permissible for me to call an innovation. Because the innovation that we understand from the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and specifically from , includes two types of newly invented matters. The first type is one that occurs and contradicts a ruling explicitly stated in the Shari'ah. This contradiction has two states. The first state is a sin. Let us give an example: he says, for instance, cinema, with its means of trial and temptation toward immorality and the like. This is a linguistic innovation, meaning it is among newly invented matters, and engaging in it contradicts explicitly prohibited Shari'ah rulings. So it is not an innovation covered by his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: . Rather, it contradicts the explicitly stated Shari'ah rulings. When does it become an innovation? If the one committing it intends to draw near to Allah with it. Of course, I brought this example to illustrate the first type, meaning: committing a sin that did not exist before. So it is a new occurrence, but it is a sin. Because if the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: , the man now enters the cinema and sees of the open sinfulness and lewdness what he does not see in the streets, despite the abundance of open sinfulness and lewdness he sees there. Recently, I read in some newspapers a strong and severe condemnation and direction, meaning the look of the rulers, what Allah wills, who issue decisions to prohibit. Since it is permissible for us to say that our call is based on the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the pious predecessors, this call is called the Salafi call. Who says that naming this Salafi call is an innovation, when it is a name that expresses a real fact, which is the call of the pious predecessors? Then we summarize this word, the Salafi call, by saying that everyone who belongs to it is a Salafi, just as a Muslim belongs to Islam. He may contradict Islam in many of its rulings or few of them, and that is another matter. But the attribution is correct. Similarly, today we say: the Salafi call, based on the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the pious predecessors, is a reality that is necessary. And the one who says that this naming, the Salafi call, or does not say the Salafi call is an innovation, but may say, as the transmitter reported, and the responsibility lies with the transmitter, and I personally have not heard such words from a person we believe to be a Salafi, that the word Salafi is an innovation. I say the responsibility lies with the transmitter. We reject this judgment categorically, because by the word Salafi we do not intend to draw near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) – and peace and mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you – but we intend to express a real matter, with no motive for it.
The student : ... from there, O Shaykh.
Another student : I saw him. He went down to the house and came back.

The Shaykh : Good sleep, good sleep, what Allah wills. He had a good sleep.
The student : We did not want to disturb you...

The Shaykh : The point is, I was saying there at the university, we say this word to clarify the reality. But where are you going? Is the problem before you only this name? Is it this name that hurt your feelings? And the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools? These are names, and they are attributions to individuals. But Salafi is an attribution to the community, an attribution to the group, as we mentioned, meaning in some hadiths. This name hurt your feelings. Nevertheless, to clarify the reality, we say: the Salafi call, and whoever belongs to it is a Salafi.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : But you withdraw all these names from the Islamic land. And I mentioned four schools, the people of the Sunnah and the community. But the parties that occurred in the contemporary century, today or before today, we do not give them weight and we do not mention them. So you withdraw all these names so that nothing remains on the face of Islam except a Muslim. In that case, we do not say anything except what the Lord of the Worlds said in the Noble Qur'an: . So we say to the one who says that naming oneself Salafi is an innovation: First, we who belong to the call of the pious predecessors are the most knowledgeable of all groups about the forbidden innovation, by the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And they distinguish between the generally condemned innovation and the independent public interests. We are now in this naming not living in the midst of the forbidden innovation, but in the midst and in the sea of independent public interests. The independent public interest now requires us to distinguish between one call and another.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Between a call that says it is obligatory to follow one of the schools in jurisprudence, one of the four schools, and in creed, either Maturidi or Ash'ari. The school of the people of hadith has no mention. And I do not think that the one who attributed to him the saying that naming oneself Salafi is an innovation says that naming the school of the people of hadith as the school of the people of hadith is also an innovation. Because all of these are expressions of real matters. So this expression is not a worship by which we draw near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), but it is language, as we said. We also spoke during our coming here that it is language. Is it not permissible for us to summarize?