What is the general definition of the Salafi call and its position toward other groups?

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. We ask you, may Allah reward you, to give us a general definition of the Salafi call and its position toward other groups.

The Shaykh : The Salafi call is the call of the Book and the Sunnah, with the condition: according to what the righteous Salaf were upon. By the righteous Salaf, we mean the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), those who followed them, and those who followed them with excellence. There is no doubt that at the head of all of them is the Master of Mankind, upon whom are the best of prayers and the most perfect of peace. It is not hidden from anyone who has some knowledge of Islamic legal culture that all Muslims, despite their differences in schools of jurisprudence, inclinations, and paths, all claim to be upon the Book and the Sunnah. However, despite this claim, they differ among themselves to the greatest extent. The reason returns to the fact that many of the texts of the Book and the Sunnah, in terms of their Arabic style, allow for more than one meaning. To escape from such ambiguity, which cannot be denied by anyone with Islamic culture as we mentioned, it is necessary to return to a judgment that decides and resolves the disagreement in understanding a text from those texts. There is no doubt that this judgment is none other than one person, namely the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and then, consequently, those who transmitted that understanding from him. As for the fact that the reference for understanding the texts is the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that is because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) addressed him in His Book with explicit speech, saying to him: to make clear to the people what has been sent down to them. So the function of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in terms of conveying is two functions: one is conveying the text revealed by Allah to him, and the other is making this text understood to those to whom it is conveyed. Then comes the role of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and those who followed them from the Tabi'un and those who followed them with excellence until the Day of Judgment. They are the ones who transmit what the Messenger (peace be upon him) was conveyed from his Lord, and then what he conveyed to the people from his Lord, as text and explanation, as in the previous verse: . So he conveyed the text and the meaning, and then his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) transmitted that to those who came after them.
But the Muslims, for one reason or more, differed after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by about a century. One of the clear reasons for that is that the Islamic call began to spread among non-Arab nations due to the Islamic conquests, so people entered the religion of Allah in large groups, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) informed us in the well-known surah: . When these people entered Islam, on one hand, they transmitted many of their customs, concepts, and traditions to their descendants who came after them, without having understood Islam with a correct understanding. On the other hand, they perhaps introduced some concepts that do not agree with Islam into Islam, saying, "This is a general affliction; thus we found our fathers upon the community." Therefore—and this is the important point in the subject—the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed that the Muslims will differ. It is not the function of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to clarify the reasons for the difference; because the important thing is to warn them against disagreement, and that they return to what they differed in, and that they judge by the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), as He said in the well-known verse: .
And this matter, meaning: in terms of returning to Allah and His Messenger, is agreed upon by the Muslims to this day, and praise be to Allah. But few of the Muslims today are aware of the condition I mentioned at the beginning of my speech, which is: that the Book and the Sunnah be understood according to what our righteous Salaf were upon.