What do you say about the view of some scholars that there is no need to name a specific call, such as the Salafi call and others, but rather they say "the people of the Sunnah and the community"?

The questioner : May Allah reward you. Some scholars hold that there is no need to name a specific call, such as the Salafi call and others, but rather they say: "the people of the Sunnah and the community." What do you say?

The Shaykh : I do not agree with their position. This is because the old custom in this designation: "the people of the Sunnah and the community" includes sects that are not truly among the people of the Sunnah and the community, such as the Asha'irah and the Mu'tazilah. Those who use this term actually intended, in the past, for it to be a general, inclusive term covering all Muslims who remain within the circle of Islam, despite having some deviation, whether little or much, from the way of the righteous Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them). Therefore, if we adhere to this usage, namely "the people of the Sunnah and the community," we include those who are not truly of it. Even if they were truly so, we have a test question:
Is everyone who is among the people of the Sunnah and the community, according to the definition handed down to this day, on the methodology of the righteous Salaf, and do they not permit deviating from the righteous Salaf in their guidance and following the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), whether in matters of creed or rulings?
The answer, with great regret, is that many of those who claim to be among the people of the Sunnah and the community still say: "The methodology of the Salaf is safer, and the methodology of the Khalaf is more knowledgeable and more precise." They still say this phrase. Consequently, they are not Salafis, even in the most precious thing a Muslim must hold onto in his religion, which is the creed in Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
And whoever among you is a student of knowledge will see this reality clearly, because he reads in some books of the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah this phrase. They say it without caring that it contains a sneer and a jab at the righteous Salaf, as they make the Khalaf feel that the Salaf were a group, as they say in some lands: "a group of dervishes", meaning simpletons, so their methodology is safer, while the methodology of the Khalaf is more knowledgeable, meaning more precise and more accurate. How can one who says this be among the people of the Sunnah while he sneers at the first group of the Sunnah? I recently mentioned that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made the sign of the saved sect to be being upon what he and his Companions were upon. How can one be of the saved sect who says that the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were without knowledge or with little knowledge, and not with wise knowledge, while the methodology of the Khalaf is more knowledgeable and more precise? How, then, can the methodology of the people of the Sunnah be such when among them are those who make this sneer or this jab at the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who are the best of generations, as came in the authentic, famous, indeed mass-transmitted hadith.
And for that reason, so that we are frank in our call, not flattering, not hypocrites, and not circumventing the general Muslim community, we say: Our call is upon the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous Salaf. Who is the one who can disavow the methodology of the righteous Salaf in this absolute manner?
And if they have disavowed part of their methodology, as you heard just now when they say: "The methodology of the Salaf is safer and the methodology of the Khalaf is more knowledgeable and more precise", the one who declares openly that he is upon the methodology of the Salaf means only that he held fast to what Allah and His Messenger commanded. I will not repeat what I said just now except very briefly. Allah the Exalted said: Who are the believers here?
They are the first Salaf. They are certainly not the Asha'irah or the Maturidiyyah, unless they are upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf. And the previous hadith: the saved sect is the one who holds fast to what the Messenger and his Companions were upon, especially the Rightly Guided Caliphs.
So what is the secret, I wonder, that some people in this time refuse to affiliate themselves with the righteous Salaf, whom the Messenger of Allah praised as the best of generations, and wants to use the general term: "the people of the Sunnah and the community"?
The people of the Sunnah and the community are the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him). As for those who came after them, they divided into many sects and numerous parties, and our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) forbade that in His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): So the Islamic party is one party, and it is the one that strives—not just claims—to be upon what the Messenger and his Companions were upon. This is the one who is saved, and he is the one who walks together on a straight path. As for the one who took from some of the later methodologies, as we mentioned just now, he is in danger because he did not hold fast to the community about which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that holding fast to this community is salvation from the Fire, while he ruled that seventy-two Islamic sects, Muslims, but Muslims who deviated in some of what they went to in creeds, rulings, and morals, are in the Fire. And what of the Sufis and their deviation in conduct from what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon, and indeed their deviation in creed and in the oneness of Allah, until they reached the point of believing the belief of the materialist naturalists who say that there is no Creator, but rather it is as some of the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance said: "It is only wombs that give birth and earth that swallows". Some of the Sufis say: "Everything you see with your eye is Allah". So in their claim, there is no Creator and no created. And these Sufis to this day write some works and claim that they are among the Muslims, indeed they claim that they are on the straight path. As for us, we say to them: .