The Salafis are accused of not following the jurisprudence of the four Imams.

The questioner : There remains a small point, which is that the Salafis are accused of not following the jurisprudence of the four Imams.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : They criticize the scholars.

The Shaykh : This is a lie, unfortunately, and this lie becomes a greater sin and aggression when it is directed at those who seek to establish Islamic life. How can people establish Islamic life while they accuse the innocent of what is not in them? If the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , and the sin of backbiting is well known in the Qur'an , it was asked of him: "What do you think if what you mentioned is not in him? What do you think?"

The questioner : What do you think if my brother has what I am saying?

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : What do you think if your brother has what you are saying?

The Shaykh : Yes, so he said (peace be upon him): - then you have slandered him - . You slandered him, yes. If it is not in him.

The questioner : If it is not in him, you have slandered him, and if it is in him, you have backbitten him.

The Shaykh : Yes, , that is it.
This slander is much more serious than backbiting; because backbiting is , so how do these people dare to accuse the innocent, not of what they do not say, but of what they say the opposite of, and they write it in their books and treatises? Among these is this treatise, may Allah bless it, which has spread throughout the Muslim world, Arab and non-Arab, titled "The Description of the Prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) from the Takbir to the Taslim as if you are seeing it." We mentioned in the introduction to this treatise our methodology in composing it, indeed our starting point in our da'wah; we said that we respect the Imams more than those who pretend to honor these Imams, then one of them becomes fanatical for a single Imam for his entire life, and does not benefit from the knowledge of the other Imams, not even in one issue. As for us, we have adopted as our methodology the path they established for the Muslims after them, and they commanded us not to take their sayings as our religion. Rather, they said to us: "Take from where we took." Their saying: "If the hadith is authentic, then it is my madhhab" is more famous than to be mentioned. If one of us takes the saying of a certain Imam because the evidence for its authenticity has been established, and does not take the saying of that same Imam in another issue because the evidence for it has not been established, but rather takes the saying of another Imam; from where do these people take it that we disparage the Imams and do not appreciate them? We know how this is; because they understand that appreciating an Imam is to make him like the infallible. Just as the Shi'ah say about their Imams that they are infallible; likewise, these people are not satisfied unless we treat our Imams - the people of the Sunnah and the community - with this treatment that explicitly declares infallibility. Their favor upon us is that they said to us: "We are not infallible."
So Abu Hanifah said to his student Abu Yusuf - and his name is Ya'qub - : "O Ya'qub, do not take my opinion; for I say today what I will retract tomorrow, so only take from where we took." And al-Shafi'i said: "There is no one but that a Sunnah of the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is hidden from him. So whatever principle I establish or saying I make, and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is contrary to my saying, take the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and cast my saying to the winds." This is an Imam saying about his own saying: "Cast it to the winds!" We do not say this; we are polite with our Imams, and we say this is his opinion, and this is his ijtihad, and he is rewarded for it, but we see that the other saying made by the other Imam is the correct one, with evidence from the Book or from the Sunnah or from the athar of our righteous Salaf. So this - unfortunately - is injustice that befalls us, but our tongue, the tongue of our state, says:
"You are but a bleeding finger *** And what you have met is in the path of Allah"
Yes.