There are those who say: Why do you call yourselves "Salafis"? Why don't you call yourselves "the people of the Sunnah and the community"?

The questioner : There are those who say: Why do you call yourselves "Salafis"? I am not looking for a dispute over terminology, but they say: Why don't you call yourselves "the people of the Sunnah and the community"? That is, the Sufis, the Rafidah, and others from the people of false beliefs are greatly angered by this name.

The questioner : And you leave it and call yourselves Salafis.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.

The questioner : ... you call yourselves by this name and put aside the name that you are the people of the Sunnah and the community?

The Shaykh : I think you made a mistake in part of the question when you mentioned the Rafidah. I mean, do you think that if we drop this name and say: We are the people of the Sunnah and the community, the Rafidah will be pleased with this name instead of the first one? Your including the Rafidah in the matter is perhaps a slip of the tongue from you!

The questioner : ... from the people of the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : Yes?

Another questioner : ... the designation of the people of the Sunnah.

The questioner : Yes, that is right.

Another questioner : He means that what angers the Rafidah is the designation of the people of the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : Is that what he means?

Another questioner : That is what he means.

The Shaykh : I mean, what angers them is the naming as Salafis and following the Salaf?

The questioner : That is what they say.

The Shaykh: Do you say it like this?

The questioner : They say it this way; that this does not anger them, but this does anger them.

The Shaykh : I mean, this is a question, yes? This is your question? Fine; is the one who says this from the people of the Sunnah? Let us assume he is.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Does he belong to the Salaf? I think he does not; because if he belongs to the Salaf, they are the people of the Sunnah, in which case the difference between us and him would be a difference in name, not in the thing named. But I know from some of the existing groups now, those who belong to the Sunnah in name but contradict it in action, that they do not accept being called Salafis or by the righteous Salaf; because this has become a label for a sect of the people of the Sunnah, and they are those who verify the Sunnah in action, creed, character, and behavior. I know that when I was here at the Islamic University as a teacher about a quarter of a century ago, there were individuals from some parties who would raise this question: Why do you say: Salafi and the Salaf? Why don't we all belong to Islam? We are all Muslims, and thus our Lord of the Worlds named us? And so on. The truth, and I say the truth: We call ourselves by this name for two reasons:
The first reason: That all Muslims, despite their very severe differences, none of the sects disavow the Book and the Sunnah to the extent of disavowing calling themselves Muslim, even the Rafidah. Also: If we follow the desires of these people and drop the word Salafi and just say Muslim, fine; Muslim— all these sects are Muslims, even the Druze, even the Alawites, even the Nusayris— also— they say: Muslims. Even in the time of the Turks, they would write Muslim on the personal ID, but for the Jew it is Jew, and for the Christian it is Christian. Included in the term Muslim are those who are not Muslim at all in our view, like some of those we mentioned. Then we have the well-known hadith: to the end of the hadith. All these sects are included in the circle of Islam, and the name Muslim is applied to them. So if you want to identify yourself to the one who asked you; he said to you: What is your religion? You said to him: Muslim. Every Muslim from these people gives the same answer. So have you expressed your direction when you said a name in which the chaff is mixed with the grain, as they say? This is one thing. Or to clarify the methodology of the speaker, he says: I am a Sunni Salafi; because the Ash'ari is Sunni, the Maturidi is Sunni, and the Qadiani is Sunni, and so on. But ... to distinguish yourself from these people by clarifying your choice and your methodology in knowledge and creed.
A second thing: We say to those who deny this designation and this naming: Can you drop all the other designations, which the entire Islamic world lives by? Now, wherever you go, if you say to a person you do not know: What is your madhhab? What does he say to you? Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali, Shi'i, Zaydi, and so on ...