The reality of the Salafi call is the obligation to follow the Book and the Sunnah and understand them, and the meaning of His saying, the Exalted:

The Shaykh : Then here we clarify the matter somewhat. We say: Why do we say: Salafis and the Salafi call? We have mentioned to you repeatedly that all Muslims call for following the Book and the Sunnah, but this following is not restricted to a specific subject and a limited, clear, and distinct methodology. So we saw that it is necessary to restrict the call to the Book and the Sunnah as it was with the righteous Salaf. How was the righteous Salaf? Were they all scholars? Were they all cultured and wise? Or was the scholar among them few and the majority of them not scholars? Was there this division that the writer keeps talking about? The scholars are commanded to follow the Book and the Sunnah, while the general public must follow a specific madhhab? Every Muslim knows by necessity that in the centuries attested to as being the best, there was no adherence to a specific madhhab. We all know there was no difference between a scholar, a student, and an ignorant person that there was not in the time of the righteous Salaf a madhhab called the madhhab of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq to which some people belong and say: I am a Bakri. And there is also no 'Umarite, 'Uthmanite, or 'Aliite madhhab.
So these three centuries attested to as being the best, the general people whom the writer wants to impose rigidity on regarding madhhab adherence, how were the general people in those golden centuries? I say in summary, and the details are known, how they were, however they were, they must be so today. However the general Muslims were in the centuries attested to as being the best, the general Muslims today and after today must also be so. We strive to revive the true Islamic life. History must repeat itself; the Muslims, their scholars, must return as their scholars were, the Muslims, the followers of the scholars and the general Muslims, must return as the followers of the scholars and the general Muslims were there. So if we say: No, we call the cultured and the scholars to follow the Book and the Sunnah.
... and not from their scholars, but they understood the Salafi call from their opponents and enemies, and these are the ones who ... such a calamity of misunderstanding this call. Many people quote from us, some of them ... us, and some of them fight us and attack us in secret, saying that we call all Muslims, even the general public, to understand directly from the Book and the Sunnah. And I say explicitly: If there were actually people calling the ignorant illiterates who do not read or write to take fiqh, 'aqidah, and the whole religion directly from the Book and the Sunnah, while they do not know how to read a verse or a hadith narration correctly, then this person's statement would be correct, and the statement of those enemies would be correct. But is the call like this? We call the one who does not understand anything of knowledge to climb up on the Book and the Sunnah, and to impose his ignorance, his commonness, and his illiteracy on the Book and the Sunnah, and then say: I understand it this way, and I am commanded to follow the Book and the Sunnah? There is no Muslim, describe him as you wish, Salafi or Khalafi, there is no Muslim ever who says such a thing. And we have always said, and forever, and recently, meaning yesterday, people came to me from Homs, among them a young man somewhat cultured, who was told from ... the known and like it ... the disbeliever that we call all people to follow the Book and the Sunnah; meaning that the ignorant understand the Book and the Sunnah with their ignorance. So I explained the matter to him with some detail, summarizing I said to him: The text of the Noble Qur'an divided people in terms of knowledge and ignorance into two groups. It made them scholars, and they are those who understand the Book and the Sunnah, and opposite them are the non-scholars, we call them, meaning the ignorant, who do not understand the Book and the Sunnah, two groups. So each of the two groups has his obligation by the text of the Noble Qur'an. He, the Exalted, said: .
So He addresses the Ummah in its entirety, in its scholars and its ignorant, in its cultured and its illiterate, saying: You are two groups, scholars and non-scholars. The non-scholars must ask the scholars: . This is what we call people to. But we may differ with the muqallids in the concept of knowledge and the scholar. What is knowledge? And who is the scholar?
So we mentioned more than once, also, quoting from our scholars, as for the scholar, he is the scholar by the Book and the Sunnah, and he is not a scholar if he comprehends all the books of the madhhab branches with knowledge. This is not a scholar, but rather he is ... but rather he is a scrapbook that collected everything the scholars said in their books, despite the many differences in these statements. And if you ask him: What is the saying of Allah and what is the saying of the Messenger of Allah? ... he tells you with complete frankness: I do not know.
So he admits that he does not know; because knowledge, as Ibn al-Qayyim said, "Allah said, His Messenger said," to the end of the known poem ... Allah said: meaning ask the people of knowledge if you do not know. Who are the people of knowledge? The people of ... in the books ...? Of course not. The people of knowledge are, as He, the Exalted, said: . The people of knowledge are the people of the Qur'an; meaning: ask the scholars of the Qur'an. And the scholar does not say with other than the Qur'an unless he is a scholar of the Sunnah; because ... the Qur'an the scholar is the scholar of the revealed Qur'an and the explaining Sunnah, the scholar of the explained Qur'an and the explaining hadith, which is the speech of the Messenger, peace be upon him, ; so we, the scholar is the one who says in what he goes to in all matters of religion, in all ... this is Islam, he says: Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said, and ... except a scholar ... the scholar ... and the ignorant ... is not a scholar ... the function of these ignorant people is to ask what the scholars understood ... from here ... in the mind of some of those who heard of the call of the Messenger ... adopted it, but he ... the truth; and it is that the Salafi call ... the Salafi call ... but I say ... .
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