Some say, why do you call yourselves Salafis, but say you are the people of the Sunnah and the community?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Some say, why do you call yourselves by the name Salafi, and why do you not call yourselves the people of the Sunnah and the community? The Sufis, the Rafidah, and others from the people of false creeds are very angry at this name... 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, 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. You have dragged the Rafidah into the matter, perhaps it was a slip of the tongue! ... All right ... .
Let us return and say, is this person who says this from the people of the Sunnah? Is he affiliated with the Salaf? Because if he is affiliated with the Salaf or the people of the Sunnah, then the disagreement between us and him is a disagreement over the name, not over the thing named. But I know from some of the groups existing now, who are affiliated with the Sunnah in name but contradict it in reality, that they do not accept being called Salafi or of the righteous Salaf, because this has become a label for a sect of the people of the Sunnah, namely those who verify the Sunnah in reality, in creed, character, and behavior.
I know that when I was here at the Islamic University as a teacher for about a quarter of a century, there were individuals from some parties who would raise this question: why do you say Salafi and Salaf? Why do we not all describe ourselves with Islam, since we are all Muslims, and thus our Lord of the Worlds named us?
So the truth, and the truth I say, is that we call ourselves by this name for two reasons:
The first reason is that all Muslims, despite their very severe differences, no sect among them disavows the Book and the Sunnah to the extent that they disavow calling themselves Muslim, even the Rafidah.
Also, if we follow their wishes, these people, that there is no need for the word Salafi, but rather Muslim, then all these sects are Muslims, even the Druze, even the Alawites... Also, they say Muslim, even in the time of the Turks they would write Muslim on the personal identity card, but for the Jew it is Jew, and for the Christian it is Christian. So the term Muslim includes those who are not Muslim at all in our view, like some of those we mentioned. Then we have the well-known hadith All these sects are included in the circle of Islam and are called Muslim. If you want to define yourself to the one who asked you, and he said to you, what is your religion? You say to him, Muslim. Every Muslim among these people gives the same answer. 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, 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.
The second thing, we say to those who deny this attribution and this naming: are you able to drop all the other attributions, which the entire Islamic world lives with? 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... .
The Shaykh : I think you made a mistake in part of the question when you mentioned the Rafidah. I mean, 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. You have dragged the Rafidah into the matter, perhaps it was a slip of the tongue! ... All right ... .
Let us return and say, is this person who says this from the people of the Sunnah? Is he affiliated with the Salaf? Because if he is affiliated with the Salaf or the people of the Sunnah, then the disagreement between us and him is a disagreement over the name, not over the thing named. But I know from some of the groups existing now, who are affiliated with the Sunnah in name but contradict it in reality, that they do not accept being called Salafi or of the righteous Salaf, because this has become a label for a sect of the people of the Sunnah, namely those who verify the Sunnah in reality, in creed, character, and behavior.
I know that when I was here at the Islamic University as a teacher for about a quarter of a century, there were individuals from some parties who would raise this question: why do you say Salafi and Salaf? Why do we not all describe ourselves with Islam, since we are all Muslims, and thus our Lord of the Worlds named us?
So the truth, and the truth I say, is that we call ourselves by this name for two reasons:
The first reason is that all Muslims, despite their very severe differences, no sect among them disavows the Book and the Sunnah to the extent that they disavow calling themselves Muslim, even the Rafidah.
Also, if we follow their wishes, these people, that there is no need for the word Salafi, but rather Muslim, then all these sects are Muslims, even the Druze, even the Alawites... Also, they say Muslim, even in the time of the Turks they would write Muslim on the personal identity card, but for the Jew it is Jew, and for the Christian it is Christian. So the term Muslim includes those who are not Muslim at all in our view, like some of those we mentioned. Then we have the well-known hadith
My Ummah will split into seventy-three sects, all in the Fire except one... to the end of the hadith
تفترق أمتي على ثلاث وسبعين فرقة كلها في النار إلا واحدة ... إلى آخر الحديثThe second thing, we say to those who deny this attribution and this naming: are you able to drop all the other attributions, which the entire Islamic world lives with? 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... .