A word by the Shaykh urging adherence to the Salafi methodology.

The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows,
Indeed, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation (bid'ah), and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. And further, we are in an age in which the statement of our Prophet (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) is true, in his saying: They said: "Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: And in another narration that explains the first, he (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) said: If this hadith explicitly states that the Muslims will split into seventy-three sects, seventy-two of which are all in the Fire, and the saved sect is one, then it is fitting for every Muslim to know which sect he belongs to. Is he of the saved sect, whose characteristics are clear and manifest, or is he, may Allah forbid, of one of those many sects which reached the number of seventy-two in the report of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? And every one of these sects claims to have a connection and bond with the Islam that Allah revealed to the heart of Muhammad (peace be upon him). But the truth says to these claimants: "And claims, unless you establish for them *** proofs, their children are claimants" or as the other said: "And every one claims a connection to Layla *** but Layla does not approve of that for them" So what is the way and what is the path for the Muslim to be certain of his affair, that he is of the saved sect, or that he is of one of those deviant, astray sects? There is no way for the Muslim in this age to know that he is of the saved sect except by holding fast to the strong rope of Allah, which is nothing but the Noble Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), which is the companion of the Noble Qur'an, as he (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: Our Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) left us upon the clear, pure path, its night like its day; none goes astray or deviates from it except one who is perishing. He left us upon the Book and the Sunnah, and upon one way, not upon multiple ways. And therefore Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) says in the Noble Qur'an: My path, meaning my way, meaning my path. And this is a text, and this is a text in the Noble Qur'an, to which falsehood does not come from before it or from behind it. That the paths leading to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) are all false except this one path, which is the way that our Prophet (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) brought us, and our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) informed us of in His Book in the previous verse: Which paths? And out of his (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) mercy for his Ummah and his eagerness to convey the legal truths he brought to them, he depicted for us the way and the path that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded us to follow, and the paths that contradict and differ from it. The Messenger (peace be upon him) depicted that for his Companions one day on the ground, where he drew a straight line for them, then drew short lines around the line. This reminds me of some of the poles raised today to broadcast evil, mostly the vertical ones they place on buildings to catch television broadcasts. You find how there are lines in it like this, parallel. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) depicted for his noble Companions the Straight Path and the paths that contradict it on the ground, where he drew a straight line for them, and around this straight line, short lines. And he recited for them the noble verse: Then he clarified that by his (peace be upon him) saying: The straight line is the path that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: Then he (peace be upon him) said: , short paths Where are you going? A long, long path with no end. To me, to me. This is the path that leads to Allah. So whoever responds to this devil has strayed from the Straight Path. These are paths, and at the head of each of them is a devil calling people to it.
The truth is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, and advised the Ummah with everything he brought, peace and blessings be upon him. Among this is this hadith which clarifies the previous verse . The paths today, as they were before, are many, and very many; some are old and some are new. So there is no salvation for the Muslim except by knowing the path of Allah, the path that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned in the previous verse. And as we said, there is no way to know that except by returning to the Book and the Sunnah. Therefore, we always call upon all Muslims in every part of the world to save themselves from falling into any of the many paths of misguidance, by recognizing the one true path that has no second, which is the path of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. It is the path that the noble Companions followed, and then the renowned Imams followed them in that, such as the four Imams and others. They were all upon this straight path. And the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, emphasized this matter and warned that a Muslim should not hold fast to anything that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and his Companions were not upon. The authentic hadith narrated by the compilers of the Sunan and others, from the hadith of al-'Arba' ibn Sariyah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: "The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, gave us a sermon that made our hearts tremble and our eyes weep. So we said, 'O Messenger of Allah, we see you as one bidding farewell, so give us advice.'" He said: . So what is the work? He was saying, "What is the work, O Messenger of Allah?" and the answer would come to him without a question. And in another hadith: . So our duty today is summarized in that we must seek understanding of the Book of Allah, the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and what our righteous predecessors were upon, from the Companions and those who followed them with excellence, until the Day of Judgment. And there is no path to knowing this except knowledge. And knowledge, as he, peace and blessings be upon him, said in the authentic hadith about him, said: . No person is born a scholar. Therefore, he, peace be upon him, said: , meaning that you must engage in the means that make you a scholar, or at least a student of knowledge. Just as the patient, purified, and praised one is not the one whom Allah blessed and created with patience, but rather the one who was created with the opposite, yet he strives against his self and becomes patient, even though he is not patient by nature and disposition. Therefore, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, associated becoming patient with learning, and he said: . If knowledge is through learning, then it is not permissible for a Muslim to live in such negligence, not caring about seeking knowledge, even by the nearest path that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) legislated for people to lift from them the darkness of ignorance, which is the saying of our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He: . The question, as he, peace and blessings be upon him, said, is the cure for ignorance, which is ignorance. Every Muslim should learn what he is obligated to know of the matters of his religion, so that he may meet the Face of his Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, while being clear about his affair. This hadith means that everyone who claims knowledge by guesswork, until some of them exaggerate and say, "My heart told me about my Lord," is only a man whom either Satan has misled without his knowledge, or he knows that he is misguided and misleading, because knowledge is not merely following desire and claiming a special connection with Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, so that He throws knowledge upon him as He used to throw it upon the Messengers and Prophets before Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. As for our Prophet, may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him, the Messengers ended with him, and the religions and laws all ended with him. So he, peace and blessings be upon him, said: . So everyone who claims Islam but does not understand Islam through the path of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, or through the path of... their desires, and their knowledge is their lusts, so they mislead people without knowledge. We must be aware of the correct knowledge so that we may be saved by it, and not follow knowledge that is not correct and not in accordance with the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family. The scholars of the Muslims, all of them, their predecessors and successors, agree that knowledge has no path except these three paths that we mentioned: the Book, the Sunnah, and following the Companions. Therefore, one of them said:
"Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said *** The Companions said; it is not deception
"What knowledge has made you a fool in opposition, *** Between the Messenger and the saying of a jurist" to the end of what he said. Since the matter is so, it is not permissible for a Muslim to follow every barker, every one who claims to be a scholar. Knowledge is light, and this knowledge, as you know well, is nothing but 'Allah said' and 'The Messenger of Allah said.' So, whoever calls you to what Allah said and what the Messenger of Allah said, that is the one who must be followed. As for those among the Muslims who claim Islam but follow various paths and claim that the paths leading to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) are as numerous as the breaths of the creatures, that is a false statement that contradicts the texts of the Book and the Sunnah, and especially the previous verse: Whether this caller is calling to an Islam that he understands with his crooked mind, not from the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, or does not recognize Islam at all, as some of the youth have been afflicted with, who belong to some of the parties and some of the destructive principles, such as communism, for example, and others. It is not permissible for Muslims to be deceived by such people, because what they have from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, is better and more lasting.