The Salafi call is based on following the Book and the Sunnah according to the understanding of the righteous Salaf

The Shaykh : Then, here we clarify the matter somewhat. We say: Why do we call ourselves Salafis? The Salafi call, as we have mentioned to you repeatedly, is that all Muslims call for following the Book and the Sunnah. However, this following is not restricted to a specific subject or a limited, clearly defined methodology. We see that it is necessary to restrict the call to the Book and the Sunnah to what the righteous Salaf were upon. How were the righteous Salaf? Were they all scholars? Were they all cultured and wise, or was only a few of them scholars while the majority were not? Was there this division that the writer keeps harping about, where scholars are ordered to follow the Book and the Sunnah, while the 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; it was not the case that in the time of the righteous Salaf there was a madhhab called "the Madhhab of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq" to which some people would belong, saying, "I am an Abi Bakri." Nor was there a "Umarite" madhhab, nor an "Uthmanite" madhhab, nor an "Aliite" madhhab. So, in these three centuries attested to as being the best, how were the common people—the ones the writer wants to impose rigidity and madhhab adherence upon? How were the common people in those golden centuries? I say, in summary and in detail, it is known how they were. How they were is how they must be today. How the common Muslims in the centuries attested to as being the best were, so must the common Muslims be today and after today. We strive for the renewal of Islamic life. History must repeat itself. The Muslims and their scholars must return to how their scholars were. The Muslims, the followers of the scholars and the common Muslims, must return to how the followers of the scholars and the common Muslims were there. If we say, "No, we call the cultured and the scholars to the Book and the Sunnah, and we leave the Muslim public on their madhahbs, fearing deviation and the alleged misguidance," that means we are not sincere when we speak of the renewal of Islamic life.