The Legitimacy of Affiliation with the Salafis.

The Shaykh : So when we say, "We are Salafis," this is not an act of worship; rather, it is a definition, just as if someone says, "So-and-so is Syrian," or "So-and-so is Jordanian," or "So-and-so is such-and-such," and so on. This is not a religious innovation; it is an expression of a person's reality in terms of his birth and his lineage, such as being an Ansari or a Muhajir, and so on. When a Muslim affiliates with a group, that affiliation may be rejected or it may be recognized and known. It is rejected if it implies a meaning that contradicts the Shari'ah. This is what the majority of people have fallen into, and this is a matter of great astonishment. The one who affiliates with a specific school of jurisprudence, whether in rulings or otherwise, says, "I am a Hanafi." He has affiliated himself with an imam. Another says, "I am a Maliki." He has affiliated himself with another imam. There are also Shafi'is and Hanbalis. All these affiliations have continued for approximately ten centuries without any objection. When, centuries ago, someone propagated the methodology of the righteous Salaf and clarified to people, with evidence from the Book and the Sunnah—I mentioned only a small portion of it—that the matter is as the precise scholars of knowledge state: "All good is in following those who came before, and all evil is in the innovation of those who came after". When this name was found to link people to these people, who are attested in the authentic hadith as being the best, they said, "This name is an innovation, and affiliation with the Salaf is an innovation." So what do we do? They claim that we must say, "We are Muslims." But the Muslims today include the Alawites, the Druze, and the Qadiyyan. This is a new party and sect among the Muslims, and so on. When you say about yourself, "I am a Muslim," have you defined yourself to your companion who asked you, "What is your school of thought and what is your religion?" You say, "Muslim." The Muslims, by the text of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), divided into seventy-three sects, and reality testifies that they are like that or even more. So it is not sufficient to say, "You are a Muslim"; you must express your orientation. You may be a Sufi Muslim, a Salafi Muslim, a Hanafi Muslim, or a follower of the later generations, and so on. As long as these names exist and are present, and they express affiliations that the affiliates themselves do not approve of—the imams themselves disavow fanaticism toward them, and therefore they ordered their followers to take the rulings of the Shari'ah from where they took them, namely from the Book and the Sunnah—affiliation with the righteous Salaf is not like affiliation with any person or any group in the entire Islamic world. For example, if we say that the Tahrir Party affiliates with a person, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates with a person, the Youth of Muhammad affiliates with a person, and the Tablighi Jama'ah affiliates with a person in India, and so on. But these people, however high they may be in knowledge, action, and character, and so on, are individuals who are not protected from error. Glory be to Allah, all of this continues without objection. But if I say, "I am a Salafi," meaning I affiliate with the righteous Salaf, and I want to understand the Book and the Sunnah as they did, not as the later generations do, then this is a rejected matter. In reality, this is one of the calamities mentioned in the reports that warn that the Sunnah will become an innovation and the innovation will become the Sunnah, and what is known will become rejected and what is rejected will become known. For this reason, we say: It is incumbent upon every Muslim, first, not to be fanatical toward any of the imams of the Muslims, and to benefit from all of them, because knowledge is not confined to one of them. This is the first point. Second, he must receive knowledge with the evidence of the Book and the Sunnah, in accordance with the way of our righteous Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them all). Perhaps in this is a clear and sufficient answer, if Allah wills, to the question directed earlier. We will pray, and then we will listen if there are any questions. Is there room for prayer or not?