The Shaykh Muhammad 'Ayd 'Abbas's speech on the reality of the Salafi call.

Eid Abbasi : What is the goal... of the Wahhabis and... what is the purpose of it and what is the goal to which it calls?
After the professor clarified that Wahhabism is merely a term with no reality, and that the call being denied by this name is actually the call of the Salaf, whose foundation is returning to the Book and the Sunnah, there is no harm, as long as this is the truth and this is the intent, in clarifying these principles and the goal to which this call invites.
Our call, which we have been spreading on the covers of our pamphlets for a long time, is in general terms a return to the Book and the Sunnah. We believe that people have actually and in reality neglected this return and abandoned it for many long centuries. This abandonment was the cause of disagreement and the cause of splitting into sects, groups, and parties. And so that the speech is not general, it is well known that every sect among the seventy-three sects about which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us, and into which the Ummah will divide, every sect claims outwardly and in words that it is the one that follows the Book and the Sunnah, that it is the one that will be saved, and that all others are in the Fire. To cut off the root of objections and clarify the matter, a clarifying condition was added to this phrase or this goal, which is the return to the Book and the Sunnah, specifying the intended meaning: the return to the Book and the Sunnah and understanding them according to the path by which the righteous Salaf understood them. This condition is what defines the intent, and it is what defines the correct understanding. People have differed and people continue to differ. Many of the people who are zealous for Islam and call to Islam, and many of the Islamic groups, whenever we meet them, we hear from them lamentation over this disagreement, lamentation over the Muslims because of their disagreement, and distress at this disagreement. They all say: "My brother, the weakness of the Muslims is due to their disagreement, and their disagreement is a calamity, and we must be rid of it. There is no salvation for us except in agreement. Allah calls for agreement, and Allah calls for holding firmly to the rope of Allah all together and not separating." And Islam has forbidden separation. So we have no choice but to say with them: All of this is correct. Disagreement is all evil, as Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said. But unity is the desire of everyone, and it is our desire in the introduction. But what is the path to unity? What is the way to achieve it? And what is the way to be rid of separation? We present to you a path, which is the path that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) presented, by which he united all people and gathered their hearts on guidance and good. And by the constraint of this agreement, they became the Ummah about which Allah said: .
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) came to the Arabs while they were divided, feuding, scattered, quarreling, and repelling one another. By what did he unite them? And Allah (the Exalted) established in His noble Book, saying: ? So what is the thing that Allah revealed? What is the thing by which Allah cured this disease, the disease of separation and disagreement? Why did He make them one Ummah? By what did He remove their disagreement and make them the noble Ummah, the best Ummah brought forth for mankind?
However much we search, we will not find but one methodology followed by this middle Ummah, and to which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) called. This methodology is the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and their correct understanding. And after the three blessed centuries, about which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) testified to their goodness in his famous noble hadith, and he said (may the prayer and peace be upon him): .
So these three blessed centuries were on one methodology; there was no disagreement among them. The original disagreement in beliefs, in the foundations, in the method and the path, they were all on one path in their generality. Then disagreement arose; so what was its cause?
Its cause was that these people began to have various, differing understandings. They differed in their understanding from that of the Companions, and they went out from the understanding of the Tabi'un and those who followed them with excellence. They came and began to interpret the verses, and they began to understand the attributes of Allah other than their proper meaning. Some of them said: "The command is created," and that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) does not know anything except after it occurs. Some of them said: The Qur'an, for example, is created. Some of them said with philosophies and interpretations for which Allah has not sent down any authority: , to say that the meaning of "istawa" (rose above) is that He "istawla" (dominated), and that there is no Allah above or below, right or left, or similar to that. They came to fiqh and compelled people and restricted them to following one of the famous scholars, and they limited them to four; whereas there were dozens of imams among the Muslims like the four imams, and indeed some of them were stronger or more knowledgeable than them, as some of the imams themselves testified. As they said, for example, about al-Layth: "He is more knowledgeable in fiqh than Malik, but his companions did not establish his status."
And so, from the side of this madhhabism, it was found where it had not been before. This interpretation of the attributes of Allah was found and had no existence in the three blessed centuries. After that, the belief regarding the Companions was between one who exaggerates and hates all the Companions except the Ahl al-Bayt, and one who hates the Ahl al-Bayt and is hostile to them, and others, for example, the Khawarij who declare people disbelievers for major sins and similar to that. All these sects are only... after the three blessed centuries. If we want to clarify our goal to people, we can clarify it in two ways. The general way is what you heard: the return—that is, our goal—the return to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and understanding them according to the path by which the righteous Salaf understood them. A verse, for example, that the Companions understood in one way, and the later scholars understood in another way, we are with the understanding that the Companions understood. If the Companions agreed on an understanding, we are with them. If they differed, we choose an opinion from them and do not go out from it, and we do not innovate in the religion of Allah anything that they did not say. So this general goal is the return to the Book and the Sunnah and understanding them according to the path by which the righteous Salaf understood them.