How do we respond to those who attack the Salafis?
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The questioner : Regarding confronting some people, I mean, these Salafis do this and do that... how do we respond... to the distortion of the image?
The Shaykh : ...the Book and the Sunnah, and we ask: What does the Salafi do? What does he do? Do you have any evidence from the Book and the Sunnah? Those who attack the Salafis are, unfortunately, more ignorant of the Book and the Sunnah than Abu Jahl, because they contradict what they found their fathers and grandfathers upon. However, if they take something against the Salafis, or at least against some of them, on the basis of the Book and the Sunnah, they accept it. This is because, in reality—and I say this openly—they are slaves to the Book and the Sunnah, while the others are slaves to the inherited sayings of their scholars. This discussion is indeed long, but as an answer to the professor's question, this is sufficient to clarify what the Salafi call is and what its position is regarding the Imams. The Salafi call, therefore, is a call to act in accordance with the Book and the Sunnah, not by interpreting the texts of the Book and the Sunnah according to desires, but according to what the righteous Salaf were upon. The Imams are at the forefront of the righteous Salaf, and from them we draw this sound methodology.
The Shaykh : ...the Book and the Sunnah, and we ask: What does the Salafi do? What does he do? Do you have any evidence from the Book and the Sunnah? Those who attack the Salafis are, unfortunately, more ignorant of the Book and the Sunnah than Abu Jahl, because they contradict what they found their fathers and grandfathers upon. However, if they take something against the Salafis, or at least against some of them, on the basis of the Book and the Sunnah, they accept it. This is because, in reality—and I say this openly—they are slaves to the Book and the Sunnah, while the others are slaves to the inherited sayings of their scholars. This discussion is indeed long, but as an answer to the professor's question, this is sufficient to clarify what the Salafi call is and what its position is regarding the Imams. The Salafi call, therefore, is a call to act in accordance with the Book and the Sunnah, not by interpreting the texts of the Book and the Sunnah according to desires, but according to what the righteous Salaf were upon. The Imams are at the forefront of the righteous Salaf, and from them we draw this sound methodology.