The Shaykh’s note that the term Salafi is more precise than Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah in indicating the saved sect.

The Shaykh: This reminds me of a statement I recorded earlier that I wanted to draw attention to on this occasion. In your speech, may Allah reward you, you mentioned the people of the Sunnah and the community. I see that using this name today does not represent the call to the truth, because this name, the people of the Sunnah and the community, has been and still is applied to two theological schools: the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah. These are the people of the Sunnah and the community. It never occurred to those from whom we inherited this term that the people of the Sunnah and the community would include the people of hadith, the followers of the righteous Salaf. Therefore, since we have been commanded to speak to people according to the capacity of their minds, I see that we should replace this word, which we constantly revolve around, and when we emphasize to people that it is not sufficient today to limit the call to the Book and the Sunnah alone—and this is necessary—but it is also obligatory to add to the call of the Book and the Sunnah another element: the decisive distinction between all the groups that claim to belong to Islam, despite the vast distance between them. For example, the Shi'ah and the Rafidah claim to belong to the Book and the Sunnah, and they claim to act according to the Book and the Sunnah, but the Sunnah has a concept for them different from the concept among the people of the Sunnah, meaning among the followers of the four schools of jurisprudence. Then, these followers of the four schools, as they are today and as we live today, do not understand the Sunnah as it came in the Sunnah when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the seventy-three sects and described them as and described the saved sect as that upon which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his noble Companions were. They do not understand the Sunnah with this restriction, namely that which was upon the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and that which was upon the Rightly Guided Caliphs. Therefore, the Muslim caller should not just revolve around calling Muslims to the Book and the Sunnah, and this is necessary, but he must also include the difference between these calls, all of which claim and assert belonging to the Book and the Sunnah. And in my knowledge, if you would be patient with me a little, may Allah reward you, in my knowledge the groups existing today refuse, in practice—I do not say in name—to attribute themselves to the Salaf, because this attribution narrows their circle of freedom from some of the rulings of the Shari'ah in the name of ta'wil, which is the very essence of ta'til, let alone that they would be pleased to attribute themselves to it in name. For they deny our attribution to the righteous Salaf. Finally, if one of us is asked, "What is your madhhab?" we say, "Salafi." He says to you, "What is Salafi?" Say, "Muslim," as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) named us in the Noble Qur'an. This is a word that appears good on the surface, but its inner reality is not so.