What is the Salafi call? What is meant by it? And why do some people oppose this call?

The questioner : What is the Salafi call and what is meant by it? And why do some people oppose this call?

The Shaykh : This is a good question. The Salafi call is returning in the understanding of the Book and the Sunnah to what the righteous Salaf were upon. In other words, it is holding fast to the path of the believers. This is the path such that if a Muslim deviates from it, the warning of the Lord of the Worlds becomes valid against him in His noble saying: So, regarding the Salafi call, we have spoken on this topic dozens of times, and with our brother Abu Ahmad there are many recordings containing various details. I do not prefer to go into detail now to complete the answer to this question; rather, the answer in brief is that the goal of the Salafi call is to return the Muslims to understanding the Book and the Sunnah as our righteous Salaf did, because what our righteous Salaf were upon is the path of the believers. If we deviate from them in that, the warning of the Lord of the Worlds becomes valid against us in the previous verse: And as I said earlier, this research is very long, but it is necessary to give one example to clarify the difference between what Muslims are upon today and what the first Muslims were upon, to whom we call people to follow their path. Today, if you pass by this cemetery below, you will find every grave has a different shape, and you will find many of the graves raised above the ground. Whereas the graves were not like this in the time of the Messenger and the time of the righteous Salaf. That is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade building on the grave, and forbade writing on the grave, and decorating the graves, and building domes and mosques. And you see that all these prohibitions are occurring today. So we say to these Muslims: return to what the Companions of the Messenger were upon. There was no grave that distinguished itself from another, no grave raised above the ground more than a span or a hand-span, none of that existed. And every day, wherever you pass by the cemeteries, you find them deviating from the path of the believers. Now, in the fullness of your question, you ask: why do many people fight this call? We say: fighting the call to truth is always, in every time and place, motivated by one of two things or both together: ignorance of the reality of this call, or disbelief in it. So those who fought the call of the Messenger (peace be upon him) are divided into two groups: a group that fought the call because its reality and the truth of its message had not become clear to them, and when it became clear to them, they followed it. Among them were all the Companions, and at their head was 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, who was one of the most fierce disbelievers against the call of the Messenger (peace be upon him). Nevertheless, when the truth became clear to him, he believed. Why did he believe? Because the call to truth became clear to him, so he believed in it. Why had he not believed before? Because it had not appeared to him. But the rest of the disbelievers, among them Abu Jahl the misguided, was killed in the Battle of Badr as a disbeliever and a stubborn opponent. So he died fighting the call to truth because it had become clear to him on one hand, and because he disbelieved in it on the other hand. And so history repeats itself. And may peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings be upon you. Many people hear of the Salafi call and do not know its reality, and therefore they oppose it. Others know its reality, just as the stubborn disbelievers knew the reality of the call of the Messenger (peace be upon him), and yet they are as our Lord said in the Qur'an: Both types exist today in our land, unfortunately. This is the answer to your question.
Al-Halabi : The hadith of Heraclius: "No one has come with what he brought except that he was opposed."

The Shaykh : Allahu Akbar. It is the Sunnah of Allah in His creation.