What is the validity of the statement of one who claims affiliation with the righteous Salaf and says, "I am a Salafi"?

The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and the badness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows: In these days, there has been much questioning regarding affiliation with the righteous Salaf and the statement of some of those who claim this affiliation that they are Salafis, or that it is preferable to say, "I am a Salafi." There has been much questioning about this designation or this affiliation. Some ask for clarification, and some ask in a tone of disapproval. In response to this, we say: Any affiliation to which a person claims is either a true affiliation or a false one. If the affiliation is of the first type, i.e., true, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, provided that no religious or legal harm results from it. However, if the affiliation is of the second type, i.e., false and not true, then that alone is sufficient reason for a Muslim not to claim affiliation with what has no reality. There is no doubt that the affiliation of a Muslim, or some Muslims, to the righteous Salaf may sometimes be true, i.e., a genuine affiliation, and sometimes it may be a false affiliation with no reality. If it is of the first category, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. This is because this affiliation differs from many other affiliations that are always or usually accompanied by some deviation from the Islamic Shari'ah. This is because affiliation with the righteous Salaf does not mean affiliation with a specific person, no matter how high that person may be in knowledge and righteousness, for he is not infallible. Consequently, affiliation with him and fanaticism for him undoubtedly includes some deviation from the Shari'ah, because it is affiliation with someone who is not infallible. From this, the difference between affiliation with the Salaf and affiliation with an individual from among the Salaf becomes apparent, let alone affiliation with an individual from among the Khalaf. My wonder at some people of the type I alluded to in the introduction—those who ask about this affiliation with disapproval—hardly ceases. My wonder at these people hardly ceases when they disapprove of this designation, which, in my opinion, as I will explain, is a designation that we cannot imagine a Muslim who knows the true meaning of this designation would disavow. Nevertheless, I say for the third time that my wonder at these disapprovers of affiliation with this designation hardly ceases, while they themselves affiliate with individuals who are not infallible, or even with groups that are not infallible. For hundreds of years, the masses of Muslims who affiliate with the Sunnah or with others, such as the Shi'ah, have followed the practice of affiliating with individuals. These are Hanafis who affiliate with Abu Hanifah, these are Malikis who affiliate with Malik, those are Shafi'is who affiliate with al-Shafi'i, and those others are Hanbalis who affiliate with Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Leave aside the rest of those who affiliate with other than these Imams, such as the Ja'fariyyah who affiliate with Ja'far al-Sadiq and the Zaydiyyah who affiliate with Zayd ibn Ali. None of these groups makes me feel any deficiency in their affiliation to these Imams. This is only because they look at these Imams to whom they affiliate with a view of sanctification, reverence, and exaltation. We agree with them in this view, but we do not agree with them in this affiliation, because we have touched with our own hands the harms of this affiliation, which has led those who affiliate with it to become sects and parties in religion, and every party is pleased with what they have. Consider with me these affiliations: First, they end with a single person who is not infallible. Second, they result in the division and separation of Muslims from one another. On the other hand, we find the opposite of all this regarding this affiliation, which we are in the process of explaining the legitimacy of from all the negative aspects we mentioned in the illegitimate affiliation. For example, affiliation with the Salaf does not first mean affiliation with a specific person, but rather affiliation with the Salaf whom our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, praised in His Book, and whose Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) praised in his hadith. Especially, at the head of the righteous Salaf is one to whom a Muslim may affiliate, and he is a single person, and this affiliation is valid without any other affiliation to any other person. I mean Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). This is because affiliation with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is affiliation with infallibility, unlike affiliation, for example, with Abu Hanifah or other Imams, which is not affiliation with infallibility, but rather affiliation with a distinguished scholar in his religion, as we said earlier. However, he is still subject to error and is not infallible from it. As for affiliation with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), it is affiliation with the infallible one to whom falsehood does not come from before him or from behind him.