Salafiyyah: Is The Methodology of the Prophet and his Companions

[Shehzad Sattar]

Al-Allaamah Al-Faqeeh As-Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Saalih Al-Uthaymeen rahimahullaah said:

“As-Salafiyyah, is: to follow the methodology of the Prophet sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam and his Companions (radiallaahu anhum). Because they who are our predecessors and they proceeded us (and showed us the way).”

Source: Rad ‘Alaa Al-Jahmiyyah of Imaam Daarimee rahimahullaah. Page 154 (footnote 2).

Question: What is As-Salafiyyah and what is your opinion regarding it?

Answer: All praise is due to Allah alone, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger, his family and his Companions. To proceed:

“As-Salafiyyah” is an attachment or affiliation to the ‘Salaf’. And “the Salaf” are the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) and the Imams of guidance (may Allah be pleased with them) from the first three generations, those whose goodness Allah’s Messenger (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) bore witness to in his statement:

“The best of mankind is my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow them. Then there will come people where bearing witness of one of them will precede his taking an oath and his taking an oath will be his bearing witness.”

[Reported by Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the ‘Musnad’, ‘Al-Bukhari’, and Muslim]*

And “The Salafiyyoon [or Salafis]” is the plural of “Salafi”, an attachment or affiliation to the Salaf, and its meaning has already preceded above – and they are those who traverse upon the Methodology (Manhaj) of the Salaf in following the Book of Allah and the Sunnah [of the Messenger of Allah], and inviting to them, and acting upon them, and they are, due to this, Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah.

* Imam Ahmad: (4/426). Al-Bukhari: (2651). Muslim: (2535).

From: The Permanent Committee for Research and Verdicts – Shaykh `Abdul-`Azeez Bin Baaz – “Fataawa Al-Lajnah Ad-Daa’imah”: (2/165-166). Fatwa No. (1361).

The Salafi methodology follows prophetic guidance and the righteous predecessors

Question: The Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said that his Ummah (Muslim nation) would be fragmented into seventy-three sects. All of them would be in Hell except for one. The Companions may Allah be pleased with them asked him which sect that would be and he replied that it was the one that would follow him and his Companions. Do these sects include the Salafi school, the Hanafi school, the Hanbali school and the Shafi‘i school?

Answer: All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.

Salafism is not one of the sects into which the Ummah of Muhammad (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) has been divided, because Salafism means following the right path of the righteous predecessors. These first three generations of Muslims, as the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said, were the examples to be followed for how the teachings of Islam should be practiced. It was narrated on the authority of ‘Imran Ibn Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said that the people of his generation were the best, then those who followed them, and then those who followed them (meaning, the first three generations of Muslims). Then, there would come a generation who would lack the competency to testify properly. They would be treacherous and untrustworthy and would not deliver what they had promised, and among whom obesity would be rampant.

Moreover, Allah The Almighty says (what means):

{You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind.}

[Quran 3:110]

Adh-Dhahhak may Allah have mercy upon him mentioned that this verse refers to the Companions of the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) and the callers to Islam whom Allah The Almighty commanded all Muslims to follow.

Therefore, the followers of the Companions belong to the group which will be saved from Hell, Allah willing, since they have been approved of and praised by Allah The Almighty.

However, merely claiming that we have an association with them or take different names that indicate this (Salafism or Salafi) is not enough to make us counted among the saved sect, because what is important is not the names, but the application. The only criterion in this respect is the degree of adherence to the Quran and the Sunnah.

Also, the Hanafi school, Hanbali school and Shafi‘i school are not considered among these deviant sects, because they are schools of Fiqh (jurisprudence) that adopted one methodology yet disagreed about the sub-issues, not about the fundamentals.

Also, those who belong to these schools are considered among the saved sect as long as they do not deviate from the creed of the followers of the Sunnah or belong to any of the sects that will be in Hell.

As mentioned before, the criterion according to which any sect or group should be judged is how close they are to the methodology of the righteous predecessors in understanding and applying the Islamic creed and fundamentals.

Hence, Ash-Shatibi the Al-Maliki scholar (may Allah have mercy upon him) stated that the sects of Hell are considered so only because they disagreed with the saved sect about the fundamentals of the religion and rules of the Shari‘ah, and not about the sub-issues, because disagreement about the latter does not cause Muslims to become different sects.

Therefore, whoever contemplates on any of the deviated sects will find that they disagree with the followers of the Sunnah in one or more of the Islamic fundamentals:

– The Khawaarij: They judge the person who commits a major sin to be a disbeliever

– The Murji’ah: They do not include actions in the definition of faith and claim that sins do not affect a person’s faith just as good deeds do not benefit a disbeliever. They restrict the definition of disbelief to that of atheism.

– The Mu‘tazilah: They deny the attributes that Allah The Almighty affirmed for Himself.

– The Rafidhah: They slander the honorable Companions of the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam)

– Extreme Sufism: Which justifies the worship of the dead and believes in incarnation and unity of the Creator and creation.

Finally, we supplicate to Allah The Almighty to guide all of us to His right path. Ameen.

Allah Knows best.

Fatwa No : 5608 – Fatwa Date : Rabee’ Al-Awwal 15, 1433 / 8-2-2012 – Source

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