Salafiyyah is a Blessed Historical Phase rather than an Islamic Legal School

Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti

It is incumbent on every Muslim man and woman to follow in the footsteps of the righteous ancestors in understanding and practicing both the Qur'an and Sunnah, especially if they are committed to God's Book and the Messenger's guidance. In the Qur'an, God commands the people to obey His Messenger: "And whatsoever the Messenger [Muhammad] gives you, take it; and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain [from it]." On the other hand, the Prophet commands the people to pursue his Sunnah and that of the Rightly Guided Caliphs and to follow the path of the people of virtue, who belong to the first three generations of Islam. The Prophet says: "Beware of innovations in religion since they lead someone astray; instead, people should firmly follow my Sunnah and the path of the Rightly Guided Caliphs." In another hadith he says, "The most righteous are my generation, then the next, and then the next." The benefit from this superiority is to follow in their footsteps.

However, embracing a new legal school, called Salafiyyah, which is based on fanaticism, has nothing to do with following the right path, and differs from it in general and particular details. However, is there a difference between this type of belonging [tamadhhub] and following the ways of the ancestors?

To start with, the difference is huge. It is akin to our saying Mohammadans or Muslims. As is well known, for a long time Orientalists have referred to Muslims as Mohammadans, which is not acceptable from an Islamic perspective, as well as from the perspective of righteous Muslim life. The term "Mohammadans" gives the false impression that Muslims belong to Muhammad and are committed blindly to his person; however, the term "Muslims" expresses Muslims' submission to God's authority and their acceptance of the divine revelation passed on to them by the Prophet. The Muslims' commitment to the Prophet derives from their obedience to God, and their love of the Prophet is predicated on the fact that he is God's Messenger.

This obvious difference between the terms Mohammadans and Muslims is the same as the difference between embracing Salafiyyah as a legal system and following in the footsteps of the ancestors, or salaf. In the former case, embracing the Salafiyyah would mean that the blessed ancestors possessed their distinctive school of thought expressing their character and collective entity, and that anyone following them represents the true form of Islam. In other words, from this perspective Islam would ally itself with this school of thought, adopt its principles, rules, and morals, and fight its enemies.

However, following in the footsteps of the blessed ancestors, without considering them as the founders of a legal school within Islam, means honoring those whom God's Messenger has commanded to honor, those who lived in the first three generations and who were sincere in their belief in God and clung firmly to the Rope of Allah, which stretches out to them. Furthermore, it means following them — the salaf — in understanding Islam and imitating them through the manhaj (a clear way), which they follow to understand the texts of the Qu'ran and Sunnah and interpret their teachings and rules.

Islam is, in fact, the entity that must be followed, and its divine method in knowledge and understanding is the pillar of its foundation. The pious salaf, committed as they were to the divine path of Islam, are our guides to this divine foundation. Their standard, as our predecessors on the path, is measured according to their own commitment to the method and scale of this religion. ... That is the difference between embracing Salafiyyah as a legal school and following the pious ancestors, or salaf, as a way of realizing God's Messenger's advice. It is clear that the latter ensues from the divine core of this religion and one of the primary...