Re: What is salafite ?
Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
Brother Faisal, you posted:
“Salafi” is the adopted name by those who were otherwise commonly known as Wahabis.
These people who take the name ‘salafi’ are not actually wahabbis, neither do they call themselves wahabbi. The reason you might have said this is the fact that Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab was a reviver of the following of the salaf. During his time, it is true that Bid’ah was prominent. His stance in these matters (of Bid’ah and aqeedah) was firm. And he did not create a new salafi ideology. There were many before him who include Ibn Al-Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyyah. And there were many before these two all the way back to the salaf themselves. So the ideology of following the salaf is not a bid’ah. It is from the sunnah of the prophet because of the ahadith concerning them (the salaf). please read the links i put in my last post.
You also posted: and followers of the teachings of Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahab.
If you mean by this that they followed the teachings of the salaf that Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab revived in his time/place, you are correct.
You also posted: The premise of Abdul Wahab’s teachings is borne out of his disgust at Turks.
This is not true becuase the premise of his teachings, rather, was borne out of the disgust that any true Muslim holds for bid’ah and shirk. This was rampant in his time among the Muslims due to the fact that they were misguided (read http://www.cocg.org/articles1/dawn.htm and http://www.sultan.org/articles/wahabism.html for reference)and thus it lead to his reviving of the truth methedology and aqeedah of the salaf. In fact, one of the conditions of the shahadah is that a person must have a hatred of the acts of Shirk (kufr, bi’dah, and nifaq). For proof from quran and sunnah, refer to article on conditions of shahadah, http://www.as-sahwah.com/print.php?articleID=460&
I’d like to know if that post was an excerpt from the book. I’ve heard almost the same thing before. Insha’allah, that will be useful to me. Jazakallahukhayran.
Also, I agree with brother Sharaabi on the fact that there is bid’ah in the indo-paki area. I myself am pakistani, and of the times I have visited the country(very few), I could not believe my eyes, seeing people going to the graves for worship, having the graves in the masjid even though it’s forbidden, etc. My father keeps on telling me that that the culture of pakistanis and indians (since my grandparents are indian) adopted traditions from the hindus. That really explains a lot. But that is a TOTALLY different subject. I hope that I can one day study (in-depth) the history of pakistan and india.
Insha’allah, I plan to send only one more post on this topic, which is an article by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab about the manhaj he follows. I do not like to spend any amount of time on this especially due to the fact that I had asked my ustadh about Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (since I did not know much, and I still do not know that much.) He told me, “You should worry on learning the fundmantals and basics of Aqeedah” before going onto matters of 'sects, hizbees, and the like." This was his naseeha to me and mine to you.
Keep in mind also, that the present day scholars from the salafi do not in an way or form support terrorism. If you want the fatawaa from a binch of different scholars, you can email me at [email=“[email protected]”][email protected]
Brother gupguppy, you posted:
“if being a salafi means to express Islam according to the methodology of the earliest righteous Muslims (al salaf al saleh) then in that sense many (if not the majority) of Muslims are salafis… the followers of the four famous schools of fiqh trace their school and jurisprudic preferences to one or more Imams of that earliest period…”
The majority of the people in the indo/pakistan area ascribe themselves to Imam Abu Hanifa. And the majority of the people during the time of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab and also through out the times have ascribed themselves to an Imam. But it was also these people (obviously not all of them) who did Shirk and bid’ah. So how could they possibly follow the salaf by doing such? This was the reason that a revival of the true teachings of the salaf was neccessary and still is.
Again I would recommend reading the book which I talked about in my last post for anyone who wants to know about Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab.
**If I said anything wrong, may Allah forgive me. If I said anything right, it is not of me, indeed, it’s from Allah. If I offended anyone, forgive me, and may Allah bless you for your patience. And Allah knows best.
**