Fatwa

What is a Salafi

Question

Salaams
Please can you answer a query for me.
I want to be clear on what a Salafi Muslim is?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

Linguistically, salafi means someone who ascribes himself to the salaf i.e. the first three generations from Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam (The sahabah, the taabi’een, the tab’ taabi’een). Based on this definition, every Muslim is a salafi as we all take our deen from the salaf.

Contemporarily, the word is used by a group of people who created a movement where they wanted to do away with the 4 madhabs (schools of thought) and instead “go back to the salaf” and through them, the Quran and Sunnah. The obvious flaw in this statement is that it assumes that the 4 madhabs are following something besides the Quran, Sunnah, and the salaf. Did the Imams Malik, Abu Hanifah, Shafi, Ahmed Rahimahumullah ever dare to follow anything besides the Quran, Sunnah and the salaf? Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifah are themselves part of the salaf!

Therefore, in reality, this group created a 5^th madhab, one in which they think they know better. If any sensible person is asked, what is safer, to abide by the rulings of an Imam like Imam Malik and his madhab or instead follow a contemporary, what would the answer be?

Note: Salafism is also a spectrum and has differences in different aspects, be it theology, fiqh or politics.

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Mufti Bilal Pandor

Concurred by
Mufti Muhammad Patel

Darul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah
Lusaka, Zambia

www.daruliftaazambia.com