Question:
What is the ruling regarding one who refers to the Salafi manhaj (methodology) as the Talafi (destructive) manhaj— I seek refuge is sought with Allah?
Answer:
Its ruling is that he himself is the one who is Talif (ruined). You should not find it strange, my brother, that the people of goodness are given pejorative epithets. Do you not know that the Prophets were described as sorcerers and madmen? Say yes or no?
Questioner:
Yes.
The Shaykh:
Yes. The correct response [here] is ‘Bala’ (nay/on the contrary). Allah, Exalted be He, said: “Likewise, there came not to those before them any messenger except that they said, ‘A sorcerer or a madman.’“ [al-Dhariyāt: 52]. Did this epithet harm the Prophets? The answer is No. The ultimate outcome is in their favor, praise be to Allah.
Do not find it strange that the people of evil label the people of goodness with pejorative epithets. Do you not know that those who deny the attributes of Allah—Mighty and Majestic is He—describe those who affirm them as anthropomorphists, as redundant text-literalists, and as aberrant upstarts? Thus, it causes no harm.
Indeed, if it is assumed that a Salafi diverges from the path of the Salaf in his methodology, then at this juncture we say: ‘This individual is talif (ruined).’ However, we do not ascribe his deviation to the methodology itself.
This is because there are some among our brothers who adhere to the school of the Salaf—or rather, who desire the school of the Salaf—yet deviate from the Salaf in their conduct, thereby causing more harm to Islam and the adherents of Islam than they do good. It is possible that this speaker observed an individual among the Salafis whose conduct and methodology were abrasive, and consequently remarked, “The Salaf is destruction (al-talaf).”
We do not know the reality [of his intent]. However, if he intended the true Salafi methodology itself, we say: “You are the one who is Talif (ruined), not the path of the Salaf.”