6) The Salafis Are Arrogant And Have Bad Manners
And this is a very subtle matter, requiring careful thought and deliberation.
As for bad manners, then this is often due to the upbringing and nature of the
individual, his characteristics and his personality, and it is not necessary a
reflection of the base and foundation, the aqidah and manhaj of the Salaf, which
is nothing but the truth. So a person may be in need of correcting his manners
and calling with wisdom (that is the Sunnah) and beautiful argumentation, so
that his invitation is more readily accepted. But this is not pretext for
rejecting the validity and correctness of the way of the Salaf and ascribing
oneself to it, since that is the only way of deliverance. So we make a
difference between what sometimes occurs from some of the Salafis of bad
manners, and between what is actually a knowledge-based manhaj that is derived
from the Book and the Sunnah. The blame is upon the individual and not the base
and foundation. The same can be said about every other Muslim, regardless of
what astray methodology or heretical belief he subscribes to, amongst them are
those with evil manners and bad habits. But a manhaj or aqidah is judged
according to its agreement or disagreement with what the Prophet (sallallaahu
alaihi wasallam) and his Companions and the Salaf were upon,
fundamentally, not by the behaviour of its people. Refer also to the next
doubt for more clarification.
As for arrogance, then sometimes this may occur from an individual, in which
case he is censured, yet in other cases it is perceived to be arrogance, though
the individual does not have any arrogance but only love for the truth, being
certain in that truth – but he is understood to have arrogance by his
counterpart or opponent or the one that he is inviting. And it can often be the
case that arrogance is actually on behalf of the one who does not accept the
truth of what is being said by the one who subscribes to the Salafi aqidah and
manhaj (and who is not a false pretender from amongst the biased partisans!!).
Remember this, for this is often the case. As the Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi
wasallam) said, "Arrogance is rejection of the truth, and looking down upon
the people". Many of those who claim the Salafis are arrogant, then
refuge is from Allaah, in truth they are the arrogant ones for they do not
accept the true call and the correct da’wah, out of arrogance, and then they
accuse the Salafis of being arrogant. So remember this, for every coin has two
sides.
Consider, a Salafi may be inviting a person to the truth, in a matter in
which he knows that he is correct. He is harsh and insists that he is correct
and so he is accused of being arrogant, though the only reason he has exhibited
this behaviour is his love for the truth and upholding the truth. Even though we
may say that his action is incorrect and misplaced and his great zeal has led
him to behave inappropriately, either due to lack of knowledge or due to bad
manners. So it is upon him to correct all of that. Otherwise the one being
invited ends up not accepting the truth on account of the way it was
presented.
So we say that arrogance may sometimes be exihibited, and this returns back
to the individual, not the manhaj or aqidah he subscribes to. Indeed, we can say
that many of the Sufi Heretics are indeed arrogant in their claim of sure
deliverance from the Fire and their requesting submissive obedience from their
herd of followers – thinking themselves to be above the people. And we can
extend this to all of the sects and groups of innovation. Arrogance is found
everywhere and is not a referent point for whether a person’s manhaj and aqidah
is correct or not. Rather the manhaj and aqidah itself is the referent point,
and all of that is thrown against what the Salaf were upon.
We leave you with the remainder of the discussion between Imaam al-Albaani
and the questioner concerning naming with "Salafiyyah":
Questioner: [Continuing from where we left off] "Alright, I will submit
to you and I say to you: Yes (I agree about summarising with saying ‘I am
Salafi’), yet my belief is what has preceded, since the first thing that a
person thinks of when he hears that you are a Salafi is that he recalls much of
the experience he has had and which has involved severity which leads to
harshness, all of which sometimes occurs from the Salafis."
Shaikh al-Albaani: "Lets accept that your words are correct. If you said
‘I am a Muslim’, will not a person’s think of a Shi’ite Rafidee, or a Druze or
an Ismaa’eeli (and incline to him)."
Questioner: "It is possible, however, I will have followed the noble
verse, "He has named you Muslims".