Assalamu allaicum wa raahmatullah wa barakatuhu
I am not sure dear brother that only few people as you said call themselves " Salafis", and I am not sure what you have meant by that, but it is truth that many Muslims are confused regarding this subject, and calling themselves " Salafis", or on onother side some of them are calling themselves " Hanafis", while they should call themselves only Muslims,
Walaykumsalaam waa rahmatullahi,
Let me clarify. I meant to say that only a few people who label themselves 'Salafis' and use it as a way to cause trouble (calling other innovators and non believers.. Astaghfirullah) and use it to look down upon others or criticize unnecessarily. In reality, they are not following the advice of the scholars (May Allah preserve them).
Alhamdulillah this is not the case for the majority of the people who identify themselves as followers of Salaf us Salih.
There is also a thread in which Sh Uthaymeen rahimullah advises the followers of the dawah to not make a new hizb with this methodology. It is only to express the methodology of our dawah, not for sectarianism.
Alhamdulillah,like Allah has called us long time ago, like our Prophets called himselfe, his Sahabahs r.a., and all Prophets before him. Muslim means a loot, when you call yourselfe like that,
Well at the time of the Prophet (PBUH) and Sahaba ( May Allah be pleased with them all), such deviations had not corrupted our lands as we have today. Certainly, we should identify as 'submitters of our will to Allah Almighty' or muslims. We are not to be allergic to this term.
I don't think any of them is calling towards revoking any association or identification with the term 'muslim'. But once you are among muslims, what methodology and belief system do you follow, that is the question.
but calling yourselfe " Salafi", or " Hanafi", it does not mean a loot SubhanAllah, because there are many who called themselves " Hanafi", but they do not folow that madhab, but they can be Deobandis or some other wrong sect. It is the same with some who call themselves " Salafis", which should say that they folow first generations of Muslims, but in reality they do not, but they support terrorism or suicide bombing which is far away from Islaam Alhamdulillah.
This is even more problematic with the term 'muslim'. We have qadaniyya, twelvers imams, druze, allevis, barelwiyya with a host of others all claiming to be 'muslim'. Ofcourse there are bad apples everywhere.
It has appeared so many sects today and Muslims are so much devaided, because if some non Muslims look from his way of view and see that someone is caling himselfe " Salafi" or " Hanafi", what he would say SubhanAllah. He would not knew what is truth Islaam, and who are truthfull Muslims. Islaam is not any sect or metodology, but Islaam is based on Quraan, Sunaah of our Prophet sallahu alayha wa salam and practise of his honoured Sahabahs r.a. It is not the same to say "I am folowing this",and to say " I am this one"... It is right to say I am Muslim , who folow Islaam which is based on Quraan, Sunaah of Prophet Mohammed sallahu alayha wa salam and practise of Islaam by first Salaf generations of Muslims,and it is not right to say only
If you read the works of our major scholars of Ahl Us Sunnah Wal Jamaa, they have praised the ways of people who cling to Sunnah and the ways of the salaf. They have used terminology that was prevalent in/for their times. This did not mean that they were sectarian or didn't identify themselves with the word 'muslim'.
For example Imam Tirmidhi rahimullah used the word 'Ahlul Hadeeth' quite often. Imam Bukhari rahimullah praised the Ashabul Hadeeth. These were means of identifying their methodology with attention to the situation at the time. In today's time, we have made the error of interpreting things by our intellect, through buzurghs etc. Therefore, the call towards understanding the deen as it was done by the salaf is essential.
" I am Salafi", while that persone should say on the first place " I am Muslim" who folows this....... " Name " Muslim" is on the first place of others,and is name how Allah has called us long time and honoured us with this name ,and it is the only name how we Muslims should call ourselves.
Allah ta'ala also called us all mankind as 'Ins' in the Quran. Yet we have different names for the purpose of identification and it has effects on our personality and character InshaAllah.
There are many beautiful threads on TTI regarding this topic. I benefited a lot from them Alhamdulillah. You can search and hope you find them of benefit too.
Wasalaamalaykum waa rahmatullahi