Benefit 17: Who do the Salafis follow?

Ibn Abbās and Mujāhid both said: ((ليس أحد بعد النبي ﷺ إلا يؤخذ من قوله ويترك)) “There is no one after the Prophet ﷺ except that his speech is accepted or rejected.” [Al-Qirā'ah Khalfa Al-Imām pp. 213] Sheikh Fawzan hafidhahullah was asked concerning the above statement, which is also commonly ascribed to Imām Mālik raḥimahullāh: Is this statement applied only in jurisprudential matters and not creedal matters? The Sheikh responded: المسائل العقدية مافيها خلاف، ماهي مجال للأخذ والرد، لأنها مسلَّمة مبنية على التوقيف، وإنما هذا في مسائل الفقه، كلٌ يُؤخذ من قوله ما وافق الدليل، ويُرد ما خالف الدليل، هذا قصد الإمام مالك -رحمه الله-. نعم. There is no differing in creedal matters. There is no room for debate or disagreement because they are accepted truths built on evidence. Rather, this [statement is applied to] jurisprudential matters; Everyone's statement may be accepted - if it conforms to the evidence - or rejected - if it contradicts the evidence. This is the intention of Imam Malik raḥimahullāh. Yes. Similarly, Sheikh Aḥmad An-Najmī raḥimahullāh said: “Salafiyyah to us is not blind following a man from the contemporaries in everything that he says and all the verdicts he gives. For this type of Taqlid (blind following) is what we consider a shade from the shades of narrow Ḥizbiyyah (Partisanship), and a form from the forms of the dispraised fanaticism towards the Madhabs. And no matter how great the virtue of a scholar is, and how great his knowledge is, it is a must to accept some of his speech and reject some (i.e. we accept it when it confirms to the truth, otherwise we reject it).” [Al-Mawrid Al-’Adhb Al-Zulāl 289]