San Diego Salafi Dawah is a small organization that was established in 2020 to raise awareness of Islam in San Diego. Our understanding of Islam is based upon the Qurʾān and the authentic traditions of the Prophet ﷺ, as understood by the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ and those who traversed upon this path after them.
San Diego Salafi Dawah has a vision plan centered around establishing a community based upon authentic knowledge and referring to the qualified scholars of Islam. Our vision is summarized with the following;
Cultivating our community upon authentic knowledge – disseminated in the language that is accessible to the people, as well as purifying Islam from corrupt beliefs and deviant, extreme understandings.
We hold transparency to be important so that people understand our call and methodology. Clarity regarding our beliefs, our understanding as well as sources from which we refer our knowledge is instrumental in being transparent.
It is paramount that we put forward only qualified people of knowledge for proper teaching and understanding of the religion.
We cooperate and collaborate with the various Mosques, Islamic Centers, and Dawah organizations in the United States / Canada / UK & Worldwide who maintain the pure methodology of the pious predecessors, free from extremism and deviated beliefs.
Referencing from correct sources when teaching and educating the people through various mediums such as:
A core component of our vision is having clarity in our call, and being clear & distinct from deviant understandings. We aim to achieve this by aligning our efforts with those who properly uphold the principles of the Creed & Islamic Belief (Aqeedah) & Methodology of the early generations righteous predecessors, and distancing ourselves from organizations & groups who have innovated deviant ideologies in religion, in order to provide and maintain the clarity in the pure authentic call to Islam – free from deviation and extremism. In order to do this we will strive in;
We strive based upon the guidance’s of the scholars to counter extremism & terrorism in all its forms. We also aim to provide clarity in the reality of the extremist calls and expose the methods used by fanatical preachers to lure our youth to extremism.
We believe in Allāh and in His names and attributes, as they were mentioned in the Book of Allāh and in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ without tahreef (distortion), nor ta’weel (figurative interpretation), nor tamtheel (likening), nor tashbeeh (resemblance), nor ta’teel (denial).
We love the Companions of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and we hate those who speak against them. We believe that to speak ill of them is to speak ill of the Religion, because they are the ones who conveyed it to us. And we love the family of the Prophet with love that is permitted by the Sharī’ah.
We love the People of Hadeeth and all of the Salaf of the Ummah from Ahlus-Sunnah.
We despise ‘ilmul-kalām (knowledge of theological rhetoric), and we view it to be from amongst the greatest reasons for the division in the ummah.
We do not accept anything from the books of fiqh (jurisprudence), nor from the books of tafseer (explanation of the Qur’ān), nor from the ancient stories, nor from the seerah (biography) of the Prophet, except that which has been confirmed from Allāh or from his Messenger ﷺ . We do not mean that we have rejected them, nor do we claim that we are not in need of them. Rather we benefit from the discoveries of our scholars and the jurists and other than them. However, we do not accept a ruling, except with an authentic proof.
We do not write in our books, nor do we cover in our lessons, nor do we give sermons with anything except the Qur’ān, or the authentic and authoritative hadīth. And we detest what emanates from the many books and admonishers in terms of false stories and weak and fabricated ahādīth.
We do not perform takfīr upon any Muslim due to any sin, except shirk with Allāh, or the abandonment of prayer, or apostasy. We seek refuge in Allāh from that.
We believe that the Qur’ān is the speech of Allāh; it is not created.
We hold that our obligation is to cooperate with the group that traverses the methodology of the Book and the Sunnah, and what the Salaf of the Ummah were upon; in terms of calling to Allāh the Glorified, and being sincere in worship of Him, and warning from shirk, innovations, and disobedience, and to advise all of the groups that oppose this. ‘So cooperating upon righteousness and piety (taqwā) and mutual advising necessitates warning against evil and not co-operating with the wicked.
We do not deem it correct to revolt against the Muslim rulers as long as they are Muslims, nor do we feel that revolutions bring about reconciliation. Rather, they corrupt the community.
We hold that this multiplicity of present day parties is a reason for the division of the Muslims and their weakness. So therefore we set about ‘freeing the minds from the fetters of blind-following and the darkness of sectarianism and party spirit.
We restrict our understanding of the Book of Allāh and of the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ (to the understanding of the Salaf of the Ummah from the scholars of hadīth, not the blind-followers of their individuals. Rather, we take the truth from wherever it comes. And we know that there are those who claim Salafiyyah, yet Salafiyyah is free from them, since they bring to the society what Allāh has prohibited. We believe in cultivating the young generation upon this Islām, purified from all that we have mentioned, giving to them a correct Islamic education from the start without any influence from the disbelieving western education.
We believe that politics is a part of the Religion, and those who try to separate religion from politics are only attempting to destroy the Religion and to spread chaos.
We believe there will be no honor or victory for the Muslims until they return to the Book of Allāh and to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ .
We oppose those who divide the Religion into trivialities and important issues. And we know that this is destructive da’wah.
We oppose those who put down the knowledge of the Sunnah, and say that this is not the time for it. Likewise, we oppose those who put down acting upon the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ .
Our da’wah and ‘aqīdah are more beloved to us than our own selves, our wealth and our offspring. So we are not prepared to part with it for gold, nor silver. We say this so that no one may have hope in buying out our da’wah, nor should he think that it is possible for him to purchase it from us for dīnaar or dirham.
We love the present day Scholars of the Sunnah and hope to benefit from them and regret the passing away of many of them.
We do not accept a fatwā except from the Book of Allāh and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ .
These are glimpses into our ‘Aqīdah (beliefs) and our Da’wah (call). So if one has any objection to this, then we are prepared to accept advice if it is truthful, and to refute it if it is erroneous, and to avoid it if it is stubborn rejection. And Allāh knows best.
NOTE: This explanation of our call has been summarized from Tarjumah Abī ‘Abdur-Rahman Muqbil Ibn Hādī al-Wāid’ī (pg. 135-142) of Shaykh Muqbil Ibn Hādī with minor additions from other sources, as referenced in Fundamentals of the Salafī Methodology, An Islamic Manual for Reform by Imaam Muhammad Nassirud-Dīn al-Albānī (pg. 127-130).