03-23-2004, 12:02 PM
as salam a`ala man itaba`alhoda
Ok Phat I thought to move your question starting a new thread, Insh aAllah since your wish is to learn.
In brief, the word Salaf translates as those who came before us, usually they are referred to as righteous Salaf. They are the generation who came after the companions of the Prophet (PAPBUH) may Allah be pleased with all of them, then the Taabe`ayeen (literally translates as successors), then the Salaf (to us those who came before us). They simply strictly adhered to what came in Quran and sunnah.
The four Imams are namely; Abu Hanifa, Shafiey, Ibn Hanbal, and Malik. Those were scholars who spent their entire lives searching the hadeeth and Quran. There is a rule in the hadeeth that if we are given more than one opinion, we follow the easiest to us.
So they searched Quran and hadeeth, came up with four shools of thought regarding for ex. movement of prayer (they are all taken after the Messenger PAPBUH) etc. I just dont want to prolong the post. We are allowed to follow any of these schools, they are all correct, they are all sourced from Quran and sunnah.
This is just a brief and I am sure someone else will be even better to explain to u.
Most welcome PHat any time to ask