What is Salafi and four Imams

[Amatullah]

They are the generation who came after the companions of the Prophet (PAPBUH) may Allah be pleased with all of them,

The companions of the Prophet (s-a-w) are from the Salaf too , they are the most righteous of them.

as for the 4 imams, they worked searching the Quran and Sunnah to give us rulings according to them, they had some differences in rulings, one reason is because some of the hadiths didn't reach them, for that time hadiths were still being collected, now they are all in books alhamdulillah, so we have them all now.

We look at the rulings they came up with through their studying of the Quran and Hadith, then we see which ruling had strongest proof from Quran and Hadith, the Imam's themselves said that if we find a hadith that contradicts a ruling they gave (because that hadith didn't reach them or they made a mistake while they were studying the Quran and what they had from Hadiths.. they are only human so they make mistakes) then we take what the prophet said and leave their saying.

If what I said is not clear let me know and I will try to clearify it more.