The word · History
السَّلَف
Salaf
The first three generations of Muslims: the Companions, the Followers, and those after them.
Also written · Salafi · Salafus Salih · Salaf as-Salih · Salafus saliheen · As-Salaf · Predecessors · Pious predecessors · Salafus-Salih · Salaaf · Salafiyyah · Early generations
The meaning
What Salaf means in Islam
The word means those who went ahead, the way a caravan sends people forward. Ahl as-Sunnah treat their shared understanding as the safest reading of the Qur'an and Sunnah, on the reasoning that people closest to the source heard the language as it was meant. The modern movement label Salafi is a separate and contested usage; belonging to the salaf is a matter of century, not of party.
Evidence · Sunnah · Established in the authentic Sunnah
Read beside it
Rooms that name it
Words that sit beside it
- SahabahThe Companions: anyone who met the Prophet as a believer and died still believing.الصَّحَابَة
- Tabi'unThe second generation: Muslims who met Companions but never met the Prophet himself.التَّابِعُون
- Tabi' at-Tabi'inThe third generation: those who met the Followers, the last age the Prophet praised by name.تَابِعُو التَّابِعِين
- Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ahThe main body of Muslims who follow the Prophet's way and the practice of his companions.أَهْلُ السُّنَّةِ وَالجَمَاعَة
- AthariThe Sunni creed school that keeps to the wording of the texts and avoids theological speculation.الأَثَرِيَّة
More from History
- Abu BakrThe Prophet's closest friend, his companion in the cave, and the first caliph.أَبُو بَكْرٍ الصِّدِّيق
- Banu UmayyahThe first dynasty of caliphs, ruling from Damascus for about ninety years after the Rashidun.بَنُو أُمَيَّة
- Hasan ibn AliThe Prophet's elder grandson, who gave up the caliphate to stop a war between Muslims.الحَسَنُ بْنُ عَلِيّ
- Imam al-BukhariThe scholar from Bukhara who compiled the Sahih, the most rigorously sifted book of hadith.مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِسْمَاعِيلَ البُخَارِيّ
- KhandaqThe siege of Madinah in year five, met by digging a trench across the city's open side.الخَنْدَق
- MuhajirunThe Muslims who left Makkah for Madinah, leaving homes and property behind.المُهَاجِرُون