The appellation ‘ahl al-Sunna wa-l-jamāʿa’ (The People of the Sunna and the Community)29 – which is the term Sunnism is abbreviated for – is considered by Salafis as exclusively applying to them in its proper and fullest sense. Hence, for Salafis, they and they alone are the true ‘Sunnis,’ that is, the Saved Sect and the Aided Group. Authorities within Salafism, whether proto-Salafis like Ibn Taymiyya or modern Salafis like Muḥammad b. Salih al-Uthaymin (d. 2001) – one of the leading icons of the movement in the twentieth century – have, however, acknowledged ‘a general, technical usage’
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