Dr Yasir Qadhi writes:
"Salafis have an enviably pure theology. Any objective researcher will find that the Athari creed is the earliest documented Sunni creed, pre-dating the kalām based creeds of the Ashāʿirah and Māṭūrīdiyah. This is manifested in numerous theological treatises that still exist from the late second and early third Islamic centuries (some of which predate ʿAqidah al-Ṭaḥāwīyyah). The Athari creed was the dominant strand of Sunni Islam in the fourth and fifth Islamic centuries, and although it came to be limited to the Ḥanbali School of the sixth century as a result of political changes, it received a reviving boost from the ever phenomenal Ibn Taymiyya, from whom it still continues to receive vigor."
~ 'On Salafi Islam' by Dr Yasir Qadhi [ Ссылка ]
