Although Abduh did not claim the "Salafi" label for himself, Abduh understood the technical meaning of that term. In 1902, three years before his death, he made a rare mention of the Salafis (al-salafiyyun) in the pages of al-Manar. He neither included himself amongst them nor suggested that the Salafis were proponents of his brand of Islamic reform. Rather, he presented them as Sunni Muslims who differed from Asharis with respect to theology. Abduh deemed it useful to specified in parentheses that Salafis were “people who adhere to the creed of the forefathers" bi-aqidat al-salaf.