The evidence from the pure Sunnah regarding the obligation to follow the righteous Salaf.

The Shaykh: For this reason, specific mention was made of the importance of adhering to what the Companions of the Messenger - may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him - were upon in some authentic hadiths. The most famous of these is the hadith of al-'Arba' ibn Sariyah - may Allah be pleased with him - who said: "The Messenger of Allah - may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him - gave us a sermon that made our hearts tremble and our eyes weep; so we said: 'Advise us, O Messenger of Allah.' He said: - here is the point - ; . In this authentic hadith, we find that the Prophet - may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him - at the time when he was encouraging the Companions and those who would come after them to hold fast to his Sunnah, added to that his saying: So what is the reason that he - peace be upon him - did not limit himself to merely ordering them to hold fast to his Sunnah? The answer is the previous answer in His saying - the Exalted - : , so He added to that His saying: The path of the believers is the path of Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, and 'Ali, and the other Companions of the Messenger - may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him - such as the people of Badr, the Pledge of al-Radwan, and the like of those noble Companions. So the Messenger - may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him - in this hadith encouraged holding fast to the Sunnah and added to that the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. The wisdom of that is what we mentioned earlier: that they are closer to understanding the Book and applying the Sunnah than those who may come after them, especially those who were not from the three generations attested to as the best. And there is another hadith, and it is more appropriate to cite as evidence, which is his saying - peace be upon him - : . They said: "Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: In this hadith, the saved sect is the Jama'ah. Who is the Jama'ah? Its explanation came in another hadith: That is: the Prophet - may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him - referred the Muslims who would come in the later generations, so that they would know how to be of the saved sect, to knowing two things: The first thing: the Sunnah of the Prophet - may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him - , that they know it. And the other thing: that they know what the Companions of the Messenger - may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him - were upon. Why is that? For the reason we mentioned, that his Companions - peace be upon him - understood what the Messenger - may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him - conveyed to them of verses and rulings with correct understanding, then applied it with correct application. And we, who come after them and find much disagreement among Muslims, are the proof of this hadith: that they will split into seventy-three sects, only one of which is the saved sect, and the other seventy-two are of the misguided sects.