The Implication of the Verse: “And whoever opposes the Messenger after the clear proof has come to him and follows other than the way of the believers”

The Shaykh : I repeat this to your ears and then I support what I say to you. It is not permissible for our da'wah to be limited to the Book and the Sunnah only; rather, it is obligatory for us to add to that what Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) indicated in His Noble Book, and then our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) took upon himself explaining that in his authentic Sunnah, starting from it and responding to His address to him with His saying: . Among what he (peace and blessings be upon him) explained from the words of the Lord of Mankind, His saying (Mighty and Majestic) in the Qur'an: . The point of this verse is His saying (Mighty and Majestic) in it: . This verse draws attention to the fact that Muslims in every time and place must not deviate from the way of the believers, where the Lord of the Worlds said: . So what is the wisdom of this clause conjoined to what came before it, which is: ?
It would have been beneficial for the verse to be without this clause: . If the verse were like this in this brevity, the meaning would be sound and straight, with no flaw whatsoever. But Allah (Mighty and Majestic), when He conjoined to His saying: , saying: , intended thereby to draw the attention of the believers who fear opposing the Messenger after the clear proof has come to them—likewise, they must fear deviating from the way of the believers.
How is it possible to deviate from the way of the believers while following the Sunnah of the Master of the Messengers?
The matter is well known among the people of knowledge that the texts of the Book and the Sunnah can, at times, be interpreted, and this interpretation is presented to the believers in the Book and the Sunnah as the intended meaning of them, and this interpretation is wrong because it contradicts the Sunnah of the believers and the way of the believers. To confirm this meaning contained in this conjoined clause, namely His saying (Exalted is He): , we find that our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) added this addition in some authentic hadiths as his interpretation of this Noble verse. For example, you have read or heard the hadith of the seventy-three sects, in which the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: . Here is the point: Who, O Messenger of Allah, is this saved sect among the seventy-three sects, one of which is the saved one? He (peace be upon him) said: . Here you find that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) did not limit himself to his saying: , but rather he conjoined to it his saying: . What is the secret of that?
This hadith is considered an interpretation of the verse we mentioned earlier, which we repeated to your ears repeatedly so that the intended meaning of His saying (Mighty and Majestic) in it: , would be firmly established in your minds. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) came in the hadith of the sects and in the explanation of the saved sect, describing it with two descriptions, not one. The first is that it is upon what the Messenger was upon. This is the first description, but he came with a second and final description, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . This hadith with this wording is an interpretation of the other narration, which is the most famous and strongest in chain, which says in answer to the questionThe questioner : about the saved sect. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , . So this saying is an interpretation of the previous verse: . The way of the believers is the community, and the community is the way of the believers.
And the meaning of this is that it is obligatory for the scholars of the Muslims—especially in this late crisis—not to concern themselves only with studying the Sunnah and knowing what the Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was upon, and this is a necessity. And the interpretation of the Qur'an is not sound and there is no way to it except by the path of the Sunnah, which is the explanation of the Qur'an as we mentioned earlier. It is not sufficient for the scholar to be content with studying the Qur'an and the Sunnah in the present age; rather, he must add to that a third study, which is to know what the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) were upon of guidance and light; because they received the explanation from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) through the Qur'an, and the explanation of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in the verbal Sunnah, often by his action or his approval. These matters cannot be reached except by knowing the athar (reports) of the righteous Salaf.
Therefore, this hadith also meets with another hadith that you have always heard or read in the books of hadith, namely the hadith of al-‘Arba’ ibn Sariyah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) preached to us a sermon that moved our hearts and caused our eyes to shed tears. So we said: O Messenger of Allah, give us a bequest that we will not need anyone after you forever... . Here is the point: He (peace and blessings be upon him) did not limit himself to this word of his , but rather he conjoined to it, as he did in the hadith of the sects: . He added in the hadith of Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him): .
The point is that you hear in this hadith that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) made salvation and escape from the disagreement that will occur after the Messenger (peace be upon him) to be holding fast to his Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs after him; because the method of these Caliphs is like the method of the general Companions, who were called in the previous hadith by the term . They are the ones who understood from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) the correct meanings of the verses and verbal hadiths, and they transmitted them to the Ummah white and pure, their night like their day.
If the scholars, especially, do not care about this third aspect mentioned earlier in these texts, the Book and the Sunnah become a whim followed. And we find today many differences, and all these differing parties claim that they are upon the Book and the Sunnah, whatever their groupings and gatherings are. They drone on about the Book and the Sunnah, but you do not find on the face of the earth today, and on the Islamic scene, in these groups, anyone who has chosen for themselves a methodology for understanding the Book of their Lord and the Sunnah of their Prophet, the methodology of the righteous Salaf, except one group on the face of the earth. They have different names, but the named one is the same. In some countries, these are called, in reference to the group mentioned, the group of the Salaf, and they say: “Our da'wah is the da'wah of the righteous Salaf, and we belong to them, so we say: We are Salafis.” Or they say: “We are from the people of hadith.” Or they say: “We are supporters of the Sunnah.” And all of them have one da'wah: the Book and the Sunnah, upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf.
...
What is said today is that we will be able to put the dots on the letters there, as they say today. However, I must, at the conclusion of this address, draw attention to the fact that many of the other Islamic groups that claim affiliation with names—whether names of a specific group from the Khalaf, or names of a specific party from the Khalaf, or to known individuals or the like—these people almost unanimously deny the use of the word "Salaf" or affiliation with them, as if one were to say, "We are followers of the Salaf," or if one of them were to say, "I am a Salafi." They deny this attribution. In my belief, if they were to realize the meaning of this attribution, they would not have been able to rush to deny it; because its meaning is affiliation with the righteous Salaf, whom the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) testified to as the best in the mass-transmitted hadith in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: These are the Salaf, and at their head is Muhammad the Chosen One (peace and blessings be upon him). So which of the Muslims, if he realizes the meaning of the word "Salaf" or "Salafi" attributed to the righteous Salaf, which of the Muslims after this can disavow being a follower of the Salaf? And consequently, being a Salafi in his person?
Those who rush to deny this attribution are those who do not know the status of the Salaf and the value of the Salaf, and the path that our Lord Allah mentioned in the first verse: .
Therefore, our call is not limited to the Book and the Sunnah—and this is necessary for every Muslim—but we add to that a safeguard for us so that we do not deviate to the right or to the left, and so that we do not become one of the seventy-two sects. And none of these groups, if we take as an example one of the most dangerous Islamic sects existing today on the face of the earth, such as the Qadiyyah sect, or those who claim affiliation with the Ahmadiyyah to mislead the Muslim masses, if we were to ask them, "What is your madhhab?" they would say, "The Book and the Sunnah." But they manipulate and interpret the Book and the Sunnah contrary to what the righteous Salaf were upon.
And the examples in this field are many and very many, and perhaps there is another occasion to explain this. And this extent is sufficient. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.


The Shaykh : Are we on schedule?
Al-Hawini: Yes, as promised. Just a question, meaning, the brothers are asking for it on the occasion that tomorrow is Hajj. They are asking for a quick summary of the rituals of Hajj, meaning the second day is such and such, the ninth is such and such, the tenth is such and such.

The Shaykh: Read to them the rituals of Hajj and 'Umrah and send it now.
Al-Hawini: Meaning, there are five questions.

The Shaykh: Okay, ask a brief question.