Explanation of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not one of me.”

The Shaykh : Here, a parenthetical remark is necessary. You heard earlier the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith of Anas regarding the group: Our Messenger (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him) does not mean by this phrase in this important hadith: that is, whoever abandons the regular voluntary prayers (rawatib), for example, is not one of me. That is not the meaning of the hadith. Rather, the meaning of the hadith is: that is, from my path, my conduct, and my methodology in all of his religious life; this is the one who is not of him (peace be upon him), and this varies according to the degree of his distance from following his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).