The Shaykh’s explanation of the reality of the religion that the Muslim community must implement to attain salvation.

The Shaykh : The correct concept of the religion cannot be taken from the reality of Muslims today, for they are in the greatest of disagreement. Rather, the correct concept of the religion must be taken from what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon, what the Companions were upon, and what the righteous predecessors were upon. The Messenger (peace be upon him) pointed to this reality in the previous hadith, but unfortunately, few are aware of this indication. In fact, it is more fitting to call it an explicit statement than to say it is merely an indication. When he answered the questioner, “Who is the saved sect?” he said: Similarly, to confirm this meaning, he (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him) said in the hadith of al-‘Arba’ ibn Sariyah, which is known to you as well, I think, in which the Messenger (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him) said: to the end of the hadith. In this hadith and that one, we find that the Messenger (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him) did not limit himself to saying, “The saved sect is that you hold fast to what I am upon.” He did not say, “Hold fast to my Sunnah; upon you is my Sunnah; hold fast to my Sunnah; bite down on it with your molars.” Rather, we find that he added something else to this command to hold fast to what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon. That other thing is holding fast to the community and holding fast to what the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) were upon, and holding fast to what the Rightly Guided Caliphs were upon. This is what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned in both hadiths together: the exhortation to hold fast to something which, even from the perspective of expression, is other than what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon; it is an addition. He said: He said: This expression and this mention of the other thing alongside the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is a Qur’anic style. Indeed, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says in the explicit Qur’an: The point is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned here, in addition to His saying: He then said: Why did He include this phrase? Why was the verse not in the following form: , to the end of the verse? Why did He include the phrase ? Indeed, in this is a profound lesson. That is because every sect and every group on the face of the earth today, whether their number has reached seventy-three or increased or decreased—what matters to us is that the groups are many, and very many. Every one of these groups claims that it is upon the Book and the Sunnah.