What is your opinion of the book (The Life of the Companions)? And what is your advice to Islamic groups in general and the Tabligh group in particular?

The questioner : I say: Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may blessings and peace be upon the master of the messengers, and upon his family and all his Companions. As for what follows:
These are questions that the brothers mentioned and collected, relating to some of the groups and some of their conditions:
The first question: What is the opinion of our Shaykh (may Allah preserve him) regarding the book "The Life of the Companions"? And what do you advise the readers of this book, those who care for it, and those who engage in circulating it?

The Shaykh : There is no god but Allah. This question coincides with a recent evening gathering we held in the village of "Mada'in," which you must know, and the gathering continued until after midnight. People from all the groups or parties were present, so from the Tahrir Party, and from a party, even though they do not want to call it a party, so we say: and from the Muslim Brotherhood group, and from the Tabligh group. All of these were present in the session, and we were compelled to speak about these groups and some of these parties, and we said the word of truth, without compromising with anyone, if Allah wills:
That these parties, first of all, contradict an Islamic principle that is explicitly stated in the Book of Allah with a clarity beyond which no clarity can be, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified that in more than one hadith. It is sufficient for us now to mention His saying, the Exalted: , and we proceeded with this topic, and we said: The groups that exist now, some of their members launch into their clustering and their partying not based on absolute knowledge. However, we do not favor unregulated knowledge, but we encourage knowledge restricted by the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, and by the methodology of the righteous Salaf, as it came in many verses and hadiths. I do not want to repeat the session that was there, so our brother Abu Ahmad must have a tape of it. But I presented at that time an example from the reality of the life of this group, the Tabligh group. One of them was beside me, one of those whose demeanor and appearance indicate adherence to the Sunnah. So he advanced after the Maghrib prayer with the traditional phrase you always and forever hear from the presenter to the one who will deliver the lesson after the prayer. He says: "Our success and our achievement is by following the Sunnah of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)," or something similar to this speech.
So I said: What makes these good Tablighi brothers insist on this phrase, which is the composition of one of them? And they turn away from the Sunnah—and here is the point—the Sunnah. I said to them: We opened this session for you with the Sermon of Need: And he, peace and blessings be upon him, would add to it on many occasions: Why did the Tabligh group turn away from opening their scholarly sessions with such a Muhammadan Sunnah? That is because they do not study the Sunnah. They are a good group, they desire to draw near to Allah, and therefore they go out in that customary outing of theirs, which is not customary from our righteous Salaf. They go out thinking that they are doing well.
So I said to the Shaykh who was beside me: Why do you not revive this Sunnah? I do not single out the Tabligh group for this contradiction of the Sunnah, but it is a general contradiction. All the parties, and all the groups contradict this Sunnah. Why? The answer has preceded: because they do not revolve around studying the Sunnah first, because this study teaches people and awakens them from their slumber and deep sleep. And so how can they revive the Sunnah when they do not know it?
Among the virtues of this sermon—as I explained there and I summarize here as much as I can: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would present this sermon, which is known to all scholars as the Sermon of Need. He would present it before every word, every lecture, lesson, or admonition or similar thing. He would mention in it: .